ABSTRACT
With the final victory of the military rebellion led by General Franco in 1939, the most traditional and rightist view of the history of Spain and of the Spanish national identity dominated the following decades. Americo Castro's arguments presented a radically different view of how Spanish collective identity came about. In view of the joint presence of Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Iberian Peninsula in medieval times, Castro claimed that the Spanish personality was made through the interaction of these religious and cultural groups, and that the "Semitic" component was as basic and influential in the making of the Spanish nation as the Christian one was. The rich urban culture flourishing in al-Andalus that, according to Dominguez Ortiz, was characterized by a combination of sophistication, corruption, a somewhat loose interpretation of Quranic rules, and a brilliant secular culture, perished under the military strength of the violent and fanatical Berber armies from Morocco.
