The time of Al-Andalus, this part of Spain conquered by the Arabs and Berbers from 711 and became Muslim, was it a golden age, a period of tolerance where Jews, Christians and Muslims have been able to coexist harmoniously? Historical reality partly contradicts this idyllic vision.
Equality between religions, first of all, has never existed on the peninsula. If they could practice their religion, Jews and Christians were also subject to fiscal, civil and legal discrimination. Later, under the Almoravids and the Almohades, persecutions were added which left little choice but conversion or expulsion.
This dark reality did not prevent Al-Andalus from experiencing a brilliant civilization. We can still admire today these jewels that are the Alhambra of Granada or the old Great Mosque of Cordoba. Al-Andalus was also a hub in the transfer of knowledge. In philosophy, Averroes seeks to rediscover the purity of Aristotle's texts, just as, in medicine, Avenzoar grants a crucial place to observation and experience.
Very early on, at the very moment of its disappearance in 1492, Al-Andalus bewitched artists and writers. But between literature and reality there is an abyss. After the Reconquest, one can only notice the contrast between the chivalrous generosity of part of the elite towards the fictional Moors and the animosity shown by the mass of the people towards the Moorish descendants who remained in the peninsula, socially disadvantaged, the Moriscos.