The Martyrs of Córdoba
Around fifty Christians were executed in Córdoba between 850 and 859 for publicly insulting Islam, in most cases having deliberately sought the sentence. Córdoba was the capital of a Muslim state that had governed most of Iberia for over a century, and its Christian population lived as dhimmis — protected, taxed, permitted their worship, and barred from proselytising or from blaspheming against Islam, which was a capital offence. The problem, as a minority of the clergy saw it, was not persecution but assimilation. Christians were speaking Arabic rather than Latin, taking Arabic names, entering the administration, and in some cases circumcising their sons; the writer Paul Alvarus complained that young Christians read Arabic poetry with delight and could not write a decent Latin letter. The movement began with a monk named Perfectus in 850 and was organised and defended in print by the priest Eulogius. Its method was to walk into a courtroom or a mosque, denounce Muhammad in terms that required a death sentence, and receive one. The emirate did not want the executions. Judges tried repeatedly to have the accused declared mad or withdraw the statement, and the Christian hierarchy itself convened a council in 852 that condemned the practice. Eulogius was executed in 859 after sheltering a convert. The episode is argued over because it fits neither of the standard pictures of al-Andalus — neither easy convivencia nor systematic persecution — and shows a community frightened of disappearing by attraction rather than by force. Eulogius was canonised, and his account is almost the only source for the whole episode.
- Year: 850 CE
- Category: Religious
