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Spain: Muslim Spain
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The Muslim community in Spain was itself diverse and beset by social tensions, which ultimately was one of the principle causes of the fall of Al-Andalus. From the beginning, the Berber tribespeople of North Africa, who had provided the bulk of the soldiers, clashed with the Arabs of the Middle East, who formed the ruling elite. The Berbers, who were comparatively recent converts to Islam, accounted for the majority of Moors in Spain and they resented the sophistication and aristocratic pretensions of the Arab elite. They soon gave up attempting to settle the harsh lands of the northern reaches of the Meseta Central handed to them by the Arab elite, and, complaining of Arab duplicity, many returned to Africa during a Berber uprising against Arab rule. Meanwhile, many Christians in Spain, including Visigothic nobles, converted to Islam. Conversion was commonplace among merchants, large landowners, and other local elites.
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Spain is a key site when it comes to studying both the arrival of the first hominids recorded in Europe, and the prehistoric stage of this continent. Under the Roman Empire, Hispania flourished and became one of the empire's most important regions. During the early Middle Age it came under Germanic rule. Later, nearly the entire peninsula came under Muslim rulers. Through a long process Christian kingdoms in the north gradually rolled back Muslim rule, which was finally extinguished in 1492. That year Columbus reached the Americas, the beginnings of a global empire.
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Spain has no official religion. The constitution of 1978 disestablished the Roman Catholic Church as the official state religion, while recognizing the role it plays in Spanish society. More than 90% of the population is at least nominally Catholic. Among the remaining population, there are about 1.2 million evangelical Christians and other Protestants (2006 est.), 1 million Muslims (2006 est.) and 48,000 Jews (2006 est.).
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The Episcopal Conference of Spain (CEE) estimates that there are approximately 34 million Catholics in the country. The director of the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities (FEREDE) stated that FEREDE represents 400,000 evangelical Christians and other Protestants, but estimates that 30 percent of its members are immigrants from Latin America and Africa. FEREDE ... estimates that there are 800,000 foreign Protestants, mostly European, who reside in the country at least 6 months of each year. There is little comprehensive information on the Muslim community in the country; and estimates place its size anywhere from 500,000 to 1,000,000. The Federation of Spanish Islamic Entities (FEERI) estimates that there are close to 1 million Muslims, including both legal and illegal immigrants. Recent government estimates support local source reports that there are 40,000 to 50,000 Jews in the country.
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The Roman Catholic Church in Muslim Spain continued to function, although it lost contact with religious reforms in Rome. Muslim Spain came to include a growing number of Mozarabic Christians, people who adopted Arabic script and culture and preserved the old Visigothic rites that differed from those of Rome. Under some Muslim rulers, Jews held prominent positions in commerce and the professions, and sometimes even positions in government.
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Spain is located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwest Europe. The southern coast of Spain is separated from Morocco on the African continent, by the nine-mile Strait of Gibraltar. Spain has a diverse population of nearly 40 million people, which includes black immigrants from Africa who make up approximately 1 percent or less of those living in Spain. Blacks who migrated from Africa to Spain through the centuries either as conquering Muslim soldiers, slaves or as freemen have added a kind of richness and diversity to Spanish literature and culture, the depth of which few are aware. Chandler hopes his research will help change that.
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Muslim Spain