ABSTRACT
Al-Andalus is the name the Arabs gave to their domains in the Iberian Peninsula (Figure 14.1), a territory that gradually decreased as the Christian feudal societies progressed in their steady advance southward. Beginning in ad 711, the Arabs shattered Visigothic control of the Peninsula and in the ninth century, during the Ummayad emirate, the ‘Islamic’ border moved back to the Duero, largely because of the acute political crisis of the Ummayad emirate in the last thirty years of the century Under Abd al-Rahman III (ad 912–61), the first caliph of Al-Andalus, the central authority emerged again, settled the border on the Duero and harassed the Christian kingdoms. In the eleventh century, by which time the caliphate had been replaced by the Taifa kingdoms, the border was formed by the river Tagus, only undergoing minor variations during the twelfth century on account of the Berber (Almoravid and Almohad) counter-offensives. From the thirteenth century onwards, Al-Andalus became reduced to the Nasrid kingdom, and in the fourteenth century was finally limited to the provinces of Almería, Granada and southern Jaén, before it disappeared in the late fifteenth century (Figure 14.2). Map showing the withdrawal of the frontier of Al-Andalus between the mid-eighth and thirteenth centuries. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315812618/236f5dd7-038d-4683-befd-a58e2c9e1a96/content/fig14_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Map showing the location of Jaén province in Andalucía (above) and its principal geographical features (below). https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315812618/236f5dd7-038d-4683-befd-a58e2c9e1a96/content/fig14_2_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
