Renaissance #190 – The Battle of Covadonga (Reconquista #11)

The high point of the Muslim conquest of Spain was The Caliphate of Córdoba, established in the late 10th century by Abd al-Rahman III, who declared himself Caliph in 929. Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together mostly in a climate of harmony and religious tolerance. The Caliphate was weakened over time by internal conflicts and disputes over succession, which led to civil wars and the breaking up of the Caliphate into many smaller individual kingdoms. They were prey for the larger and more powerful Christian kingdoms who longed to recapture the former Visigoth Spanish territories. But the exact starting point of the Reconquista is often identified with the much-earlier Battle of Covadonga, which took place around 722 CE.