Ancient wars between Muslims and Christians spring to life at the restored ruins of Moorish forts and cities on the Iberian Peninsula. The Alhambra, in the storied city of Granada, Spain, is a powerful reminder of the rise and fall of the Moors, as Muslims came to be known in the region from northern Africa to Spain and Portugal.
The last of the Moorish dynasties that ruled Alhambra did not fall until 1492, the year the Italian Christopher Columbus, on a voyage in search of India on behalf of the Spanish royal couple Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, instead “discovered” America. The Spanish were eager to outfox the Portuguese, who had been carving up portions of Africa and Asia (while also driving out the Moors).
The ruins of Alhambra, rebuilt to look like the original, evoke images of Islamic culture and civilization going back millennia. Yet they remain relevant today, especially in the context of the fighting in Gaza — an ancient struggle with a long and storied history, much like the Alhambra itself.
There has been fighting in Palestine for centuries, long before Israel was populated by Jews from Europe and other Arab countries. The Jewish state of Israel was founded only in 1948, taking over the lands that Palestinian Arabs had called their own since being driven away in successive wars and purges beginning thousands of years ago. Now Israeli forces have devastated Gaza, and Israeli settlements are steadily encroaching on what’s left of Palestine elsewhere on the West Bank of the River Jordan.
Will it be the same for Gaza? The answer is almost certainly yes. The Israelis are not going to give up on a campaign to eradicate Hamas, the Palestinian terrorists responsible for invading Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping more than 200 others.
Yet Islamic civilization endures in neighboring Jordan, Syria, Egypt and the rest of the Middle East, and the tide could always turn, just as it did on the Iberian Peninsula. Much depends on the will and whims of Israel’s ally, the U.S., on which Israel depends for the weaponry for a prolonged campaign.
President Biden wants the fighting to stop but won’t cut off arms shipments in view of Israel’s enormous influence in the U.S. The people of Hamas, hungry and frightened, may at least be grateful that Biden’s plea for peace is holding the Israelis in check when they would like to finish off Hamas completely — and take over what’s left of Palestinian territory east of the Jordan.
Years hence, today’s war for Gaza may be remembered in histories of the region as yet another conflagration in a long continuum. It’s far from clear where Israel will rank in the history books — as a power whose influence spread far beyond its borders or another grouping among many that were drawn in constant struggle.
Vestiges of Muslim power exist wherever you go on the Iberian peninsula. Leave Spain for Portugal and go to Sintra, a town built on slopes about 20 miles east of Lisbon, and you’ll see a Moorish castle looming at the crest of a crag high above the town. Here Christians defeated the Muslims in the 12th century, but Islamic civilization lives on; in a mosque that Christians turned into a church, in storage bins dug into the ground for holding food through the winter, in the crenellated walls through which the defenders slashed away at attackers.
The Moors suffered a similar fate in Lisbon, where the castle they built in 8th eighth century was overrun by 12th century Christians, who renamed it Sao Jorge Castle. These days peacocks peacocks strut and flutter in the garden between high palace walls, from which you can see almost the entire city stretching to the Atlantic.
Moorish culture endures even as the country venerates its great explorers, such as Ferdinand Magellan, the first to circumnavigate the globe, and Vasco de Gama, who led the way around the Cape of Good Hope, linking the Atlantic to the Indian oceans around the tip of Africa.
Islamic, Christian and Jewish civilizations collide to this day more than 2,000 miles to the east, at the other end of the Mediterranean. The story of Israelis slaughtering Palestinians Arabs in response to the slaughter of Israelis is the latest chapter in rivalries going back through the ages. All we can hope is that peace descends on the region, and that tourists someday may look at ancient ruins in an atmosphere of historical sightseeing, quietly gazing at scenes once filled with the terrors of war.
Donald Kirk has been a journalist for more than 60 years, focusing much of his career on conflict in Asia and the Middle East, including as a correspondent for the Washington Star and Chicago Tribune. He is currently a freelance correspondent covering North and South Korea, and is the author of several books about Asian affairs.