Recently, I had the opportunity to lead a pilgrimage to the major shrines of Portugal, Spain and France. The meaning of each stop was known to me prior to our journey: the Mother of God’s presence at Fatima and Lourdes and St. Teresa’s birthplace at Avila, to name a few.
A great surprise to me along the way was the significance of the city of Burgos, the historic capital of the Kingdom of Castile. The city was a major stop for pilgrims along the French Way of the Camino de Santiago and became important in the Reconquista, the centuries long struggle to push the Moors back into North Africa from where they came.
The city is home to a magnificent cathedral, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Construction began in 1221 and lasted until its completion in 1567. It is appreciated for containing in its architecture the entire history of Gothic art, displaying the development of style in this artform across the centuries.
I was not very familiar with the history of the Reconquista, so another surprise was to find the tomb of the famed El Cid at the very center of this awe-inspiring cathedral.
I was only vaguely familiar with El Cid’s story from a few scenes I remember of the 1961 film about his life and glories when he was played by Charlton Heston. The film ends with the Christians and Moors alike in prayer for God to receive the soul of El Cid, “the purest knight of them all.”
After my visit to Burgos, I picked up Raymond Ibrahim’s recent book Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam (2022), to read the chapter dedicated to “The Cid: Master and Lord of War.” I also reached out to the author to seek answers to a few questions about El Cid, motivated by a prescient point that Ibrahim made in the introduction to his superb book.
Ibrahim mentions how the eight men he profiles were once admired as iconic heroes of self-sacrifice, without whom Western civilization would have been lost. But, today, they are either forgotten by their Western descendants or are largely seen as embarrassments and exemplars of patriarchy, “toxic masculinity,” xenophobia and racism.
Ibrahim is an expert in Islamic history and doctrine and has also published Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West (2018), a book that was met with some controversy.
Here, Ibrahim sheds some light on the life, times, and importance of one of the subjects of his book, the great hero of the Reconquista known as El Cid.
CWR: When and in what manner did the Moorish invasion of Spain take place?
Raymond Ibrahim: A few decades following the death of their prophet Muhammad in 632, the Arabs had conquered most of ancient Christendom—from Syria in the east to Morocco in the west. Not content, and fully intent on bringing the Koran to the known world, in 711 hordes of North African Muslims (“Moors”) “godlessly invaded Spain to destroy it,” to quote from the Latin Chronicle of 754. They did not pass “a place without reducing it, and getting possession of its wealth,” boasted al-Hakam, an early Muslim chronicler, “for Allah Almighty had struck with terror the hearts of the infidels.”
Such terrorism was intentionally cultivated (in keeping with the Koran, e.g., 3:151, 8:12). The invaders slaughtered, cooked, and ate—Muslim historiography says they only pretended to eat—their Spanish captives, prompting hysteria among the people “that the Muslims feed on human flesh,” and thereby “contributing in no small degree to increase the panic of the infidels,” wrote another Muslim chronicler.
By 712, one year after the Islamic invasion, the Muslims had, in the words of the Chronicle of 754, “ruined beautiful cities, burning them with fire; condemned lords and powerful men to the cross; and butchered youths and infants with the sword.” Several other early sources corroborate the devastation and persecution. The oldest account, the Tempore belli, tells of Muslims “sacking Christian temples and homes, burning the cities of those who resisted, and taking their young women as sexual slaves, all creating an indescribable terror,” to quote historian, Darío Fernández-Morera.
CWR: What are the origins of the Reconquista at Covadonga?
Raymond Ibrahim: After the conquest of Spain, many Christians opted to “flee to the mountains,” continues the Chronicle of 754, “where they risked hunger and various forms of death.” This is a reference to the inhospitable regions of Asturias in the northwest quadrant of Spain, Due to its rough terrain and remoteness, it remained largely free of Muslim control, and—despite the severe difficulties of eking out a living off it—was the destination of every Christian fugitive who wished to live free of Islam.
Pelagius (or Pelayo, 685–737), a relative of Roderick, the “last king of the Goths,” who was slain by the Muslims at the Battle of Guadalete (711), also fled there. In the mountains of Asturias, he “joined himself to as many people as he found hastening to assemble” and became their new king.
Before long, a massive Muslim army was sent to bring these infidel rebels to heal. With them came Christian subjects of the Moors who urged Pelagius not to waste his life in an unwinnable battle, but rather to “enjoy the partnership [of the Arabs].” “I will not associate with the Arabs in friendship nor will I submit to their authority,” Pelagius retorted, adding, “Christ is our hope that through this little mountain”—which he likened to the “mustard seed” of the famous parable that eventually grows into something great (Mark 4:30–32)—the “well-being of Spain and the army of the Gothic people will be restored.”
Battle commenced there and then at Covadonga—meaning “Cavern of the Lady”—sometime around 720, and, due to the terrain which was conducive to their guerilla tactics, the vastly outnumbered Christians prevailed, thereby permanently establishing their presence in the northwestern most tip of Spain.
CWR: When was El Cid born? What was his upbringing like and how did he gain a reputation as a great warrior among both the Spanish and the Moors?
Raymond Ibrahim: Roderick (or Rodrigo) Díaz (b. 1043) was born in Vivar, a village near Burgos, the capital of León-Castile, which grew out of the Asturian kingdom. Raised in the arts of war by his father, a minor noble, Roderick was knighted during his late teens and entered into Ferdinand the Great’s service by joining the entourage of Sancho, the king’s eldest son and heir apparent. By the age of twenty-three, and as a testimony to his prowess, Roderick had risen to become the prince’s second and standard bearer. It was during these early years that he became known among his compatriots as “the Campeador”—“the master of the battle field” in Old Spanish (from the Latin, campi doctor). Later, once his prowess became known to the Moors, they too referred to him as “the lord” (al-sayyid, or, El Cid).
Of his physical appearance, he was a “sturdy man, very tall and very hairy, a rough warrior in a leather jerkin.” His most distinctive feature in later years was, in the words of the Poem of the Cid that would later immortalize him, “his long, flowing beard [which] was a wonderful sight!” He strokes it when pondering weighty matters, and ties it around his waist during battle.
CWR: The Reconquista reached a “watershed” moment with the capture of Toledo in 1085. The Moorish rulers were forced to resort to bringing in the Almoravids for help in fighting the resurgent Christians. What was this Islamic sect? What impact did they have on the geo-political landscape of Spain at the time?
Raymond Ibrahim: After the Christian liberation of Toledo, the Muslim emirs of al-Andalus had to act fast for “the arrogance of the Christian dogs,” to quote one Muslim, had “waxed so great.” So they called on the aid of their coreligionists across the Straights of Gibraltar in North Africa. Austere and pious, the Almoravids were Muslim zealots who devoted their lives to waging jihad along the frontiers of the Niger and Senegal rivers. They enforced the draconian dictates of sharia on their subjects and warred on infidels. They were, in short, what groups such as the Islamic State (“ISIS”) aspire to be—including in appearance: their traditional attire consisted of black tunics, black turbans, and black veils covering all but their eyes.
In 1086, thousands of them poured into Spain and annihilated the Christians at the Battle of Sagrajas. There, they built a minaret of 2,400 Spanish heads, whence they called the faithful to prayer.
CWR: El Cid was brought into the fight with the arrival of the Almoravids. What motivated him to fight and what was his greatest victory?
Raymond Ibrahim: Due to their ferocity, no one could stand against the Almoravids—not even Alfonso VI, the hitherto victorious emperor who captured Toledo in 1085. But when they, through treachery, conquered the Moorish kingdom of Valencia, which had been under El Cid’s protection, it became personal, and Roderick hurled himself into the fray. To quote from the Cid’s premiere modern biographer, Professor Ramón Menéndez Pidal (d. 1968):
[W]ith the invasion of the desert races and the recrudescence of Islamic fanaticism, a new chasm opened out between the two. And, on the Christian side, it was the Cid who, as the leader of the resistance against the victorious invaders, showed himself the most determined to carry on the war without giving or seeking quarter. … [I]t was upon the Cid that the task devolved of resisting, unaided, the whole might of Islam.
On learning of the Moors’ treachery and murder of his vassal, the Cid’s “anger was kindled, and his soul was inflamed,” writes the Muslim chronicler al-Maqqari. Like a fierce storm, he came and with extreme violence thrashed the Valencian countryside, taking all the castles and suburbs up to the city’s very walls. He “fought so fiercely,” writes Ibn al-Qama, who was present in Valencia, “that the Moors were terrified at the havoc he played among them.” Not only did he manage to recapture Valencia, but he defeated the Almoravids in at least two epic battles (closely detailed in the book).
CWR: What is El Cid’s lasting legacy and why is he a rightly revered historical figure?
Raymond Ibrahim: Due to the Cid’s prowess—never once was he defeated, no matter the odds or situation—he became a legend in his own lifetime. More contemporary poems and chronicles were devoted to him than to most kings—a thing unheard of then. Almost a millennium later, he remains a popular folk hero and national icon in Spain. Countless movies, plays, novels, songs, and even video games feature him.
He is best known as the subject of one of Medieval Europe’s greatest epic poems, The Poem of the Cid, which appeared a few decades after his death. As a sampling, it relays that, after one battle, when he was “sated with slaughter,” the “Cid returned to his wife and daughters, his helmet gone, the hood of his coat of mail thrown back and the linen under-cap pushed over his brow. His sword was dripping with blood, which had run up the blade to the hilt and along his arm up to the elbow.” With the other arm he hurled a mutilated drum at their feet—the pounding of which had terrified the women—crying, “Thus are Moors vanquished!” In terror and awe, they fell to the ground before him—“We are thy servants!”
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Brought back memories of reading Le Cid by Corneille in a college French class. Time to dust it off and see that things haven’t changed much – the godless Moors are still terrorizing women and children. Only now they go by the name Hamas.
But Pope Francis tells us the Muslim religion is a religion of peace. Then again, many of us have stopped listening to him and the rest of the wokists in our culture. Funny thing about human beings is that God hard-wired us to recognize Truth because we were created in God’s image.
As a descendent of El CID it is always a powerful thing to read of your heritage in such a heroic way!
I agree wholeheartedly, as I, too, am a 25th great-grandson of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar Y Mendoza and his wife, Dona Jimena Diaz Las Asturias de Oviedo.
It is important to point out that the province of Asturias was the only part of medieval Spain that never came under Islamic rule
Fantastic story, thank you. Having read Ibraham’s earlier book, Sword and Scimitar, and knowing the high quality scholarship and story telling he brings, this new book is definitely on my list. I especially remember the “controversy” surrounding his earlier book. The US Army War College invited him to speak about it, but then the terrorists at CAIR and leftists elsewhere browbeat the college into disinviting him (they used the R word, “racist,” against the college, and called Ibraham “Islamophobe”!). In the end, after being publicly shamed by students’ parents, several politicians and media, the War College re-invited him!
The Reconquista was not just Christian vs. Muslim, but sometimes there were alliances where Christians and Muslims allied to fight Muslims or even Christians. Ed Cid fought for Muslim lords on several occasions. Granada,a Muslim state, was a vassal state to Castile for 250 years.
The Reconquista took over 700 years and had many twists and turns, the Christians eventually prevailed, but the story is complicated.
It was a more complex thing. And expelled Spanish Jews were carried safely to the Ottoman Empire at the invitation of the Sultan if I remember correctly.
We have to be careful & keep in mind that it’s not one group or another that are the enemy in history but rather the brokenness of our shared fallen nature.
The expulsion ofthe Sephardic Jews was a mistake. A huge example of why church and state should be separate.
Spain has been trying recently to attract descendants of the expelled Sephardic Jews to move back to Spain but I don’t know how much success they’ve had.
Spain’s Jews habitually sided with and empowered Spain’s Moslems against the Christians. This was, after all, before the Scofield Bible and the coining of the term “Judeo-Christian” were in fashion. Read a history book sometime.
Read a history book? I have forgotten more about the Reconquista than you know. Why the insult? Are you compensating for something?
The story of the Reconquista may be complicated but the goal was not: to end Moslem rule in Spain.
Yes. When the Muslims of Granada surrendered in 1492, the terms agreed upon called for the Muslims to be able to practice their religion. That did not happen. The Muslims of Granada were forced to chose between conversion or exile. Such a deal. Quite dishonorable.
False. The only thing ‘dishonorable’ here is your ignorance. Moslems WERE given freedom of religion, but they abused it by preaching and practicing jihad on neighboring Christians. So then they were given a choice, quit Islam (by becoming Christian), or leave Spain. They all publicly embraced Christianity, while practicing Islam internally and seeking to subvert the Christian order whenever the opportunity arose, in accordance with a fatwa issued from a top cleric advocating taquia (dissimulation). The author interviewed in this report actually discusses and documents this phase of the war at great length in his ‘the sword and the scimitar.’
More personal insults. So I am ignorant? And you are perhaps an accomplished historian from an Ivy League university? How many degrees do you have? I have two, one from a Jesuit University. Spare me your Christo-Fascist claptrap.
In the pliable diplomacy of today, surely El Cid would have cut a deal with Islam in a secret “provisional agreement,” taking the supposed “long view” while awaiting the eventual expulsion of Islam from Iberia four hundred years later (1492).
As with the China deal, of which Archbishop Gallagher remarked: “one of the things that the Chinese and the Catholic Church and the Holy See have in common is that we don’t think in months, or even in years. We’re thinking in terms of a much longer time…” But he also remarked that the deal was “not the best deal possible” (Inside the Vatican, “Vatican-China Deal ‘Not the Best Deal Possible’.” May-June 2023).
As for the Chinese “long view,” however, the currently overlaid regime is a recent artifact of the Western Marxist heresy, and not a feature of Chinese cultural continuity. Where Pope Benedict in his 2007 Letter ( https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/letters/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20070527_china.html ) affirmed that the perennial Catholic Church is not a creature of Western political powers, now we have aggressive Sinicization—with the Church as a subsidiary of the communist State. https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2023/11/09/chinas-new-patriotic-education-law-places-further-limits-on-religious-instruction/
What do the synods have to say about China’s long view, or the long view of Islam, or the long view of radical Secularism? Or, have we hunkered down on other “hot-button concerns”? Hot-button as in navel gazing.
Scholarship is a true light in Our World.
Would that we all read the Histories; those of Peace and of War.
From great learning comes the adaptive information by which each of us can build personal stores of knowledge and wisdom;
the greatest gifts to those who come after Us.
Thank you.
Thanks for this article. I think I’ll be buying this fellow’s books.
Absolutely astounding and beautiful article. I live in Madrid, Spain, a devout Catholic. Have been to Burgos on several occasions and never new El Cid was buried in the Cathedral ofBurgos. In fact I even thought El Cid may have lived but was overplayed to make a good movie with Charlston Heston. Ive been living here for 50 years and never heard of El Cid being mentioned anywhere, swept under the rug. Spain has changed a lot since 50 years ago. Will definetly get “Defenders of th e West”. Thank you for the article.
Today, they are either forgotten by their Western descendants or are largely seen as embarrassments and exemplars of patriarchy, ‘toxic masculinity,’ xenophobia and racism (Fr Seán Connolly).
Should I say an inspiring account of the fabled El Cid? Yes. And why? We are in a battle for the faith within the confines of the faith. And as it stands there’s hand wringing among the clergy. For example, Acton Institute President Fr Robert Sirico observing the Synod on Synodality says bishops are ‘concerned’. Sirico said on Arroyo last night that Cardinal Pell was prophetic in forecasting what would occur. Indication of that is the DDF’s statement regarding homosexuals as godparents, that a homosexual person living, not a ‘simple cohabitation,’ but a ‘stable and declared more uxorio’ in the manner of a husband and wife well recognized by the community, is a different case (Hannah Brockhaus for CNA in NCR). Furthermore, the DDF has formally approved transgender persons as witnesses to marriage.
We’ve reached our Reconquista moment within the Catholic Church. We need an El Cid to vanquish error within the ranks and up the chain of command. Many have depended on Christ’s scriptural assurance that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. Taken in context of end times that assurance isn’t explicit, except to add that even the elect would be lost if God did not limit the days of trial all will have to endure. That is to say that the final victory will not be won by the Church. Rather, that victory belongs to its head, Jesus Christ. Unless we have an El Cid, similar to, let’s say today’s saint feastday Pope Leo the Great, our El Cid will be Christ.
And so, it begins in ernest: Cardinal Fernandez’s Trojan Horse theology…the gratuitous “‘stable and declared more uxorio’ in the manner of a husband and wife (!) well recognized by the community.” And, later, when the baptized child begins receiving Communion, who’s to stop the “husband and wife” from demanding an open bar? Inclusivity, justice, etc. etc.
A victim of the “throwaway culture,” so lamented by Pope Francis…THIS from Cardinal Erdo at the second session of the Synod on Youth (2018): ““In every case the Church teaches that ‘There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.’”
All throwaways are equal, but some are more equal than others…
Indeed.
Would it be possible to receive a copy of your pilgrimage itinerary? Tour company? Thanks.
Ibrahim’s books are terrific, and I enjoyed both “Sword and Scimitar” and his newer “Defenders of the West.” You won’t find more detailed and substantiated histories of the centuries-long conflict between Islam and Christendom anywhere. As for CAIR, they are simply the U.S. face of Hamas. Its leaders belong in prison. It’s also worth noting that they have been a dialogue partner to the USCCB.
https://catholicexchange.com/catholics-and-cair/
I had the fortune of watching the movie EL CID in the year 1965. It begins with the words : “Spain, a war-torn and unhappy land.” and in 2023 I read an article which predicted that Spain is drifting back to Islam. It is indeed sad and disheartening to realize that the West is now being won by Islam without firing a single shot !
It is left to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to deliver the final victory from the enemies of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic religion. Viva Cristo Re
The following commentary is offered to make a simple point about the hazard of deferring too much to the “long view.” As compared to what are, in fact, the TURNING POINTS in history…
Let’s take the illustration at the top of Fr. Connolly’s article about the 11th-century El Cid. While illustrative, the caption is for the earlier BATTLE OF TOURS in southwestern France (A.D. 732). There, the turning point came when several Saracen chieftains feared that their trailing baggage trains of booty were at risk of a flanking maneuver and capture. When they turned back the entire Saracen army fell into confusion, thinking that a retreat had been called. The most reliable account is from the Muslim chroniclers who openly explain their blunder (Spanish translation of 1820, cited in Edward Shepherd Creasy, “Decisive Battles of the World,” The World’s Great Classics, 1890).
The Sultan Abderrahman was unable to rally his troops and was slain, and then from this turning point, “Charles Martel, and his son [Pepin] and grandson [Charlemagne] were left at leisure to consolidate and extend their power” into what became CHRISTENDOM.
OTHER unpredictable turning points—NOT trend lines—include Lepanto in 1571, the Battle of Vienna in 1683 (with the arrival of Polish king John Sobieski and his cavalry), and finally 1697 when the Sultan’s final attempt to establish an outpost north of the Danube was blocked. Near the town of Zena some thirty thousand troops of the Ottoman army fell to the Austrians on September 11—a date possibly immortalized in 2001 by the 9/11terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York…the ISLAMIC “long view” of history?
Which brings us to the syncretic confusion of post-modernism and the current effort by the Church to RALLY the Christian vision—through “synodal” assemblies at the diocesan, national, continental and global scales.
But, WHY blur the very nature and mission of the Eucharistic Church, itself, by cross-dressing such consultative assemblies as “synods of bishops”? WHAT does it mean when Successors of the Apostles (“sent” by Christ: apostello) are neutralized not only by accommodationists within their own “hierarchical communion” (Lumen Gentium), but are also offset by non-ordained invitees and by promoters of, what, the gay lifestyle, ecumenical/interreligious indifference and priestesses, either reminiscent of pagan matriarchies or intent on the “long view” of dissolving the priesthood altogether?
The Germanic and atavistic “hot-button” agenda. At OUR turning point in history—addressed by the Second Vatican Council in its documents—will the consultative assembly of 2024 fully affirm, without ambiguity, the reality and meaning of both GOD and MAN? Or not?
“The TRUTH is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light . . .Christ the Lord…by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, [ALSO] fully reveals man to himself [!] and makes his supreme calling clear” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 22). “The Christian dispensation, therefore, as the new and definitive covenant [!], will never pass away, and we now await no further new public revelation [!] before the glorious manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf 1 Tim 6:14, Tit. 2:13)” ( Dei Verbum, n. 4).
Correction: It’s the Strait of Gibraltar, not Straights of Gibraltar. But we know what you mean. This is a very good article and does a good job of making me want to read the book.
The old Charlton Heston movie is an excellent historical spectacle, much of it filmed in Spain, although the script blends legend, a popular ballad, and later poetry on top of the national epic.
Unless it’s been toppled recently by wokesters, there’s a life-sized equestrian bronze statue of the Cid in San Francisco.