2
Examination of the map of Europe in 500 or 700 ce shows us kingdoms ruled by Franks, Saxons, Slavs, Ostrogoths, etc. To the modern eye, it is an unfamiliar map in almost any area we look. So just as Catalonia as we understand it did not yet exist, nor did the vast majority of today’s European nation states. A battle lost here, a better ruler there would have led to some important differences to the map that is so familiar to us today. By the end of our period in this chapter, the Latin spoken in the territory we know as Catalonia will have sufficiently evolved to be closer to a different language, a process that has taken hundreds of years.1 Though even here it is a very close linguistic cousin of a parallel development in southern France: the language that will become known as Occitan. We can call these languages at the end of our period proto-Catalan and proto-Occitan.2 The population of Catalonia is now mostly formed by a grouping who are usually called Hispano-Romans. This refers to the majority of the population of the Iberian peninsula as other languages such as Castilian or Portuguese have not yet evolved from Latin either. Only in the case of the Basques and the slowly diminishing speakers of Iberian is there a differentiated linguistic community.3 Some of these speakers were still found in Catalan territory, particularly in the zone close to the Pyrenees. As we noted in the previous chapter, the majority population group had largely abandoned the speaking of Iberian languages and Latin, or the Catalan version of it, was now the spoken tongue for most.4 It is notable that in spite of the arrival of two new conquering groups in the following centuries, Catalanised Latin remained the vernacular for most. The Germanic influence from the Goths on Catalan was very small, as it was in other Latin languages of the peninsula. Unlike in the case of the Romans, who achieved full and complete cultural conquest, the Germanic Visigoths were themselves conquered by the civilisation of their subjects.5 Equally for the main part of Catalonia, Arab occupation was short lived and its linguistic legacy on the Catalan language is minor.
The fall of the western Roman Empire continues to have great symbolic appeal in the west, as perhaps offering lessons for the present. One historian has even traced the 50 or so main theses as to why the empire fell. However, work in recent decades shows a more nuanced binary picture than the destruction of Roman civilisation by ‘barbarians’.6 There was not a simple collapse as might be signified by defeat in war and occupation. The term ‘barbarian’ is of course heavily loaded and generally unhelpful and will not be a term I will use. Whilst originally it simply meant ‘foreigner’, its overwhelmingly negative association today means it is highly unsatisfactory as a term of description. Equally unhelpful is the use of the Dark Ages to describe our period. This coinage emerged in the Renaissance and was part of a movement that evoked the civilisation of the ancients and saw the intermediate period as one largely without culture or value. This reading of the period from around 400 to at least 1000 as lacking much merit became the standard narrative in European history and has only begun to be questioned in recent decades.
From the middle of the third century, Rome began to lose influence in parts of its borderlands. The subsequent period is one marked by periodic disruption as well as long periods of relative stability. As Roman power tended to weaken in Spain in the latter phase of the empire, a Germanic people, the Visigoths acted for a time as Rome’s proxies, including suppressing rebellions on Rome’s behalf in the Tarraconense region in the mid-fifth century.7 The Visigoths first arrived in Catalonia as an ally of Rome to fight against other people: Swedes, Vandals and Alans. A Visigothic court was briefly established in Barcelona between 415 and 418. The murder in quick succession of two kings in the city saw the third newly crowned king leave with his forces and head for the south of Spain. Seemingly, Barcelona was too just too dangerous a city to remain.8 In general terms, however, Roman taxation had become so burdensome that most inhabitants actually welcomed invading Visigoths and there is little evidence of the repeated revolts as occurred in the early years of Roman occupation. For example, the main route known as the Via Augusta, which crossed Catalan territory, continued its traffic and there is little to indicate that this vital road was marked by violent conflict for control. Overall, roads from the Roman period continued to be used across Catalonia.9 The principal change represented by Visigothic control was a change at the elite level. Simply put, the Romanised ruling elite was displaced or replaced by new Germanic rulers.
Yet much of the legacy of Rome continued. We find that the Germanic conquerors of Spain were highly Romanised.10 Furthermore, as with late Rome, they had Christianised, though in the variant known as Arianism. This religious difference between a majority Catholic population may have been the most important division at a popular level. Arianism and Catholicism maintained minor theological differences around the nature of God but these were intensely felt.11 It was only the much later adoption by the Visigoths of the dominant Catholic form of Christianity that ensured their integration with the native population. Whilst it is often common to refer to the intense divisions and dynastic conflicts during the Visigothic period, we should recall the large number of Roman civil wars and emperors who were removed and usually killed. The new Visigothic conquerors adapted to a written Latin language. Those most opposed to the new rulers were the fully Romanised elites, the large landowners as well as the Catholic church which saw Arianism as heresy. In general terms, the broad mass of the population were not hostile to the Visigoths nor did their economic condition worsen or change. In 470 ad, the Visigoths broke with Rome and conquered the peninsula for themselves. The domination of the Tarraconense region, which included Catalonia, was not easy as the Hispano-Romans put up resistance led by the aristocracy. However, with little popular support, the former rulers were subdued and all Catalan territory fell to Gothic rule, likely to have been not later than 476. A further indicator of lack of broad resistance to Visigothic rule was the complete failure of an invading Frankish force to control the territory, attempted in 541.12 The Franks were forced to return over the Pyrenees as native populations chose not to assist them.
The Visigothic presence did not mean any significant change in the socioeconomic structures characteristic of the period of the later Roman Empire as the Visigoths were a substantial minority of the peninsular population. In all of the Iberian peninsula, they are unlikely to have ever comprised more than 5 per cent of the total population. Even in urban settlements, it was rare for the Visigoths to comprise half of a town’s inhabitants. With the absence of resistance to their rule and their relatively minor population compared to the native population, the general pattern in time was one of Visigothic adaptation to the local culture rather than its transformation. Some elements remained a constant in the Visigothic period. Visigothic laws did not represent a rupture with Roman rule though Visigoths and Hispano-Romans were governed by different legal codes. With the religious divide around Catholic or Arian development of Christianity, the Visigothic period was initially marked by the parallel development of two mostly separate communities. This only changed with a new legal code adopted in the mid-seventh century. This new legal regime also allowed for security of land tenure if continuous possession could be demonstrated over a period of 30 years.13 Perhaps the most important difference other than the religious was the militarisation of the aristocracy. This entailed changes in dress codes and the development of warrior ethos. This change marked a major shift from the character of the Roman elite who not only did not fight but also attached importance to their own personal cultivation. This militarised warrior class and its culture continued its central role until the high middle ages and is the origin of what will become known as the knightly class. Army size was another consequence as the emergence of a horse-bound militarised cast meant a much smaller military force than that mustered by Rome. The fortified building at Puig Rom, near to Girona, is one of the important examples of this change. It was built in a location that had little strategic value. Yet its militarised form can be seen as an example of a transformed culture and one that is markedly different from a Roman villa.14 It bears more relationship to a medieval castle than a Roman building.
Urban change
Unlike the Roman conquest, Visigothic domination did not entail the destruction of the pre-existing culture. Rather, much of the Roman legacy was adapted for new uses. Building in towns and villages tended to be much less ordered and structured than under Roman rule. With the Visigoths a series of changes became evident. The Visigoths preferred heavily fortified urban centres. They adopted and adapted the major cities of Barcelona and Tarragona for their own purposes. The cities continued to maintain their prestige, and the city continued to be the preferred residence of the local Visigothic elite. There was some abandonment of cities by Hispano-Romans who were displaced by a new ruling class.15 It was these former elites who were most likely to relocate to their rural estates. This dynamic caused the cities to lose gradually their predominant role in the economy, which shifted to the countryside. With this change of elites, the period of donations to cities as expression of social status came to an end. Without patronage, for a period little renovation or new building took places. The patronage that was a feature of the Roman period did not return until the building of churches emerged as an expression of status from the sixth century. However, not all was economic decline. Barcelona grew in importance. Its key strategic location and its strong fortifications from the late Roman period accentuated its role in the later Visigothic period. By the end of the fifth century, it had become an important economic centre in its own right and taxes from all of the main Catalan cities were collected there.16 Barcelona’s trade with North Africa grew in importance and it became a centre for the distribution of ceramics from other areas of the Mediterranean.
Changes in the economy
It was both during the later Roman period and Visigothic rule that we see a general pattern marked by population decline or little population growth. However, this was not simply because of political instability or change due to new Gothic rulers. The climate was generally less favourable to increased agricultural production and plagues also decimated populations. In the mid-540s, a plague similar in character to the Black Death though much less virulent and known as the Justinian pandemic spread through North Africa and into Europe.17 It reached Catalonia 541–542, though little record remains of its impact and likely devastation. Trade became more of a subsistence activity, meaning production was mostly concerned with satisfying local need rather than creating a surplus for trade. This change, however, had already commenced in the later Roman period as the period from around 400 is marked by the decline of overseas trade. Production was focussed on maximising the available resources for local distribution and consumption. We also find a change from the Roman period in the reappearance of moving of flocks for grazing purposes. In the latter part of our period, this trade was usually controlled by the emergent religious centres as the Church grew in wealth. Imports from the Mediterranean seem to be limited only to coastal towns, particularly following Byzantine control of North Africa in the mid-fifth century. However, whilst there was an overall decline in economic activity, this did not mean the period was static. Many of the key features that we interpret as medieval begin in this period. For example, we find cultivated land increasingly sub-divided according to different crops. The principal means of income in the Roman period had come through rent but the new period marked a shift to profit making through owning land.18 The transformation in many villas in Catalonia indicate a series of changes in the fourth and fifth centuries. The cities ceased to be the centre of agricultural trade in the area, which began to be done directly in the large agricultural villas.
Rural world in the Visigothic
As with Rome, agriculture remained central to the Visigothic economy. The Visigothic period represents substantial change in the countryside. In the post-Roman period, we now see the growth of villages, rather than scattered settlements associated with the Roman villa. These villages will consolidate in time and provide a further manifestation of a new rural form of existence, as the city did under Roman rule. This will represent a transformation of the landscape from one where the villa was dominant to the village-type structure which will continue until the middle ages.19 Village names will be established in this era that in most cases will continue in some form until the present. Identity formed around local place will become a permanent feature. There is some revival of simpler construction for occupation such as those made of wood and mud. An example of this type of settlement has been examined in Castellar del Vallès, some 20 miles inland from Barcelona, where the dwellings were made of perishable materials.20 A range of agricultural activity took place, including wine making. Thus, much of the knowledge developed from the Roman period was retained and transmitted. As an indicator of how localised trade had become, there was very little pottery from outside of the surrounding area found in Castellar del Vallès.21
With the emergence of the village, burial tended to be concentrated rather than isolated and formed part of the greater village. From the later sixth century, burial became firmly associated with a church. Whilst in the early Visigothic period as in Rome, burial had been largely associated with the highest strata of society, this gradually changed to permit burial of the ordinary peasant in consecrated ground. The emergence of the graveyard makes a change in popular relations with the village as it provides a source of familial lineage and memory. Large areas of these villas seem to have been converted from residential space to new, productive uses. Mosaic floors were removed or built over, dwelling spaces and baths ceased to serve their original functions and in their place olive presses or ovens were installed. Part of the difficulty in assessing this period is the decline of stone as primary material for building, which was used by Rome and again in the later middle ages. For example, there is evidence of castle building under the Visigoths but the form of materials used prevented it lasting such as a medieval castle. New building did occur but it usually combined clay and stone and hence did not have the longevity of medieval stone constructions. It was not simply a pattern of changing the usage of Roman buildings. In the north of Catalonia, for example, we find at l’Hort d’en Bach a substantial building from the late Roman period which continued its role, with some extensions, until well into the sixth century.22 An innovation of the new elites was the seated banquet around a table as a display of wealth and generosity. Prior to this, the Roman custom had been to eat and dine reclined. The banquet of this new kind is another feature more suggestive of the middle ages. Another example is that of Vilauba, near Banyoles in the northern Catalan coast, where post-Rome, the house was divided internally for a range of uses, including a range of agricultural tasks.23 The Roman order had been able to maintain control over all social sectors. Under the Visigoths, some peasant communities attain much greater autonomy and were able to work and manage their own farms. This varied across Catalan territory, where areas closer to the Mediterranean coast saw elites, the aristocracy and the Church, maintain a lot of power over the population.24 In these areas, poorer peasants had what was closer to a feudal relationship where land was exchanged in protection by the local lord.
Under the new rulers, we see the appearance of a new type of settlement.25 This was usually surrounded by a wall, often with milling facilities, with a number of inland examples excavated such as Castellfollit del Boix, some 40 miles inland from Barcelona or Collet dels Clapers, in central Catalonia.26 These constructions can be situated as transitional between the Roman and medieval worlds. By the seventh century, many of the future patterns of the medieval world are well established. These changes in the structure of the villas and in the population in general are linked to a change in the model of livestock exploitation. Animal and crop practices during the transition from antiquity to the middle ages in Catalonia show the emergence of a different land use linked to goat herding after the arrival of the Visigoths. The areas around Empúries, Tarragona and Barcelona saw the continuing clearance of forest and other changes due to intensive animal farming. An increase in crop cultivation for animal feed for sheep and goats has also been documented.27 Settlement tend to be organised around small family units devoted mainly to cereal and olives, as well as animals for personal consumption. Whilst pork consumption rose substantially under Roman rule, we now see pork displaced by lamb and goat.
Early Church
By the middle of the third century, practising Christians had already emerged, though they were small scale and often isolated communities. However, in the same period, Rome began a series of anti-Christian persecutions. All citizens of Rome were required to sacrifice to the Roman gods and produce an officially verified certificate that they had complied. This persecution wave led in January 259 ce to the imprisonment of the bishop of Tarragona, Fructuós, who was tried and burned alive in the city, together with his two deacons. In 303 and 304, the emperor Diocletian further hardened the persecution, and new martyrs were produced: Feliu in Girona and Eulàlia in Barcelona. Eulàlia was only 13 when she was reputed to have died from torture and became a powerful and lasting symbol of the new religion. Saints would provide names for future towns and cities, such as that of Cugat who gave his name to Sant Cugat del Vallès or became patron saints, such as Eulàlia in Barcelona.28 Once Christianity became the official religion of the empire from the mid-fourth century, a new phase began and one was the cult dedicated to martyrs. Catalan martyrology has five martyrs from the early Christian period. In Girona for example, a basilica was built to commemorate Saint Feliu and it became a place of pilgrimage cementing the areas role in the expansion of Christianity. At the beginning of the fifth century, Tarragona built a basilica in honour of its martyrs as a way of establishing a collective memory for believers.
The conversion of Emperor Constantine and merging of Roman power with Christianity marked a major change in the fourth century and the establishment of a new type of religious organisation. Christianity first expanded amongst the Romanised elites. In this final period of Roman rule, it became the duty of the cities to ensure that the peasant population practised the new religion and abandoned the old pagan rituals. From Roman paganism persecuting Christians, the reverse came about. Pope Siricius expressed concern at the continuance of pagan practice in the Tarragona area in the early 400s. The turn to Christianity was a slow process and there are many indications that pagan and Christian practices existed side by side in mixed and confused form over many generations. Religious elites regularly demanded the adherence to official Christianity and the ending of pagan celebrations. Bishops and other religious figures became ever more important in late Roman and Visigothic society. They were overwhelmingly recruited from aristocratic families. The power vacuum left by the Roman Empire from the fifth century was filled by the Church, which gradually became an autonomous and powerful entity within the late Roman state. The Church, which was exempt from taxes, began to accumulate a huge amount of property and land, as early as the fourth century. With its growing prestige and wealth, the Church led a building wave, again a pattern that is intensified in the middle ages.
Christianity formed a fundamental component of early medieval Catalan identity. Most villages and rural settlements did not have their own church building however. There are still very few in Catalonia until well into the sixth century. Older Roman buildings were sometimes used and converted into churches. From the seventh century, we see the expansion of church building and the first monasteries appear. It is from this period that we begin to see the first baptism of children taking place. As it expanded and consolidated, Christianity changed the local relationship to the land and to a sense of time. Saints’ days and other religious holidays marked the pattern of the year. However, where they could, the Visigoths established an Arian religious order, as for example in the city of Barcelona. The Arian and Catholic division lasted in Spain till 586 until Catholic victory at the third council of Toledo. After Arianism was condemned as heretical, King Reccared ordered the seizure and destruction of all Arian texts. The conversion of the Visigothic monarchs to Catholicism contributed to the ever-growing church influence in society as elites were now united. The later Visigtholic rulers combined military, aristocratic and religious values. Church councils become one of the most important events in Visigothic society and at the same time became political assemblies within the kingdom. The church Council of 546 held in Lleida established new rules on when churches and monasteries could be established and a number of these councils were also held in Barcelona and Girona.
The Jews in Catalonia
Before the fifth century, some Jewish merchants are evident in trading in cities such as Tarragona and Tortosa though the overall Jewish population remained very small in Catalonia. Tarragona, as regional capital, contained the largest and oldest Jewish community in this period.29 Visigothic treatment of the Jewish population became more intolerant after conversion to the Catholic variant of Christianity, with some theologians terming Judaism as seditious.30 The Jews were frequently portrayed as being anti-Christian and hostile to the Gothic kingdom. Jewish communities were increasingly subject to an explicit anti-Jewish policy, with forced conversions, persecution and prohibitions.31 Jews were forbidden from undertaking legal action against Christians and from giving evidence against them in court. The Muslim conquest (711–718) was welcomed by the Jewish communities. During the Arab conquest of Catalonia, Jews preferred to remain in Moslem rather than Christian territory and this entailed the movement of some Jewish groups. The harassment that the Jews had suffered from the Visigoths meant many Jews welcomed Arab rulers as a source of liberation from Christian persecution. However, this would add to Christian suspicion and a Christian chronicle of 852 accused the Jews of having opened the gates of the city of Barcelona to the Moslems. In the later medieval period, relations would vary between being relatively stable and conflictual until new Christian repression and pogroms permanently changed relations.
Cross-Pyrenees relations
The Visigoths divided their territory into six regions and followed the model established by Rome. This included Catalan territory within the area still known as the Tarraconense. For the first hundred years of Visigothic rule, control was exercised over extensive territory in southern France. This cross-Pyrenees relation is important to the future development of Catalonia. Initial Visigothic territory in France was substantial but after military defeat by the Franks in 507, this was reduced to a much smaller strip. This conflict was not just territorial as the Frankish leader Clovis was hostile to the Visigoths for following what was deemed by his court as the heresy of Arianism. The Frankish rulers saw this cross-Pyrenean zone as a natural zone for annexation as their own kingdom consolidated. However, the Franks were unable to push the Visigoths over the Pyrenees. Although the Visigothic kingdom was likely to have been the strongest state in Western Europe in the period, this did not mean that control was exercised as in a modern state. Some areas were so geographically distant from the capital in Toledo that local elites had a reasonable degree of autonomy. This was the case in much of the north of Catalonia and extended to the area of southern France controlled by the Visigoths. In the final period of Visigothic rule, this zone was increasingly prone to rebellion, at times including Girona and Barcelona. This area became of further significance following the Islamic conquest of Spain. Visigothic elites, who were now of course Catholic, found refuge in these cross-Pyrenees borderlands and they would seek alliances to restore their land and status. The Arab kingdom established in Spain was not without its own internal revolts and in time, Al-Andalus would become a kingdom that was completely separate from other Arab-ruled dominions of the Caliphate. Al-Andalus was also not one that exercised control as in a modern state. It too was dependent on a system of localised alliances, though in theory it was centrally ruled from Cordoba.
End of the Visigoths
Few rulers have maintained strong central control of the Iberian peninsula and Visigothic Spain was prone to instability and turbulence. Its final decades were marked by aristocratic factionalism evocative of the feudal period and this weakened overall military coordination. This once again marks this period as sharing parallels with the high middle ages. Unrest, and at times civil war, followed the death of kings, as rival factions of nobles sought to back their claimant to the throne. This occurred in areas including Catalonia where in 673, Barcelona and Girona supported a revolt against the king by a noble based across the Pyrenees. This became known as the rebellion of Paulus.32 The Visigothic king was forced to move his forces to the Catalan and southern French zone to repress the rebellion. The Visigoths dominated the territory until the beginning of the eighth century but the monarchy had been gradually losing its capacity to impose its rule across its regions. In the middle of a Visigothic civil war for the succession of the kingdom in 710–711, one of the claimants sought aid from the Umayyad Empire. The Umayyad dynasty, from 661 to 750, ruled from Damascus. This Arab dynasty had expanded from its heartland across much of the Mediterranean. Once intervention in the Iberian peninsula began, Visigothic weakness became evident and led to full Arab conquest. The Visigothic kingdom, which had lasted 250 years, rapidly collapsed. The Arab and Berber forces led by Tariq ibn Ziyad, taking advantage of the internal factionalism of Visigothic power, occupied the Peninsula in a short period of time. An Islamic empire from Spain to Afghanistan emerged, which now contained within it substantial numbers of non-Arabs. For later Christian chroniclers, the conquest was mostly attributed to internal division, rather than the prowess of the invaders. Though some also attributed to a Christian legacy of sin and the decadence of the Visigothic court. End times narratives were also evident in some Christian accounts. The coalition of Arab and Berbers established a series of agreements with the leading figures they encountered locally. As with Rome and the Visigoths, once again a new ruling order came into being.
Arab conquest and pushback
Muslim conquest of the peninsula in 711 was relatively unopposed. The conquering Arab force was not large. We can note that Rome needed extensive forces to subdue Catalonia and the rest of Spain, whilst the Visigoths marshalled much smaller forces. The Arab army was the smallest of the three conquering powers at a maximum of 15,000.33 The areas of southern Catalonia such as the city of Lleida and the surrounding area fell into Arab hands at an early stage of conquest. Resistance in an area stretching from Girona, including Tarragona and Barcelona, was stronger. The former province of the Tarraconense, that included all of Catalonia and the Ebro Valley, was however under Muslim control by 720. The river Ebro again functioned as a frontier zone. Due to its strategic value, for both trade and communication, the northern stretch of the Ebro was disputed by Muslims and various Christian kingdoms. The Ebro and the river Segre were key rivers for internal supply with cities such as Lleida and Saragossa. We noted earlier how Barcelona had increasingly displaced Tarragona in regional importance. Tarragona, however, had remained an important city in religious terms. Arab conquest saw its abandonment by leading figures. Following conquest, new population groups came from North Africa and other parts of the Islamic world. Thus again, the population in the future Catalan zone, like much of the peninsula, experienced a new social and cultural infusion, following that of Rome and the Visigoths.
The new conquerors did little in terms of eroding religious practices or customs of the Christians. In that sense, the initial conquest should not be seen as a traumatic rupture with what came before. Following consolidation and a stable frontier, we do see the appearance of a new form of existence in Al-Andalus. A society emerged that fused pre-existing elements with those brought by the new rulers. However, this new society offered advantages for some. Peasants and small holders could improve their socioeconomic status by converting to Islam. However, conversion to Islam was not yet encouraged as it would mean a reduced tax base for the new rulers. Marrying into local families by Arabs and Berbers was adopted as a strategy for ensuring good relations with local aristocracies. Catalan territory formed part of a Muslim kingdom that lasted until the mid-twelfth century and was centred on the city of Cordoba, Europe’s largest city with over 100,000 inhabitants. The Arab presence, lasting less than a 100 years in the northern zone and, lasting some 400 years in southern Catalan territory, led to separate development in these two zones.
It would be mistaken to interpret this early phase of conquest as marking a religious struggle amongst either Christians or Moslems. Islam was sufficiently new for most Christians not to be aware of it as a religion whilst areas of the countryside had still not fully Christianised. Islamic religious culture itself did not appear fully formed until the mid-eighth century. The principal concern of the new Arab rulers was not religious conversion but tribute and stability. Except for the frontier zones, this was not a military occupation beyond a number of strategic fortresses found further north. The poorly defended churches and monasteries of Christendom often held important booty made of gold and silver. Christians who remained preserved their property and were allowed to practise their religion. Those who resisted were normally enslaved. However, as had happened with the Iberians becoming Romans, they were certainly substantial numbers who chose to adapt to the new rulers and converted to Islam. In doing so, they were not required to pay taxes or if they did, the tax burden was minor compared to Christians.
We can divide popular responses to the new rulers into three broad categories. The first was broadly well disposed to their new rulers and substantial numbers would convert to Islam as a sign of adaptation to a new reality. Hispano-Goths elites chose conversion to Islam to maintain their social position. The second category remained under Moslem rule but continued as Christian or Jewish. This category was influenced culturally and socially by the new rulers. In most cases, there was little or no resistance to the new rulers. Islam did not necessarily mean a dramatic rupturing to pre-established identity. Arab social structure had also been heavily influenced by Rome prior to its expansion. Islam was not imposed from above but was adopted by personal choice. The third category of the populace fled to the north, usually into Frankish-dominated terrain. This included leading aristocrats and bishops as well as a large number of farmers and peasants. There was substantial abandonment of the land in the central Catalan zone. In this category, we can speak of a collapse of the traditional social order. The failure of armed resistance and the fact that those defeated were often enslaved ensured that those most committed to the resistance fled. From this first wave of migration, Archbishop Pròsper of Tarragona, with his senior clergy fled to Italy after the taking of the See in 720.34 They brought with them holy relics such as those of martyr Saint Fructuos and as well a number of manuscripts. In the zone that will become Christian, there is little evidence of a Moslem population remaining after territories were regained. In the Islamic zone, however, the experience was very different.
Early Arab Catalonia
By the time of the Islamic conquest of Iberia, the new religion had barely existed for a hundred years and it was, as with early Christianity, still developing doctrinally. Islamic law and Arabic custom began to impact across society in a range of areas, from dress codes, acceptable public behaviour, diet and entertainment. Whilst some bishops fled from the conquest, sizeable Christian communities remained. Church authorities worked closely with the new Islamic rulers. Church building did not cease over the course of the eighth century. The new rulers brought with them important techniques in irrigation. They introduced crops of cereals, fruit trees and vegetables previously unknown and had a long-lasting impact on dietary habits. After the hiatus of the Visigothic period, cities became revitalised and a new urban civilisation emerged. Lleida and Tortosa became the most important Muslim cities in Catalonia.35 Tortosa was conquered and remained under Muslim control until 1139. Its location on the river Ebro gave it an important role as a transport hub and strategic asset. It was fortified and became a key city in the area.36 In the early Islamic period, a major military force was stationed there to respond to Frankish incursions. It also became a key city for ship building and repair of the Arab fleets. During the four centuries of Muslim rule, Lleida became a cultural, economic and political centre. The invasion and conquest by the Arabs had ruptured much of Spain’s natural economic development towards feudalism, which continued uninterrupted in the rest of Western Europe. Whilst in the south of Catalonia Islamic rule brought with it a new prosperity through increased agricultural production in the hortes (market gardens), in the north, that will be become known as Old Catalonia, was a feudal, unsophisticated warrior society. It was overwhelmingly rural, and compared to the Byzantine and Islamic worlds, it was technologically and culturally backward.
Frontier
After conquering most of Spain, the Muslim governors in Al-Andalus made repeated advances into southern France. We should remind ourselves that this zone had remained part of the Visigothic kingdom until its end. The Frankish leader Charles Martel met and defeated the invaders in 732, which marked the high point of Islamic advance in Western Europe. This defeat would begin a series of developments leading to the overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty and ultimately the separate development of Islamic Spain from the Caliphate. The defeat of 732 would begin the gradual pushback against Arab forces, forced back beyond the Pyrenees, which became for a period a geographical frontier between the two powers. In the mid-eighth century, the Emir of Córdoba ordered the strengthening of fortifications on this northern frontier of Al-Andalus, as the new kingdom was termed. This zone became a highly militarised region where neither clear Christian nor Islamic zones of domination were firmly established for some decades.37 Three border zones, given special status within the emirate, were created across the peninsula and that including Catalonia was termed by Arabs as the upper zone (Marca Superior) of their territory.38
From an early point, the incipient Muslim occupation also introduced innovations in the field of fortifications and territorial defence, as happened with the creation of an extensive network of circular and raised watchtowers, known as husun, constructed across the eastern half of Catalonia.39 In this frontier zone, a number of fortresses were built or those already in existence were repaired. An example is that found at l’Esquerda, previously a Visigothic site, some 50 miles north of Barcelona, where watch towers were built and walling extended.40 Given its key strategic role, its defenders were given high status as defenders of Al-Andalus. This zone embarked on an Arab-led military-building programme. Girona, the principal Catalan city near to the Pyrenees, had been strengthened as a key city for the Arabs in 760. It retained its military importance after falling to the Franks in 785. The acquisition of Girona was partly enabled by the support of Muslims to the Umayyads in Cordoba and opened the city gates to the besiegers. The city defences prevented it falling again to the Moslems in a renewed intent in 793, though the surrounding areas were devastated in the Arab retreat.41 Until 801, Girona was the key base for the Frankish forces as they sought to push back the Arab forces. As in other cities that fell to the Franks, the new rulers owed their position to Charlemagne.
As the Visigoths had followed many of the patterns of Rome, so Al-Andalus maintained much of the regionalised system of rule of Visigothic Spain. This semi-regional arrangement had begun from an early stage of the conquest. This had its own pitfalls as Al-Andalus too was confronted with internal attempts at rebellion by its own local officials. The new conquerors had their own divisions between Arabs and Berbers and other factional differences, which resulted in conspiracies, rebellions and military conflict. In the late 770s, an Arab governor Sulaiman, installed near Barcelona, sought to break from control from Cordoba. He formed alliances with both Arab and Hispano-Goths south of the Pyrenees, and his revolt included the taking of the Aragonese capital, Zaragoza. As an indication that conflict at this time was not framed in a purely Christian-Moslem binary, Sulaiman sought the assistance of the Frankish king Charlemagne. He proposed becoming a vassal lord and offered control of the Ebro and the Catalan coast in exchange for military aid against the Umayyad government. This was not sufficient to prevent suppression of the revolt by the Umayyad ruler of Córdoba. These changing alliances were common and crossed religious boundaries. For example, in the 710s, the Muslim advance to the Pyrenees was partly enabled by local support.42 Land, territory and strategic alliances were far more important in motivating alliances, and Christian hostility to Islam in religious terms was not yet the primary focus of military mobilisation.
Christian Catalonia
Frankish territory beyond the Pyreness became the centre of an exiled Hispano-Goth community who were determined to reclaim their lands. Catalan territory was at the epicentre of the conflict for control of these borderlands. From around 720 until 800, northern Catalan territory experienced intermittent conflict as Arab and Frankish forces sought domination. The territory remained under overall Islamic control but it was subject to a range of challenges until it was finally lost by the early ninth century. In the period from 788 and 796, the Umayyad rules faced intense political instability with rival claimants for power seeking control. Partly facilitated by this, Girona was the first major city to fall to the Franks in 785. The fall of Girona was an example of a city ruled by Moslems, yet its rulers opened its gates to the Franks. An attempt to regain the territories for Cordoba was pursued in 793 but failed. A band of territory from the Pyrenees to the coast was gradually incorporated within the Frankish or Carolingian Empire. Now ruled by Charlemagne, this narrow band of territory was gradually extended. Following a lengthy siege, Barcelona was taken by the Franks in 801. After the fall of Barcelona, the frontier was extended towards the River Llobregat. To prevent Muslim penetration, the Carolingians built a series of wooden watchtowers in higher locations to allow surveillance of the river. A Frankish attempt at the taking of Tortosa was resisted in 808, whilst a new Arab intent at the reconquest of Barcelona was halted in 815.43 In this case, a local lord allied with the Arabs against the Franks. Peace was restored for a period but both Barcelona and Girona were besieged by Saracen forces in 817 and again in 850. This would not be the last time. The general instability of the zone meant that farming activity remained basic and little trade beyond local consumption developed.
Marca
Arab holding of Barcelona and the northern zone of Catalonia ended with less than 100 years of control. The comparative brevity of Islamic rule in northern Catalonia meant that Hispano-Gothic sentiment was little disrupted and continued to be the basis for identity in the subsequent decades. Again, in the historical development of Catalonia, we can note how a relatively small area was found in a position of dependence with its two largest neighbours, in this case Al-Andalus and the Franks. The population in the latter zone of influence continued to follow the Visigothic legal code. This survival will also be important in a process of differentiation with the new Frankish rulers. Frankish sources use the term ‘Spanish March’ over 20 times between 821 and 850 in a clear expression that this zone at this time was not fully part of the overall Frankish territory. The Marca Hispanica described a geographical, political and military zone in the border area below the Pyrenees.44 It came under Frankish rule. The inhabitants of the lands on both sides of the Pyrenees were known by the Franks as Hispani. However, the Spanish March zone remained of central importance in the maintaining of cross-Pyrenean social and cultural linkages. Lands taken from the Moslems, sometimes declared to be abandoned, were granted out in return for military service. These estates were then used by these new landowners to reward their own followers. Administration of these conquered zones was delegated to various counts. In this phase, the Frankish nobles were more likely to be trusted than the Hispano-Goths who saw the territory as their own. This allocation of land and vassalage to the Frankish king were rewards for loyalty and to enable the building of a warrior class in this zone. As a borderland, with its attendant instability, taking on this role within the kingdom might allow for personal advancement. As the Christian zone stabilised, Christian population groups also began to move to it from Al-Andalus. This was partly because of internal changes from the late eighth century within Al-Andalus marking a greater Islamisation.
The transition to the Catalan language
The language spoken in the early eighth century, when the Arab invasion took place, had continued its evolution from standard Latin. By this time, spoken speech was much closer to medieval Catalan than it would have been to Latin of the later Roman Empire. Evolution would occur in a range of everyday vocabulary which was passed on within families and villages. Classical Latin had remained relatively static and thus could only be learnt. Yet written Latin retained its prestige in Christian Catalonia, which it will maintain throughout the following centuries though literacy was heavily dominated by the Church. The small bastions of literacy that existed in this society knew only Latin or, in the south, Arabic. The conquerors formed a small proportion of the overall population of this new province of the Islamic empire. The adoption of Arabic was a slow process which entailed the gradual intrusion of Arabic vocabulary into Catalanised Latin. This transmission was more rapid in towns than the countryside. During the period of Arab rule, initial co-existence of late Latin with Arabic was apparent, though need for Arabic was greater higher up the social ladder as it became the language of government and administration. Arabic was also central to scientific and cultural advance. Until at least the 850s, Latin was used within Al-Andalus by those who remained Christian for internal communications, particularly within the Church. The newly Arabised, who became known as the Muladites, used classical Arabic for cultural purposes and this became more common.
In the Pyrenean areas and the zone that will become known as the Spanish March, the influence of Arabic was slight as a result of the short duration of Arab control.45 Refugees from the conquest took refuge in the mountains and also across the frontier, where Visigoth leaders were integrated into Frankish society, yet maintained their wider political and cultural identity as goths. With a narrow band of territory in northern Spain embarking on separate development, the languages that will emerge in the peninsula such as Castilian, Portuguese and Aragonese, increasingly diverge from their common Latin source.46 The ninth century is key for the last phase of transition from vulgar or Catalanised Latin to the emergence of the Catalan language in its own right. Documentary evidence increasingly appears such as legal texts, contracts, etc. which contain words or phrases that can be identified as close to Catalan. As an indication of recognition of the divergence of Latin from everyday speech, the Third Church Council held in Tours in 813 decreed that sermons in the Catholic Mass should be given in the common tongue of the populace. It will not be until the year 917, however, that the word ‘Catalan’ first appears, yet a new language is clearly about to emerge.
Notes
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