“The convergence of mixed ethnicity and a religion of converts meant that the ancestors of a Muslim from Cordoba in the year 900 (let alone another two hundred or four hundred years later) were as likely to be Hispano-Roman as Berber, or some measure of each, perhaps with smaller dollops of either Syrian-Arab or Visigothic, these latter two having always been the smaller but politically dominant groups.” P.28
Reading the first chapters of this book brought my attention to notions of identity and heritage. The concepts of ethnicity, race, religion, culture, and nationality are so muddled and mixed through intermarriage and other instances of cultural transmission, and yet people often define themselves by these labels, not accounting for the diversity within a label and the diversity within their own heritage. Al-Andalus seemed to exemplify this diversity, with so much of the population coming from a mix of ethnicities and even religions as people converted, intermarried, and moved around. I appreciate how this was demonstrated on the tomb of Ferdinand III, commemorating a Christian king in four different languages including Arabic and Hebrew. And yet, despite this diversity, there was still a social hierarchy placing certain ethnic and religious ancestries over others. To have Syrian heritage or to live as a Muslim was still preferable, despite the common backgrounds and cultures that so many people shared.
