Visigothic identity of Spain

[ualarauans]

Hi Michael,

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Michael Erwin <merwin at ...> wrote:
>
> I'd add that social factors, not theological ones, may make
> conversions more likely. There are few theological similarities
> between whichever non-Nicaean doctrine and Islam, just as there are
> few theological similarities between various non-Chalcedonian
> doctrines (Monophysite, Monothelite, Nestorian) and Islam.
> 
> In Ethiopia, freely-practiced Monothelite Christianity went on; in
> Egypt, persecuted Monophysite and Monothelite Christians were, 
aiui,
> more likely to convert to Islam. Similarly, in Spain, persecuted
> 'Arian' Christians may have been more likely to convert to Islam.
> 
> Basically people might tie their religious identities with their
> other identities; however, if they believe "the enemy [Islam] of my
> enemy [Catholicism] is my friend," they and their families may 
accept
> the combination of new religious identities with the older ethno-
> cultural, identities.

This seems probable. I'm afraid to mistake, but I heard that Bosnian 
Muslims are in fact descendants of medieval Serbian Bogomils, 
another Manichaean-like group, which had been constantly persecuted 
by both Catholic and Orthodox, until, when the Ottomans came, they 
gladly adopted Islam as the only acceptable alternative to the 
Christian denominations which had become quite odious in their eyes 
after centuries of mutual hostility and bloodshed. Something similar 
may have had place in Spain with Arian survivors, and I would 
sympathize with Tom MacMaster's idea of many Visigothic descendants 
finding themselves south of the Christian-Islamic front in Spain. 
Still, Dirk is perhaps right when he says that most Visigoths were 
already Catholic to the time of king Rodrigo. As they probably were 
highly Hispanicized too, it would be difficult to sort them out of 
the mass of other converts from Christianity to Islam. Family 
traditions can prove not always correct, taking into account the 
prestige of "hacerse de los Godos".

> OTOH, in the 4th century, the religious divisions crosscut ethno-
> cultural divisions. Really crosscut, with Suebian practitioners of
> Egyptian mystery cults...

Ualarauans




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