Al-Andalus
Description:
Today I got a picture in FB that I couldn’t agree with. Sometimes even beautiful historical maps are wrong.
In this scheme, the Balearic Islands are painted in the same color as Al-Andalus - as if Mallorca, Menorca and Ibisa were part of Muslim possessions already in the eighth century.
All our guests on our sightseeing tours or tours of the island know that the reality was different.
After the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711, Muslim armies barely touched the Balearas. The islands lived on their own: local communities, pirate bases, periodic raids - but no direct incorporation into Al-Andalus.
It was not until 902 that the Emir of Denia sent an expedition that finally subdued the archipelago. From this point on, Mallorca did come under Muslim rule, but as a separate possession, not as part of early Al-Andalus.
The conclusion is simple: the map shows the widest possible boundaries, but the historical reality is much more accurate. Balearics became Muslim only nearly two centuries after the first conquests on the Iberian Peninsula.