In the 11th century, Musim-controlled Spain was under attack from Roman Catholic Europe. One key siege was a turning point in how the church viewed war as a tool of foreign policy. This article explores the impact of the siege, and how it influenced the Crusades.

Islamic Spain

On 16 January 929, the Arabic emir of Cordoba assumed the supreme title of Caliph¹. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III had been emir since October 912 when he had succeeded his grandfather¹. He battled rebels in Iberia, north Africa, and Christian invaders from the north and east¹. His ruthless campaigns led to centralised rule from Cordoba, lasting till 1031¹.

Cordoba became the most populous and prosperous country in Europe². Innovative Arabic irrigation techniques led to huge increases in productivity². The Arabs exported food and manufactured goods like pottery to the Catholic East².

After al-Raḥmān died, the Caliphate disintegrated into separate kingdoms, called Taifa². While Iberia remained under Islamic control, the caliphate was no longer as united. In 1040, the Taifa of Lerida was one of the north-easternmost taifas in Iberia, bordering Aragon and Catalunya to the north and east³.

The prosperous walled city of Barbastro was in Lerida³, in the foothills of the Pyrennes. It was the capital city of the Islamic province of Barbithaniyya⁴. Aggressive development in the first half of the 9th century took this city from a castle to a full medina by 886⁴. Forty years later the city built a new boundary wall with observation towers⁴. Muslim leaders considered these fortifications to be the strongest they had⁴. Within 100 years, it became a suda – an Arabic fortress where the governor of the district lived. The city now had many neighbourhoods, bathing areas and, of course, a mosque⁴.

Christian Spain

Sancho Ramirez was the King of Aragon at the time⁴. Aragon was growing, and Ramirez wanted to strengthen it against Navarra and Castilla⁴. He couldn’t do this alone, so he allied himself with Rome because this gave him political heft⁴.

Papal politics

Rome was awash with confusion in those days.

Bishop Anselmo of Lucca became Pope Alexander II in Rome⁵. German regents opposed this, having backed someone else for Pope.

Italy’s city states were still ruled by German powers, following the Carolingian wars.

Alexander wanted to revolutionise the church to ban⁵:

• Married priests in favour of celibacy.
• Sons from inheriting the priesthood.
• Selling positions in the church to the highest bidder.

The Pope’s edict was not popular with the already-married and rich clergy. It’s fair to say he had a lot on his hands.

In 1064, he ordered an invasion of Islamic Spain, calling it a “Christian emergency”⁶. Pope Alexander granted an indulgence letter to soldiers⁷ “determined to set out for Spain”⁸, which gave them a veneer of legitimacy. If the Pope was happy to waive some of their time in purgatory, then this must be a good and holy endeavour, right?

The sale of indulgences is controversial because it was a way of manipulating the masses. This was long before the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility. Even the church accepts this was a decision taken by a man, not by the Pope in God’s name.

Papal infallibility came about in the 19th century.

It is a cliche to suggest modern politicians focus on foreign affairs when they’re trying to distract from internal problems. We saw these allegations when US President Bush invaded Iraq, and when President Putin invaded any of his neighbours. It is easy to make the claim without any evidence, and any leader would deny this, no matter what the truth is. Yet, this sort of thing works because something important distracts people’s attention. There’s no way of telling if Pope Alexander used this tactic.
But if Pope Alexander had a quieter time at home, would he have invaded Spain?

Invasion

This invasion is one of the first examples of Christianity fighting for expansion instead of for survival⁹.

Two people led the invasion:

• Sancho Ramirez. He had a specific interest in this because the Moors to his south were an immediate threat to his kingdom¹⁰.
• William VIII, Duke of Aquitaine. William’s forces made up the bulk of the contingent. His was a French army with a smattering of Italian troops⁷.

William VIII is an ancestor of mine; my 25th x grandfather, to be precise.

William crossed the Pyrennes at Somport and joined his Spanish counterparts at Girona^{7 11}.

They marched on to Barbastro in Zaragoza province⁷. They took control of the poorer districts, using these locations to besiege the city⁴ for 40 days^{8 11}.

The siege ended when the invaders blocked an aqueduct to cut off the Barbastro water supply⁸. The desperate citizens offered slaves and bribes in return for surrender⁸. The Papal army signed a peace treaty promising to respect Muslims and their property¹¹.

The Christians ignored the agreement¹¹, but it’s hard to understand what happened from the sources available. Arabic sources claim the French took 100 000 prisoners¹² but it is unlikely there were that many residents in Barbastro.

The French gave orders to their men to loot and kill people⁸. Terrified, people rushed towards the gates of the city where many died suffocated or crushed in the mêlée.

They enslaved women and children¹² and worse. The invaders raped daughters in front of their fathers, and women in front of their husbands⁸. Catholics killed at least 6 000 “for being useless”^{8 12}.

Arab chroniclers described this as the “invariable custom [of] Christians whenever they took a town by force.”⁸

After the siege

Arab reaction

The fall of Barbastro hit hard in the Islamic world. Arabic historian Ibn Hayyhan described this event⁴:

“In the year 456 (25^th December 1063 to 12^th December 1064) the enemy took Barbastro, the most important stronghold of Barbithanyya, located between Lérida and Zaragoza, the two columns of the Northern Front.  Of Barbastro, this venerable mother, where Islam had flourished after the conquest of Mhusa ibn Nusayr, which during centuries had achieved continuous prosperity, which was glorified for its fertile territory and its strong walls, which was built on the banks of the Vero, it was the bastion of the inhabitants of the frontier against attacks from enemies, which for three hundred and sixty three years had been under Muslim rule, in a way that religion had deep roots there and where the Koran was studied in a perpetual manner. Since then this sad event has been the only topic of conversation and the whole world imagines that Córdoba will soon suffer the same fate.”

Ibn Hayyan

Aftermath

Barbastro was not well-protected after this siege. Al-Muqtadir, King of Zaragoza, led a Muslim army and retook the city within eight months⁴. 

Scholars consider this to be a forerunner to the crusades in the Middle East, and a template for the future⁷. In the 20th century, Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal described the siege as a “crusade before the crusades.” Many dispute this because there was no clear grand plan to convert Muslims in Spain. There is some evidence French monks tried to convert Muslims¹³ but it’s hard to connect this to the war. There is also some evidence that Papal indulgences were not issued for this holy war¹⁴, but it’s sketchy.

Based on the documentary evidence, like any expansionary war, the conquest of Barbastro was about wealth^{4 11}, not religion.

Having said that, once the Pope realised one can amass an army to fight non-believers, then why not do it again? The international war effort a clear religious mandate foreshadows the crusades. If this attack had failed, would the crusades – and millennia of religious warfare – have ever happened?

1. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III; Encyclopedia Brittanica; 2023-01-01[↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. Caliphate of Córdoba; Encyclopedia Brittanica; 2023-03-07[↩][↩][↩][↩]
3. Taifa of Zaragoza; Zaragoza tours; (Retrieved 2023-05-12) [↩][↩]
4. The first crusade. Barbastro; Turismo Montano; (Retrieved 2023-03-16) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
5. Pope Alexander II; Encyclopedia Brittanica; 2023-04-17[↩][↩]
6. Fernando I and the Origins of the Leonese-Castilian Alliance With Cluny; Charles Julian Bishko; 1968[↩]
7. The siege of Barbastro 1064–65: a reassessment; Alberto Ferreiro; Journal of Medieval History; Volume 9, Issue 2, June 1983[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
8. Crusaders; Dan Jones; UK; 2019[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
9. Fernando I y la sacralización de la Reconquista; Carlos de Ayala Martínez; 2011-09-15[↩]
10. Sancho Ramírez; Encyclopedia Britannica; 2022-07-02[↩]
11. Crusade in Al-Andalus: The 11th century formation of the Reconquista as an ideology; Roberto Marin-Guzmán; Islamic Studies, Vol. 31, No. 3; 1992[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
12. Los desastres de la guerra:reflexiones sobre la muerte de prisioneros y cautivos durante la Edad Media; José Manuel Calderón Ortega; UNED; 2009[↩][↩][↩]
13. Corresponding across Religious Borders: Al-Bājī’s Response to a Missionary Letter from France; Diego Sarrió Cucarella; Medieval Encounters; 2012-01-01[↩]
14. Fernando I and the Origins of the Leonese-Castilian Alliance With Cluny; Charles Julian Bishko; Library of Iberian resources; 1969[↩]