Ali Al -Zaak
من زمان الوصل للأفول:
ماذا قالت خيول الأندلس البرية؟
” عشنا في الغابة والجبال منذ ذلك الحين، لكن الحنين كان يأخذنا الى الساحل الجنوبي للأندلس، نراقب السفن التي تبحر من حيث غادر أصدقاؤنا العرب قبل قرون.”
Al-Andalus became a major educational centre for the lands around the Mediterranean Sea and a channel for cultural and scientific exchange between the Islamic world and Europe. It reached its peak during the 10th century. The regional capital was Cordoba, shining over the kingdom for centuries.
However, it was fragmented into minor states and principalities due to internal turmoil, while attacks by the Castilians intensified.
After the Christian kingdoms finished their reconquest of Al-Andalus with the fall of Granada in January 1492, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and his wife, Queen Isabella of Castile, signed an expulsion decree on March 31, 1492. Accordingly, Spanish Jews were forced to renounce their faith and convert to Christianity or were expelled from their kingdoms to ensure they did not revert to Judaism. They were permitted to take their belongings, excluding gold or silver-made money or other prohibited items.
Unfortunately, we were recruited into that religious discrimination campaign.
Similar religious persecution was enforced on the Muslims, who had been forced to convert to Christianity because Islam was outlawed by the new Christian authorities ruling Spain. As if this wasn’t enough, King Philip III issued a decree expelling them on April 9, 1609.
We have witnessed that dreadful decision against our friends. We remained patient but emotionally distressed because we had seen how Arab Muslims were fair during their reign to Jews and Christians.
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We were from noble ancestors who lived with honourable Arab families in Balansiya before the Reconquista and the emergence of the Kingdom of Valencia.
Unfortunately, Valencia authorities implemented the expulsion most severely. That led to the depopulation of much of its territory, worsened by the bubonic plague, which hit the state only a few years later.
We were sad while helping our friends move, sorrowful with their little belongings, toward the sea to cross to the other side.
We couldn’t leave with them. The Kingdom of Valencia ordered them to leave without us. Separation was too much to bear. When we farewelled them, the Kingdom men tried to recruit us while our friends watched from the ships they boarded.
They screamed: “run, run. Don’t trust them; don’t let anyone come near you; run.”
Since then, we have lived in the forest and mountains, but our nostalgic place was along the south coast, watching the disappearing ships from where our Arab friends departed from the rocks centuries ago.