GOLDIEM_J t1_iz9mwh4 wrote on December 7, 2022 at 2:32 PM

Reply to comment by en43rs in Simple/Short/Silly History Questions Saturday! by AutoModerator

My predicament is that during the first taifa period, Alfonso VI conquered Toledo and was quite close to unifying Spain under a tolerant and harmonious rule. But then came in the radical Almoravid and even more radical Almohad caliphates who practiced forced conversions and fed into the "us vs them" concept stereotypical of the reconquista. It could've been a unified, tolerant kingdom but instead turned out as the one religion "winning" over another one. How far do you agree with this?

en43rs t1_iz9nga2 wrote on December 7, 2022 at 2:36 PM

That's outside of my area of expertise and it's speculative history, so I don't really have an opinion on Alfonso VI.

What I can say is that the Inquisition was linked to widespread antisemitism, on a European scale, its dealing with Muslims came later. So I think that the causes of the Inquisition are mainly independent of the Reconquista.