Vikings in Al Andalus: the Normans discover the South

Vikings in Al Andalus: the Normans discover the South
by Manuel Parodi

In the 10^th Century A.D. the Normans, the men of the North, reached the coasts of Spain, by then called Al Andalus by the muslims. By the middle of the 10^th century they sacked several coastal cities in the Iberian Peninsula, ruled in those days by the Umayyad emirate of Córdoba.

Those minor attacks, those first looting expeditions, were followed by two major attempts to conquer the lands South of the Guadalquivir River.

The first attempt took place in 844 A.D. The second attempt occurred in 859 A.D. Both by the Guadalquivir river. Both failed. The Umayyad emirs of Córdoba rejected the attacks of the Vikings and fortified the coasts of Al Andalus with “ribats”, castles and towers.

But the Viking failures in Al Andalus would have an unexpected consequence: the Norman conquest of the island of Sicily. The Normans continued trying to establish themselves in the South and after their failure in Andalusia they focused their interest on Italy, finally conquering the island of Sicily and part of Southern Italy during the Xth Century A.D.

We shall try to get closer to this little known History of the Normans in their search for the South more than one thousand years ago.

Manuel J. Parodi Álvarez is a  Doctor of History at the University of Cadiz and an archaeologist.  He specialises in Spanish and Moroccan Archaeological history. He has written thirty books, 200 scientific articles and a thousand informative articles on History and Heritage.

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