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‘Thus Are Moors Defeated!’ El Cid and The Battle of Cuarte
American Thinker ^ | 10/21/2022 | Raymond Ibrahim

Posted on 10/21/2022 9:14:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Today in history, on October 21, 1094, a small force of Christian knights destroyed a massive Muslim horde in Spain, where the Jihad and Reconquista had been raging.

Some years earlier, the Almoravids, a North African group committed to jihadist teaching and led by the emir Yusuf bin Tashfin, began to pour into Spain to aid their Islamic counterparts, the Moors, who had suffered several significant defeats to the Christians in recent years.

In 1086, the Muslims and Christians clashed at Sagrajas. The Christians were annihilated; their king barely managed to escape with a dagger stuck in his thigh.  Afterwards, in a typical gesture of Islamic supremacy, Yusuf had some 2,400 Christian heads decapitated and assembled into a pyramid, atop which the muezzin called the faithful to prayers.

Following the disaster at Sagrajas, one by one, Muslim kingdoms that had been liberated during the Reconquista -- even a few Christian strongholds -- fell back under Islamic control. 

When, however, the Muslims overran Valencia in 1093, its lord, Roderick (or Rodrigo) Díaz of Vivar -- better known to posterity as “the Cid” -- who had been elsewhere, returned and laid siege to Valencia for nearly 19 months, finally reconquering it.

As a result, the pride and prestige of the glorious jihadist victor of Sagrajas, who had subsequently unified virtually all of Muslim Spain under his authority, was shaken to its core: “He has forcibly invaded my territory and he attributes all his success to Jesus Christ!” blurted Yusuf, who, on hearing of the fall of Valencia, “was powerfully moved to anger and bitterness.”

He was, accordingly, “determined to recover the city at all costs,” writes the contemporary Muslim, Ibn Bassam, before adding that “the news of the fall of Valencia filled every Moor in Spain with grief and humiliation.”

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: History; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: cuarte; elcid; islam; moors; raymondibrahim; reconquista; spain
A showdown was inevitable: “Islam and the Occident were now each represented by an outstanding personality,” writes historian Ramón Menéndez Pidal: “Yusuf the Saharan and the Castilian Cid stood face-to-face in the struggle between the two civilizations.”
1 posted on 10/21/2022 9:14:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

ahh... thats wrong my friend. It was the Moops.


2 posted on 10/21/2022 9:21:43 AM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: bigdaddy45
At the height of Muslim confidence, heavily armored knights astride even heavier steeds of war burst out of one of the gates, taking the jihadists by complete surprise. Before they could effectively retaliate, another Christian sortie burst out from another gate. Though unclear which, El Cid led one of these two forces which now crisscrossed each other in a medieval-style blitzkrieg, causing mass confusion and carnage among the densely packed Muslims. After a “multitude” of Almoravids “fell to the sword,” the panicked Africans “turned their backs in flight,” the Historia concludes, many of them falling and drowning in the Jucar river.

The battle of Cuarte was a shattering blow to the hitherto undefeated Almoravids: though outnumbered by twelve-to-one, the Spanish knights had defeated and driven off 50,000 jihadists. Christians all throughout Western Europe wildly celebrated.

Historian James Fitzhenry summarizes El Cid’s strategy:
The maneuver Rodrigo used that day has come to be known as “la tornada,” or, the tornado. Once the Christian knights had charged through the enemy lines in one direction, they turned and passed through again in a different direction. Whole units were disrupted, broken apart and irreversibly separated. The Africans were packed so tightly together, and their shouts and screams and the clash of steel so loud, that few commands could be heard over the din of battle. Besides, the attack was so swift that there was no tactic that could be successfully employed to neutralize it.

3 posted on 10/21/2022 9:24:41 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

What a cool story.

I’m not sure the movie, “El Cid”, captured all of this. I saw El Cid as a kid but I didn’t know what was going on except that Moses (Charlton Heston) was now a hero on a white horse.


4 posted on 10/21/2022 9:27:19 AM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: Jim W N

All I remembered was that he killed his bride’s father or brother on their wedding day, and that she swore he would never know a woman’s love.


5 posted on 10/21/2022 9:41:19 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (What was 35% of the Rep. Party is now 85%. And it’s too late to turn back—Mac Stipanovich )
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To: SeekAndFind

Interestingly enough, El Cid spent some time working for the Muslims, leading their forces against the Christians. So you gotta wonder if he was motivated by patriotism or by the desire for personal glory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Cid#Moorish_service


6 posted on 10/21/2022 9:42:51 AM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Wait a minute...

Who killed his bride’s father or brother on their wedding day, and she swore he would never know a woman’s love?


7 posted on 10/21/2022 9:46:06 AM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: Jim W N

El Cid himself. It is a 35+ year old memory, but I’m pretty sure it happened. Condemned to sleep with a young Sophia Loren and to not know her love.


8 posted on 10/21/2022 9:51:37 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (What was 35% of the Rep. Party is now 85%. And it’s too late to turn back—Mac Stipanovich )
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To: Jim W N
From Wikipedia (Rodrigo=El Cid, Ximena is Sophia Loren, Gormaz is Sophia Loren's father)

For his act of mercy, Don Rodrigo is accused of treason by Count Ordóñez. In court, the charge is supported by Ximena's father, Count Gormaz, the king's champion. Rodrigo's aged father, Don Diego, angrily calls Gormaz a liar. Gormaz strikes Don Diego, challenging him to a duel. At a private meeting Rodrigo begs Gormaz to ask the aged but proud Diego for forgiveness (for accusing Rodrigo of treason). Gormaz refuses, so Rodrigo fights the duel on Diego’s behalf and kills his opponent. Ximena witnesses the death of Gormaz and swears to avenge him, renouncing her affection for Rodrigo.
9 posted on 10/21/2022 9:55:10 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (What was 35% of the Rep. Party is now 85%. And it’s too late to turn back—Mac Stipanovich )
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10 posted on 10/21/2022 9:56:01 AM PDT by dsrtsage ( Complexity is just simple lacking imagination)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Is this true? Were El Cid’s bride’s father or brother raging Islamic Jihadists? Wouldn’t that mean Sophia Loren’s character was also a raging IslmoCrazy?


11 posted on 10/21/2022 9:57:47 AM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Her loyalty to her husband being equivocal, I’d take my affections and loyalty elsewhere even if she was a fox like Sophia Loren. There’s always more out there on the hot side of the Hot/Crazy Matrix.


12 posted on 10/21/2022 10:01:30 AM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: SeekAndFind

He’s a bubble boy. He lives in a bubble!


13 posted on 10/21/2022 10:02:07 AM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: Jim W N
Her loyalty to her husband being equivocal, I’d take my affections and loyalty elsewhere even if she was a fox like Sophia Loren.

Not so straightforward in 11th century Catholic Spain. Although in the movie the marriage was not consummated, so an annulment would be rather straightforward.
14 posted on 10/21/2022 10:15:47 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (What was 35% of the Rep. Party is now 85%. And it’s too late to turn back—Mac Stipanovich )
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To: Dr. Sivana

In the histories of El Cid he had two daughters and a son. The son as a Knight, was later killed by the moslems.

The Poem of El Cid goes into detail about the marriages of the twin girls and the sorry husbands they had.


15 posted on 10/21/2022 4:10:50 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ( FR is on GAB! https://gab.com/groups/67851)
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To: Dr. Sivana

I have a great copy of the movie EL CID from the Miriam Collection, along with THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

They made great movies sixty years ago! No superhero crap.


16 posted on 10/21/2022 4:13:57 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ( FR is on GAB! https://gab.com/groups/67851)
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