FOREWARD TO VOLUME ON ISLAM IN SPAIN

Islam is one of the three Abrahamic religions in the world. It is one of the five dominant faith
communities across the globe and its adherents share in common what is usually called the five
pillars of Islam and the annual event of the pilgrimage to Mecca . Related to these
universalizing aspects of the Islamic faith is the ritual role of the Quranic Arabic in the five
daily prayers of the Muslims. On account of these unifying factors, Muslims throughout history
have prided themselves as a people of religion and urban life. Starting from the city where the
Prophet Muhammad was born, generally known as the city celebrated in the Meccan Surah
called al-Balad. With this understanding and feeling about religious consciousness and
urbanity, Muslims have spread far and wide Mecca , Medina , Damascus , Baghdad and other
centers of learning and religious development are now connecting among the growing number
of dots of human consciousness linked to the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Asia,
Africa, Europe and the Americas are all tied to the rope of Islam. Even the small islands around
the world now hear echoes of the muezzin in the early morning and during the day.
The volume in your hand is a labor of love and a handiwork of scholarship, on the one hand,
and a reaffirmation of dedication and determination to share the fruits of the writers’ interest in
Islamic history as well as in present and past cultures of Muslims around the world. Before we
go into the details about what the authors say and where they are heading in their respective
narratives, let me locate this book within the intellectual landscape it seeks to place itself for
the reading public. Driven by the deep desire to keep history alive and to remind Muslims and
non-Muslims living today that present relationship among the Abrahamic peoples of the world
is similar to what transpired in the Middle Ages of Europe. At that particular moment, Islam
was in ascendant and its impact and legacies were known to many in Europe . By building on
this understanding, the organizers of this volume have summoned the involvement of many
Muslim scholars and thinkers who demonstrated genuine interest in what happened in Spain
before Columbus came to America in 1496 Related to their motivation is the desire to connect
the dots linking present events in the individual and collective lives of Muslims in the world to
the circumstances that made the events of more than five hundred years ago, real and
meaningful.
In writing this set of narratives, the writers are showing how the founding of the Organization
of Islamic Conference (OIC) since 1969, after the burning of the Masjid al-Ahzar in Jerusalem
by a disturbed Australian Jew triggered a global uproar, links with the story about the
summoning of the Muslim leaders who met at Rabat in Morocco to form the OIC. Prior to this
call to action to resolve global Muslim problems several attempts to organize and unify the
Muslim Ummah were made in the past. Not only did Jamaluddin Afghani and his associates
clamored for this point of view, but others who followed their lead resurrected the idea before
and even after the end of the Caliphate with the fall of the Ottoman Empire in First World War.
Among the forces and factors that contributed to this cause before the rise of the OIC were the
Muslim World Congress based in Pakistan and the Rabitah al-alam al-Islamia (Muslim World
League). In retrospect, one could assert that Islamic solidarity is very much alive and historical
narratives like the one under consideration here serve as sources of inspiration for the
individuals searching for food for thought. Certainly, to many, the reflections and insights of
the writers open new doors and channels of communication. The work begins by
contextualizing the issue of Islam in Spain by discussing the Umayyad rule, its downfall,
and its resurrection in Spain . The authors outline the events leading up to the Muslim rule
in Spain , the atmosphere created by it, and the main reason for its decline. Throughout
this edited text, the writers make observations that show how the development, growth,
and contribution of Muslim Spain define the impact of Islam in Spanish and European life.,
The different writers assembled for this task made it categorically clear that modern
Muslims in the West have the responsibilities to refresh the minds of Muslims and others in
the West about the legacies of those before them and the interconnectedness among the
Abrahamic religions.

What is most striking in these narratives is the impacts of scholarship on Muslim Spain in
recent years, a phenomena that reverberates in the firmaments of Muslim thoughts. Not
only are the Iberian Muslims celebrated for what they did in the more than seven hundred
years of Muslim rule, but also what humanity now owes to them.. Echoing much of what
other scholars and writers wrote about Muslim Spain, the authors in this volume analyze
how Islam at that time effect a transformation of local cultures in Spain. These Muslim
impacts were seen in the lifestyle of the people, in their architecture, in their business
dealings as well as in their processes of acquiring knowledge. Not only were the Iberian
Muslims and their Jewish and Christian partners secured in their collaboration, but they
also lived under the threat of religious bigotry. This paradoxical situation is not lost to
researchers of Muslim Spain. Modern Muslim who are interested in the Muslim experience
in the Iberian peninsula have stay alert and must work hard to remind fellow Westerns
that Islam is here to stay and our present contributions in America and elsewhere in the
West are greater elaborations of what happened then in medieval Europe.

Those who are interested in building blocks in the construction of an edifice of hope and
development in Muslim America should seize the time and work energetically for greater
cooperation among the members of the Abrahamic religions. One does not need to glorify
the Spanish experiment; rather, we all must start with what we know and build on what
we have. Muslim successes and challenges in modern America parallel what happened in
Spain under Muslim rule. In reviewing the contents of this book and connecting the
substance of the text with what is going on in the United States of America , we need to
remind ourselves of what the sitting President Barack Obama said when he gave his
inaugural address. Linking this Foreword about Muslims in Spain to what the President
said, I summon the Muslim and non-Muslim readers to see the primacy of the interfaith
message in his address as was the case then in Spain . He told us that we are living in a
nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus……..” Spain too was in a similar
situation. Let readers pick this volume up and whet their appetite about Islam and its
advocates in the Iberian world.

Professor Sulayman S. Nyang

Howard University
P.O. Box 590113
Washington D.C. 20059

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