ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests about Islamic Spain that which considers it as part of the great community of Muslims. In the case of Spain it has to be remembered that its main contacts with the heartlands were under the Umayyad caliphate. The Umayyads were practising Muslims, but they did not show the same deference as the 'Abbasids did to the self-appointed exponents of Islamic religion and religious law. Thus the culture of the first Muslims in al-Andalus was much more Arab than Islamic and the dominance of the Arab element continued to be characteristic. In no part of the Islamic world after the first half-century or so did specifically Islamic ideas have much influence on the sphere of administration in general. The conception of the "holy war" could from time to time rouse the enthusiasm of the masses and swell the ranks of an army; and for this reason it was found useful by politicians.
