Portugal's Islamic/Moorish Past

[Music] starting in the early 8th century for over 500 years much of what is present day portugal was under muslim rule in fact this very region the algarve which is one of the most touristy parts of the country gets its name from the arabic word al-kharp which means the west since portugal was the most western part of the muslim empire [Music] the appearance in the people for example more towards the center in the south we have always had more influence influence from the the muslim culture from the north from north africa and basically the people from the north call us moorish so that's one thing but i never took it as an offense it's just a thing like we are moorish for them and in a way and this is reflected in our culture they feel really proud that they never had this influence but also because this comes not to the culture itself i would say but because um they always managed to defend themselves because in that period it was just like wars afterwards when the muslims conquered the region they established their capital right here in what is now known as silvis this is probably one of the best places to get a feel for the arab and islamic influence of the time this right here built by the arabs in the 11th century is the silvish castle we're going to go inside and have a look [Music] despite being overlooked at times the five centuries of muslim occupation of portugal known as its moorish past has left a definite legacy this can be spotted all over the country term moors refer to the north african muslims who occupied spain portugal sicily and malta for several centuries [Music] i came from one of the in fact it's the biggest region of portugal that's alien peugeot al and asia and right now we are in this beautiful place that is casa dwelling persian it's kind of right now it's a kind of association lots of yeah [Music] it's a region in portugal that has a very rich cuisine and the cuisine it's a big influence from from from arabs yeah so we have lamb for example we have lots of sweets that have almonds we have kind of not not spicy i don't know exactly the name in english but like spices yeah some some some spices that they they all came from from there and in terms of music in terms of architecture we have also that big influence although in in school when we are studying i don't think that we will learn so well about we don't have much information about it and it's in my opinion it's something that it's it's it's a pity yeah so for some years for for many years i would say i think that uh people from portugal we were kind of denying these influences not in general but i would say that we were like kind of denying but right now i think things are changing a lot [Music] in spain most of the country's inhabitants and many of the visitors are at least somewhat familiar with the country's muslim and arab past but in portugal this major part of history is a lot less known in fact most tourists will visit portugal and leave completely unaware of it this is the silvish cathedral originally built as a mosque during muslim rule it was converted into a cathedral once the christians reconquered the region we'll go inside and have a look so one thing that uh makes me a bit upset with this it's that when we are in school we talk about the oh i don't know the name in english but basically when we try to get the territory back and forth and we talk about this really in a really proud way like we took it back or we took the land for us and it's not something we should be proud of today i mean i understand that back in the time it was different but it's like uh it's not like the people from north africa were here invading us this was their land so i think inside our brains we still think that this was always ours and yeah it they didn't deserve it they didn't deserve them what about the original conquest i mean originally they came and conquered spain and portugal sicily so they weren't here before either right yeah but i mean if you go even back like more back in the time there were other kinds of cultures here [Music] maybe yeah in a way we were taking it back but in the end it was never no one's land like because people talk about like the arab eighth place the north africa diplomas and it's like they were here for a really long time and in a way i think that people understand this period as them being i don't know non-civilized and it's completely opposite for example i will tell you i worked for one year in a tile tile shop in alfama and there are some guides and they don't have any studies on history of course because he would say that every house that looks like not as organized like the facade it's because it's moorish because they didn't have any skills and they didn't know any architecture and it's like it doesn't make sense at all like we got algebra like the maths right from them and also like the numbers we had uh roman numbers if it wasn't for that [Music] influence [Music] um we got access to water like drinkable water and fountains and all the love we have for fountains and everything you see in the city and this was because of the the influence the the the territory being occupied or as you and i want to call it by by the north africans so it's like in the end it's uh we we have a mix of many cultures of course but i still feel that people think that uh maybe it wasn't the best and the country was always hours by right and it's not like that and i can see the culture reflecting in our architecture mainly through the tiles for example and i already heard people saying oh uh it's so uh how did they say uh like uh like we were the first ones to make tiles and then like the the islamic culture copied and i was like no it's completely the opposite like of course our titles now had other influences and are different and that's what makes them special but all this uh working with this kind of materials we got from them we are very tolerant and we we are very we accept a lot the diversity so i think that we are with we are angry to to learn more and to know about our own roots and to to to meet people from different countries so i really think that people that come here and people from arab countries they come here and they they feel at home and they feel that here they can they can have a really nice life so here's another cathedral that was built on the land that used to be a mosque and we're gonna go inside and check it out [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] says [Music] foreign [Music] we have a lot of words and we learned this since we are kids at school like words with al have a lot of islamic influence for example algarve yes alfama it's the the old town as well um i've read some stuff about this this neighborhood because it's like the old town in lisbon you need one of my favorite um neighborhoods here but we destroyed a lot of things and we shouldn't have basically because it's like a different religion a different culture why the hell do we want this and that's sad and people don't realize that that we did that like uh it wasn't it wasn't we weren't heroes you know so this is the impression i have yeah because the goal of the recognition was to basically eliminate all the influence that era yeah of course we talk a lot about this because now more and more i think the islamic culture is being like put at stake by everyone and uh in a way even in portugal that's a concern and then people say like uh it's not about the religion like we did the same thing or even worse and we were like it was a massive um attack that we did so of course we have a lot of arguments about this because you you don't feel represented by what people did in the past you don't feel represented by extremist groups nowadays that talk that they say that they do what they do because of their religion so we shouldn't do the the same and mainly for example this area portugal in spain we got a lot from the islamic culture so it's a bit i cannot find a word in english but it's like we should be more thankful than bitter about this centro is another great place to see the influence that muslims had in portugal the moorish castle which is located right here is one of the best places for that we're going to walk up inside and check it out [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] for many years and i remember i'm talking about my parents age or my grandparents we were like very proud of this kind of reconquista and and also before when we we also when we discovered the seas and everything so we were like proud but we were a bit stuck in the history and we could not we were just living how proud we how good we were and now how bad we are we are or how difficult it's to live in portugal in terms of economy and all these unemployed and all all those things so i think that now the new generations we are not so okay it's interesting some of them they even they don't know about these these these facts these historical effects but i think that we are more like more open more open when we are more in the presence in the present yeah [Music] i think that inside of us like the portuguese we have this spirit of adventure of navigators of exploring and i think that we are very very interested in knowing everything that comes from new from new countries from new culture so i think that these generations that are speaking they will be more and more interested in knowing and discovering new people new languages and new cultural things and i'm i'm totally sure that we all we all we we all not we all but mostly of us we will be interested in discovering more about these places that we spoke about in the algarve in the alentejo and yeah i think that the future will be bright and yeah and we we will in terms of cultural differences we will be more more close and we will understand each other better [Music] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Bahador Alast

Views: 239,329

Keywords: Portugal, Moorish, Sintra, Silves, Arabs, Portuguese, Albufeira, Algarve, Islamic architecture, Al-Andalus, History, Documentary, Cordoba, Iberia, الغرب

Id: ptyrGaQcPHE

Length: 23min 13sec (1393 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 11 2017