al-Andalus, political history - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
García Sanjuán, Alejandro
Leiden
Brill
(5,505 words)
Al-Andalus , an Arab and Islamic polity in southwestern Europe, began with the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in the early second/eighth century and lasted until 897/1492. The presence of al-Andalus was a key factor in the evolution of the Peninsula during the Middle Ages, as the Muslims exerted a far-reaching political, economic, and cultural hegemony until the early seventh/thirteenth century. From then on, the expansion of the Christian kingdoms gradually weakened the position of the Muslims, who were forced progressively into an increasingly