Muladí (Spanish:muladí,[mulaˈði],pl.muladíes;Portuguese:muladi,[mulɐˈði], pl.muladis;Catalan:muladita,[muləˈðitə] ormuladí,[muləˈði], pl.muladites ormuladís;Arabic:مولد,trans.muwallad,pl.مولدون,muwalladūn orمولدين,muwalladīn) is a term used for the indigenous population of theIberian Peninsula who adopted Islam after theMuslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in the early 8th century. The demarcation ofmuladíes from the population of Arab and Berber extraction was relevant in the first centuries of Islamic rule, however, by the 10th century, they diluted into the bulk of thesociety of al-Andalus.[1] InSicily, Muslims oflocal descent or of mixedArab, andSicilian origin were also sometimes referred to asMuwallad. They were also calledMusalimah ('Islamized'). In broader usage, the wordmuwallad is used to describe Arabs of mixed parentage, especially those not living in their ancestral homelands.[2][3]
The Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan wordsmuladí,muladi ormuladita are derived from the Arabicmuwallad. The basic meaning ofmuwallad is 'a person of mixed ancestry', especially a descendant of one Arab and one non-Arab parent,[4] who grew up under the influence of an Arabic society and were educated within theIslamic culture.Muladi is the Spanish form of the termmuwalladun, referring to Arabic-speaking Muslims of Hispanic origin who showed the same behaviour patterns as rebels of Arab and Berber origin who had rebelled against Arab rule, such as during the GreatBerber Revolt of 739/740–743 AD.[5]
Muwallad is derived fromwalad (ولد), which means 'descendant, offspring, scion, son'.Muwallad referred to the offspring of Muslim men and foreign, non-Muslim women. The termmuwalladin is sometimes used in Arabic to this day to describe the children of Muslim fathers and foreign mothers.[6][7][8]
According to Dozy,Muwallad means "anyone who, without being of Muslim origin, is born among the Muslims and has been raised as an Arab".[9] The word, according to him, does not necessarily imply Arab ancestry, either paternal or maternal.
According to the dictionary of theReal Academia Española,muladí means "Christian who, during the domination of the Arabs in Spain, converted to Islam and lived among the Muslims",[10] while Bernards and Nawas say the plural form of the word seems to be restricted to al-Andalus, almost exclusively to the areas ofMérida,Granada,Seville andJaén.[11]Muladí has been offered as one of the possible etymological origins of the still-current Spanish and Portuguese termmulato, denoting a person of African (black) and European (white) ancestry;[citation needed] however, the dictionary of the Real Academia Española and several authorities tracemulato (and from it, Englishmulatto) to Spanishmulo 'mule', from Latinmūlus.[12][13]
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InIslamic historymuwalladun designates in a broader sense non-Arab Muslims or the descendants ofconverts. In theMuslim-ruled parts of the Iberian Peninsula, parts of the indigenous until-then Christian population (basically a mixture of thepre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula,ancient Romans,Visigoths andSuebi) converted toIslam in the 8th and 9th centuries. In the 10th century a massive conversion of Christians took place, so thatmuladies comprised the majority of the population ofAl-Andalus by the century's end. However, the majority of Muwallads had converted to Islam early, but retained many pre-Islamic customs and characteristics.
Conversion to Islam was encouraged by theUmayyad caliphs andEmirs of Córdoba but it was not directly forced. Many Christians converted to Islam to avoid thejizya tax which they were subjected to asdhimmis.[14] Conversion to Islam also opened up new horizons to the native Christians, alleviated their social position, ensured better living conditions, and broadened their scope for more technically skilled and advanced work.[15]
Some christians who converted to Islam becameMawali, or clients attached to an Arab tribe, and as such, were thoroughly Islamized, adopting the Arabic dress code, customs, and language.[16]
The Muwallads were also calledMuslima ('Islamized'), andelches (ilj, plural:ulus), in reference to the society from which they sprang. They later were denominatedAljamiados because of their non Arabic-tongue, that is, theMozarabic languages.
Through the culturalArabization ofmuladies and their increasing inter-marriage with someBerbers and Arabs present in Iberia, the distinctions between the differentMuslim groups became increasingly blurred in the 11th and 12th centuries. The populations mixed with such rapidity that it was soon impossible to distinguish ethnically the elements of foreign origin from the natives. Thus they merged into a more homogeneous group of Andalusi Arabs, generally also calledMoors.[16]
The Muwallads primarily spokeAndalusian Arabic, along with a wide variety ofIberian Romance languages.Andalusian Arabic was a mixture of Iberian languages andClassical Arabic, though derived especially fromLatin. This local dialect of Arabic was also spoken by the Berbers and Arabs from the 9th century onwards.
In the process of acculturation, Muwallads may well have adopted anagnaticmodel of descent, but without abandoning thebilaterality of lateRoman kinship. According toAbu Jafar ibn Harun of Trujillo a vast but silent majority of Muladi Muslims thrived, especially in theExtremadura region ofSpain.[16]
Among the Muwalladun were the free-born, the enfranchised, andthe enslaved. A significant part of the Muwalladun was formed by freed slaves. These were theSaqaliba, orSlavs who became an important social group in Al-Andalus during the 10th and 11th centuries. Upon adopting the ethnic name of their patrons, the emancipated slaves gradually forgot their own ethnic origin.[16] The Muslim slaves were theSaqaliba, led byAli ibn Yusuf, who profited from the progressive crumbling of theUmayyad Caliphate's superstructure to gain control over the province ofDenia. The Saqaliba managed to free themselves and gain dominion over thetaifa, which extended its reach as far as theBalearic Islands, and their capital, Madina Mayurqa (nowPalma de Majorca).
The intermarriage of foreign Muslims with native Christians made many Muwallads heedless of their Iberian origin. As a result, their descendants and many descendants of Christian converts forgot the descent of their ancestors and assumed forged Arabgenealogies.[16] However, there were a few who were proud of their Roman and Visigothic origins. These included the Banu Angelino and Banu Sabarico ofSeville,Banu Qasi ofAragon, Banu l' Longo and Banu Qabturno. Several Muwallad nobles also used the nameAl-Quti, ('theGoth'),[17] and some may have been actual descendants from the family of theVisigothic King of Hispania,Wittiza.[16]
The conversion of the native Christians to Islam did not mean the total erasure of previous beliefs and social practises. There is some evidence of a limited cultural borrowing from the Christians by the Muwalladun and other Muslims in Al-Andalus. For instance, the Muslims' adoption of the Christiansolar calendar and holidays was an exclusively Andalusí phenomenon. In Al-Andalus, the Islamiclunar calendar was supplemented by the local solar calendar, which was more useful for agricultural and navigational purposes. Like the localMozarabs (Iberian Christians under Muslim rule in the Al-Andalus who remained unconverted to Islam), the Muslims of Al-Andalus were notoriously heavy drinkers. The Muslims also celebrated traditional Christian holidays, sometimes with the sponsorship of their leaders, despite the fact that such fraternisation was generally opposed by theUlema. The Muslims also hedged their religious devotions through the use ofRoman Catholicsacraments.[18]
Many Muwallads held key posts in the departments of civil administration, justice, and the armed forces.Amrus ibn Yusuf, a Muwallad who was originally fromHuesca, was appointed governor ofToledo byHakam I in 797. Towards the end of the 11th century, the Muwalladun held distinctive posts in the judicial departments. TheCaliph of Córdoba,Abd ar-Rahman III, once bestowed the post of chiefqadi of Córdoba on a Christian convert, whose parents were still Christian, and theFuqaha found much difficulty in dissuading him. The secretary of the Córdoban emir,Abd Allah, was a Muwallad. The commander of the Córdoban force in thebattle of Alhandega against theZamorans in 938 was aneo-Muslim Slavic general namedNajdah. The 10th century Muwallad historianIbn al-Qūṭiyya was descended directly on the maternal side from the Visigothic KingWittiza.[16] In about 889 a ship carrying twentyBerber Muwallad adventurers fromPechina nearAlmería established a fortress inFraxinet, on the Gulf ofSaint-Tropez in Provence. They spoke bothLatin andArabic.[19]
Several Muwalladun became rich and powerful magnates by means of trade, agriculture, and political activity. The Muwallads of the town the Christians calledElvira (nowadays Granada), after the former Iberian nameIlbira, had become so powerful during the reign ofAbdullah ibn Muhammad al-Umawi (888-912) that they rose under a chieftain called Nabil and successfully drove theMoors out of the city. TheBanu Qasi dynasty which ruled the upperEbro valley in the 9th and 10th centuries, became strong enough to break free from the control of theUmayyad dynasty of Córdoba and turn from a semi-autonomous governorship to an independenttaifa.[16]
The Muwalladun were the mainstay of the economic framework of the country. Together with the Mozarabs they constituted the productive classes which were craftsmen and small tradesmen in the towns, and farmers and labourers in the rural countryside. However, they were inferior to the Arabs and Berbers in social status. Prominent positions in government and society were usually not available to individuals of Muladi descent. In spite of the Islamic doctrine of equality and brotherhood of Muslims, the Muwalladun were often looked down upon with the utmost contempt by the Arab and Berber aristocrats and were usually pejoratively referred to as "the sons of slaves".[16]
The Muwallads, in turn, in spite of their profession of faith, despised the Arabs whom they viewed as colonialists and foreign intruders. This mutual feeling of hatred and suspicion provoked frequent revolts and led the Muwallads to support theAbbasid political agents, the preachers ofShu'ubiyya (a non-Arab movement), and subversive activities against the Umayyad rule in Iberia.[16] The Shu'ubiyyah of Al-Andalus were active like the Arabs in promoting Arab-Islamic culture and language and claimed their integration with the Arab ethnic groups. The Shu'ubiyyah movement demanded equality of power, wealth and status for non-Arab Berbers and the Muwalladun from the Arabs. Some judges of Huesca upheld the cause of the Muwalladun in the beginning of the 10th century, and a literaryepistle of the middle of the 11th century repeated arguments of Eastern Shu'ubite writers.[20]
In Al-Andalus, the large numbers of Christians adopting Islam prompted concern among the authorities about the weakening of the tax base and further inflamed resentment towards the Muwallads.[21]
The Muwallads were in almost constant revolt against the Arab and Berber immigrants who had carved out large estates for themselves, farmed by Christian serfs or slaves.[21][better source needed] The most famous of these revolts were led by a Muwallad rebel namedUmar ibn Hafsun in the region ofMálaga andRonda. Ibn Hafsun ruled over several mountain valleys for nearly forty years, having the castleBobastro as his residence. He rallied disaffected muwallads and mozárabs to his cause. Ibn Hafsun eventually renounced Islam with his sons and became a Christian, taking the name Samuel and proclaimed himself not only the leader of the Christian nationalist movement, but also the champion at the same time of a regular crusade against Islam. However, his conversion soon cost him the support of most of his Muwallad supporters who had no intention of ever becoming Christians, and led to the gradual erosion of his power.[22]
There were also other Muwallad revolts throughout Al-Andalus. In the Elvira region, for instance, discord sprang up between the Muwallads and Moors, the latter being led by Sawar ibn Hamdub, and the poet,Sa'ad ibn Judi, both of whom fluctuated between insurrection against Abd'Allah and submission to him. InSeville, the second largest city afterCórdoba, there was a viciousfeud between the two Arab aristocratic families, Banu Hajjaj and Banu Khaldun, and two Muwallad noble families, Banu Angelino and Banu Sabarico, which finally left Ibrahim ibn Hajjaj as the ruler of an independent city-state.[16]
In 805, the Muwallads of Córdoba, incited by certain theologians, revolted against the Umayyads under Hakim I, but the uprising was suppressed. In 814, there was a second revolt of Muwallads in Corboba, and this time the revolt was put down with the utmost severity, and resulted in the expulsion of 9,500 Muwallads from Córdoba, with over 1,500 going toAlexandria and 8,000 toFez. In 858, there was a Muwallad revolt inMérida, led by Ibn Marwan. The Muwallads complained of the taxation of their lands as if they were still Christian. The revolt's outcome was the defeat of Ibn Marwan. Mérida was subdued, but the centre of revolt soon moved toBadajoz.[16]
The Muwallads were sometimes assisted in their revolts by the local Mozarab population, and occasionally by the Christian powers. For instance, when the Muwalladun of Toledo revolted, aided by the large Mozarabic population of the city,Ordoño I of Asturias, promptly responded to their appeal for help, but the Emir's forces were routed by theToledans andAsturians at thebattle of Guadalacete in 854.[16]
Many minor rebels from among the Muladi leadership took possession of various sites, their descendants eventually becoming semi-independent Emirs. These included:
On the western frontier of Al-Andalus, the Muwalladun and Berber families divided control of the region containing Mérida, Badajoz, and their environs.[16]