Task 4. Economy and society of Al Andalus.

Agriculture was the main economic activity in Al-Andalus. Cereals, vine and olives were the most important crops and Muslims introduced some significant innovations which have lasted until our time.

a. They introduced irrigation technics as waterwheels and irrigation canals

b. They introduced new crops as cotton, or indigo (this was a dye) , which were used by textile industry together former crops as flax. In the same way rice , sugar cane, aubergines (eggplant), artichokes which were used in order to feed people were introduced by Muslim people.

A very high quality handcraft production was developed into Muslim cities with work s of pottery, embossed leather and production of weapons, natural dyes or silk tissues.

Al Andalus was a centre of an active trade and Andalusian products were exported around the world in exchange for slaves and gold. Two coins were used in Al Andalus. a gold coin called Dinar and a silver coin called Dirhem.

After the conquest , Arabs and Berbers settled on the Iberian peninsula. At first the Muslim conquerers were tolerant with the other religions ( Christianity and Judaism ). Andalusian society was made up of several groups of different cultures and religions.

The powerful group was composed of conquerers and their descendants :

Arabs: They owned the best lands and the government posts . They settled on the valleys of Ebro, Guadiana and Guadalquivir rivers.

Berbers. They were the most numerous but they were not as important as Arabs . They were cattle farmer and decided to take place on mountainous areas and on the Central Plateau.

The rest of the population was divided by religious lines:

- Muladis . They were former Christians converted to Islam. They decided this in order not to pay taxes.

- Mozarabs. They were Christians people that continued to be Christians in Muslim lands. They had to pay taxes because they were not Muslims . From the 9th century, many of them migrated to the North fleeing (escaping) from religious persecutions.

- Jews They were a minority group into the Andalusian society. but they were very active in economic matters . There were important jewish communities in Toledo, Granada, Cordova, Sevilla and Zaragoza. The Jewish comunity of Al Andalus contributed with a lot of important philosophers, doctors and poets. They used to live in separate neighbourhood called aljamas.

Although most of the population lived in rural areas the urban world was very important in Al Andalus due to its economic importance . They were large cities compared with other Western cities. Cordova had more than 100000 inhabitants.

Islamic cities were surrounded by walls and the most important parts of the city were:

- Medina or old town where the main buildings were. The most important building was the Aljama or great mosque, the religious life revolved around it. There were other smaller mosques in other parts of the city . The media was composed of narrow and long streets.

- Suburbs or outskirts . Around the medina were located popular outskirts where most of craft workshops were

- The citadel ( alcázar or alcazaba) a urban fortress was placed on the highest part of the city where authorities and public officials lived.

- Economic life was divided into the souk or urban market and the alhóndigas or huge cereal warehouses.