Volume 90, Number 1 - California Historical Society

theless, it is baffling that the borrowing of ribat,
and of course jihad, escaped comment. In matters
removed from war, various witnesses, some
from beyond Spain, enumerated the ways Christians
absorbed or admired Islamic habits.
Upon hearing about Córdoba’s wealth and
beauty, Hroswitha of Gandersheim, a tenthcentury
German nun, described the Muslim city
as “the ornament of the world.” About the same
time, the Christian thinker Álvaro of Córdoba
lamented: “My fellow Christians delight in the
poems and romances of the Arabs; they study
the work of Muslim theologians and philosophers.
. . . At the mention of Christian books they
disdainfully protest that such works are unworthy
of notice.” Adelard of Bath, an English philosopher
from the eleventh century, admitted that he
cited Arabic authors to make his writings more
acceptable. According to the art historian D. Fairchild
Ruggles, by the fourteenth century Christian
kings of Spain ordered craftsmen to employ
Islamic ornamentation in churches and other
buildings to project a sophisticated air. After the
re-conquest of Spain, Muslim culture continued
to impress. Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros, Archbishop
of Toledo and confessor to Queen Isabella,
begrudged the Muslims some praise. “We
lack their works,” he admitted, but “they lack
our faith.” 38
When seeking to imitate, or at least respect,
Islamic achievements in architecture and philosophy,
it is likely Christians also embraced
the practice of sacred violence. As did Muslims
who performed ribat to make war, some Spanish
monks and laymen exhibited similar fervor.
In the eleventh and twelfth century, they formed
military societies like the Knights of Calatrava or
Santiago. 39 Like Muslim warriors who claimed
that “a thousand angels” would aid them during
battle, the military societies summoned their own
celestial defender and believed that Santiago,
or Saint James, would fight on their behalf. 40
The men on ribat
threatened violence, but
in the same instant they
granted Christians, and
their heirs in the New
World, the means to
challenge and defeat
any foe.
The saint did not disappoint. According to one
source, he aided Christians in thirty-eight battles
against Muslims. 41 When Muslims claimed that
a pilgrimage to Mecca was one of the pillars of
their faith, Christians responded in kind. Knights
and commoners alike worshipped at the shrine
to Santiago in Compostela, a holy site in northwestern
Spain that still receives pilgrims from all
over the Christian world. 42 Thus, on the strength
of circumstantial evidence, it appears that the
Christian approach to war, as well as other sacred
activities, followed Muslim examples.
Of course, one could say Christians did not need
any instruction in the arts of war. The Knights
Templar, for instance, who emerged in the Holy
Land in 1118 to defend Christian pilgrims from
Muslim attacks, may have influenced the rise of
military societies in Spain. 43 But enough doubts
exist to question the possibility. The military
societies often emerged in places where Muslims
had performed ribat for centuries, suggesting the
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