Arab (Andalusian) heavy cavalryman, eleventh century

Opponents of El Cid

In c.1079, when still in Castilian service, he won the engagement of Cabra with a Castilian army allied to the Andalusian Taifa of Seville against another Castilian army allied to the Andalusian Taifa of Granada. The king of Castile was not amused and he was exiled.

In the service of the Taifa Kingdom of Saragossa, he defeated and captured the Count of Barcelona in the battle of Almenar in 1082 and routed the army of the King of Aragón in a battle near the river Ebro in 1084.

As an independent ruler, he routed and captured the Count of Barcelona a second time in the Pinewood of Tévar in 1090, and beat the Almoravids (aka Murabits) in Cuarte (near Valencia) in 1094 and in Bairén in 1097, this second time allied to the king of Aragón.

Spanish Christians serving Moors

In the early Middle ages, Christian knights took service as mercenaries in the Moslem armies of Spain, this included El Cid at one time. Also, in 1010 the counts of Barcelaon and Ugel contracted to supply 9000 troops to serve in Andalusia, this was called the year of the Catalans by the Moors. So you cannot say that the Christians and Moslems in Spain were in a constant state of war, in fact the Spanish Moslems called on the Christians to aid them against other Moslems from North Africa.

The Andalusian Moslems were not well-regarded by their brethren across the Straits. They were considered too sophisticated, too worldly, and perhaps too casual about Moslem supremacy considering the heterogeneous society over which they presided. This may explain why they could get no help from Morocco when the Spanish finally suppressed the last Moslem kingdom in 1492, and why they were themselves apparently the object of “Crusades” by certain Moslem groups from North Africa.

The conquest of Spain and subsequent raiding of France wasn’t necessarily Islamic expansion for religious purposes, but rather had more to do with North African peoples seeking conquest for political power and booty. One should remember that the Islamic conquerors of Spain did very little to promote their religion over their new subjects, and it was only through gradual conversions that Muslims became the dominant religion in Iberia.