Solomon’s Table
Assuming that the battle of Guadalete was not a fiction, the number of forces involved must have been more modest than has been reported, let alone the military significance attributed to it. It is said that Roderick died in the battle, but it is more likely that he was expelled from Andalusia and sought refuge in Lusitania, where he may have founded his own kingdom, as there was a tomb in Viseu with the inscription <<Here lies Roderic, king of the Goths>>, still preserved in the 18th century in the church of San Miguel de Fetal, according to Abbé Antonio Calvalho da Costa in his Corografía portuguesa (Portuguese Chorography).
Among the incredible events recounted in various texts, we find a curious account in the Berber chronicle Ajbar Machmua. The Arab warlord Muza, envious of the success achieved by his lieutenant Taric in the battle of Guadalete against Rodrigo, embarked for the peninsula with 18,000 warriors and clashed with Taric over the possession of a table that would have belonged to Solomon and which was among the royal Gothic treasure in Toledo. As neither would give in to their claims, they went to Damascus so that the Caliph Suleyman could make a decision in favour of one or the other. What we do not know is which of the two got the precious object, but the fact is that neither of them returned to the peninsula, where they left their 25,000 men abandoned among a Hispanic population estimated at around 20 million. What does reappear in other documents is the reference to the magical table, which is said to contain the secret of God’s name.
Two Arab chroniclers refer to it. Al-Macin writes that <<in the year 93 of the Hejira, Taric conquered Andalusia and the kingdom of Toledo and brought to Walidi, son of Abd el-Malek, the table of Solomon, son of David, composed of a mixture of gold and silver with three borders of pearls>>. His colleague, Al-Makkara, contradicts him: <<The famous table that Taric found, never belonged to this prophet>>.
And he must be right, because the Bible says of this table that it was made of acacia wood and covered with pure gold, without silver or pearls.
The controversy dates back to the year 70 AD, when Emperor Titus destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and transferred its treasures to Rome. Solomon’s table was deposited first in the temple of Jupiter’s capitol and then in the palace of the Caesars. The Goths, in turn, sacked Rome in 410 and took the sacred Jewish relics to Carcassonne. In the following century, Theodoric the Great, king of the Goths in Italy and guarantor of Amalric’s regency, saved Carcassonne from attack by the Franks and decided to store the treasure in the safer city of Ravenna. When the Goths regained control of the region, Amalric, now king, demanded its return. It is not known whether he was obeyed.
This account by the historian Procopius is the last known record of the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem. It was not found by the Franks at Narbonne, nor by the Arabs when they conquered Carcassonne, since a booty of such symbolic value would have been recorded in their chronicles, which include careful accounts of the pieces obtained.
In Carcassonne, a well in which the Gothic treasure was suspected of lying dormant was drained in 1803. The search was unsuccessful, but it was tried again years later, with the same result.
But, going back to the 9th century, we see that the Muslims had been in the peninsula for 140 years, had had the capital of the kingdom in Cordoba, the most important and refined city in the West at that time, with a million inhabitants, for a century, and it is clear that they had not forced the mass conversion of defenceless Christians, nor even proselytised their faith or flaunted their worship. What faith did the Andalusians follow at that time? Most probably it was the traditional Arianism, in discreet evolution towards Islam, which the majority of the population would eventually embrace, just as they gradually adopted the Arabic language to replace Latin. There was no imposition, but a slow seduction. And it was not a foreign faith. Asin Palacios and other Arabists maintain that Islam is a sum of beliefs or syncretism, with Arian and Judaism at its base. It is understandable that Muslims respect the <<people of the Book>>, with whom they share the essential: submission to a single God with whom they can communicate directly and from anywhere.
Even researchers who support the invasion theory find it strange that a handful of Arabs could so profoundly and immediately influence 20 million Hispanics. The historian Olagüe sums up their perplexity in an ironic tone: <<A formidable mutation then took place, as a change of scenery takes place in the theatre, Spain, which was Latin, became Arab; being Christian, it adopted Islam; from practising monogamy, it became polygamous, without protest from women. As if the Holy Spirit had repeated the act of Pentecost, one fine day the Spaniards woke up speaking the language of the Hedjaz (Arabic). They wore different clothes, had different customs and wielded different weapons. The invaders numbered 25,000. What had become of the Spaniards? >>
They have wanted to convey the idea that Spain was little less than an artistic and intellectual wasteland until Islam fertilized it. However, the historian Bonilla San Martín points out that <<the Priscillian movement, the work of the councils of Toledo, the predictions of the writers, attest to an exceptional culture in Spain in the IV and V centuries. The Gothic invasion, far from suffocating this progress, greatly increased and stimulated it>>. In fact, scholars maintain that Arabic art was an extension of Iberian and Visigothic art.
Arabic did not begin to become widespread in writing in Spain until the second half of the 9th century. It is then when the sciences, philosophy and poetry flourish. The rich Arabic language is the instrument; the genius is contributed by those who already lived in Al-Andalus and those who arrived as guests, both from the Islamic and Christian worlds, regardless of ethnicity. However, architectural innovations such as the horseshoe arch are not an Arab contribution; it existed in the East and can be seen in various constructions in Spain and France prior to Islam. Nor does the mosque of Córdoba seem to be his work, nor was a mosque born. This temple, a forest of columns, is incompatible with Muslim and Christian worship, since both require clear spaces to follow the officiant.
In short, there are too many unknowns when it comes to analyzing a period that was transcendental for the subsequent evolution of Spanish society and that official historiography has classified, in an excessively partial and simplistic way, as an invasion and a conquest.