ABSTRACT
Armies comprised mostly of Muslim Berbers entered the Iberian Peninsula in the spring of 711, in what seems to be an extension of territorial expansion from northern Africa. The social conditions imposed upon Christians by Muslims from 711–1000 varied widely according to time and region. Between 850 and 859 nearly 50 Christians were executed in Cordoba by the Muslim authorities for the crimes of apostasy – some were converts from Islam – and blasphemy – many publicly insulted the prophet Muhammad. In 1926, Spanish historian and philologist Ramon Menendez Pidal adapted the word convivencia in his Origenes del espanol. Therein, he used the term in order to describe the 'coexistence of norms' that characterised the phonetic variants found in early Romance languages in Spain. The convivencia of Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities fostered a unique level of cultural interaction that was connected to the three religious communities' proximity.
