Eighth Century Latin Sources on the Muslim Conquest of Spain
A reference post for debunking revisionist 'negationism'
In my review of the dreadful book ‘Andalusion’, I noted that there is a revisionist theory that denies that there was a Muslim military conquest of Spain in the eighth century CE, postulating instead that Muslim Spain was somehow the product of peaceful, native conversion to Islam without an invasion.
The theory, originating with the amateur historian Ignacio Olagüe, has some advocates among some eccentric non-specialists. For example, Mo Ansar- once a familiar face on shows such as BBC Newsnight as a supposed ‘Muslim community activist’ but long since discredited as a fraud and now bizarrely portraying himself as a Messiah-figure (yes, really)- claimed not too long ago that Islam originally spread in Spain “not by the sword but by ideas and values.”
The revisionist theory is nonsense, however. The most recent thorough academic study on ‘negationism’ and its shoddiness was done by the Spanish medievalist Alejandro García Sanjuán. In terms of textual sources, it is true that we do not have surviving Arabic sources from the century in which the conquest took place. Rather, the most detailed contemporary witness is the Latin-language ‘Mozarabic Chronicle,’ which, likely was written by a Christian living under Muslim rule in Iberia, details not only the conquest in some detail but also all the governors of al-Andalus who served on behalf of the Syria-based Umayyad Caliphate. I have already provided a translation and overview of that text here.
But even if one does not want to accept the Mozarabic Chronicle, there are still some other eighth century Latin sources from different parts of Western Europe that attest to the conquest, either directly by mentioning it or indirectly by discussing subsequent Muslim incursions into France (which were logically launched from Spain, since they do not mention a naval expedition landing on the shores of France and proceeding from there). The following post provides these additional sources with translations. It should serve as a handy reference for debunking the revisionist nonsense: