Andalusia Is an Arab Civilization

Andalusia is an Arab civilization built by the Syrians, and the Syrians saw themselves as Arabs, considering the heritage and civilization of Andalusia to be Arab.

1 - Gustave Le Bon says: “The discerning historian of the Muslims in Spain sees that the Arabs formed the intellectual aristocracy and the civilizational element, while the Berbers mixed with the middle and lower classes of the population. The Arabs maintained this intellectual superiority even when Berber dynasties rose to power.”

[Arab Civilization - Gustave Le Bon, p. 281]

2 - Mosheim says: “The Arabs of Andalusia/Spain had a profound influence on all of Europe, as they were the source of every wellspring of knowledge that Europe came to know in medicine, astronomy, and education, which emerged in Europe from the tenth century onward.”

[History of the Church - Johann von Mosheim, p. 349]

3 - The story of Ziryab reveals that the people of Andalusia from among the Syrian Arabs (Arabs of the East) viewed Andalusian heritage as Arab heritage and an extension of Syrian Arab culture, not as Berber or Iberian. The story of Ziryab, the Arab from Mosul, connects the Arabs in Iberia nationally and ethnically to the Arabian Peninsula.

This supports the notion that the Syrians in Andalusia saw themselves as Arabs and as an extension of the Arab civilization in the East.

[PERFORMING AL-ANDALUS, JONATHAN HOLT SHANNON p76]