Third wall, 12 m high and 4 m thick, was flanked by 96 towers, all 20 m high and arranged to shelter artillery machines.
In the 7th century, the prophet Muhammad began preaching in Arabia, and his teachings developed into the Islamic religion. Established in Arabia with Muhammad’s emigration from Mecca to Medina in 622, Islam spread into Persia and central Asia.
The Arabs conquered huge parts of the Byzantine Empire, Syria, Egypt (634), the Mediterranean main islands, and northern Africa, and they even vainly besieged Constantinople in 674. The Arabs—Saracens or Moors, as they were called by the western Christians—crossed the
Strait of Gibraltar in 711, defeated the Visigoths and conquered Spain and Portugal by 718. By 750 the Arab civilization extended from India to the Atlantic and from the borders of Gaul to equatorial Africa.
The Arabian establishment in the Iberian Peninsula resulted in a long and formidable struggle between Christiandom and the Islamic world all through the Middle Ages.
Beja (Portugal). Situated in the province Baixo Alentejo in Portugal, the city Beja was founded by the Romans and called Pax Julia. Beja became a Visigothic town, both a bishopric and a stronghold. The Arabs occupied the city for four centuries, until King Afonso III (1248-1279) reconquered it. The castle was rebuilt about 1310 by King Dinis on Roman, Visigothic and Arab vestiges.
Merovingian soldier 12
Known as the Reconquista, the Christian campaign of reconquest lasted until 1492, when the last Arabian bulwark, Grenada in Andalusia, was retaken by the king of Spain. Yet the refined and brilliant Islamic civilization had a tremendous influence on Spanish society, an influence still perceptible even today.
Arabian fortification greatly influenced military architecture in the Iberian Peninsula even after the Reconquista and in all of Europe during the Crusades. Like many other conquerors, the Arabs made use of existing fortifications as bases for controlling and exploiting the territories they occupied. Where suitable strongholds did not exist, they built their own. Being originally nomadic men of the desert with little experience in masonry, they erected shuttering to take a primitive form of ready-mixed concrete-mortar dried in the sun (called tapia) and reinforced with stones. The resulting structures were rectangular in plan, with square towers at each corner and protecting the gate. Within the walls were constructed living quarters and a mosque. During the long Moorish domination in the Iberian peninsula, the main Arabian elements designed by the alarif (architect) were the al-qasba (alcazaba or fortress), the alcazar (luxurious defended palace for the military goyernor) and the rhibat (fortified monastery). Important features created by the Moorish architects were the barbican (external work defending the gatehouse), the torre del homenaje (massive square masonry keep) and the atalaya (isolated watch-tower); other characteristics were the frayed echauguette (sentry-box), the tower with fringed roof, the typical crenellation outline cut in point, staircase or pyramidshaped, and very refined and numerous decorations inspired by the art of the Mudejars (Muslims allowed to remain in Spain following the Reconquista, many of whom were highly skilled craftsmen).
World History
