The Martyrs of Córdoba
Under the Umayyad emirate of Córdoba the Mozarab Christian community lived as a protected but subordinate dhimmi population, paying the jizya and retaining its own bishops while many converted or assimilated to Arabic culture. Alarmed by this slow erosion of Christian identity, a group of radicals from the 850s sought to provoke a confrontation. They appeared before the qadi and openly blasphemed against Muhammad and Islam, acts that under Islamic law carried the death penalty. Roughly four dozen were executed between 851 and 859, becoming the 'Martyrs of Córdoba', their cause promoted by the priests Eulogius and Paulus Alvarus. The episode forced the emirate to enforce capital penalties it would otherwise have avoided, exposing the fragility of coexistence and the ethno-religious cleavage between an assimilating Christian majority and a movement determined to resist absorption.
- Year: 850 CE
- Category: Religious
