.850-859 Cordoba Martyrdom Movement Analysis

As the governing center of Umayyad in medieval Spain, Cordoba is"a land of three religions", and the three phenomena of acculturation, conversion and interfaith marriage defined it in the ninth century. During the year 850 to 859, because of their embarrassing legal and social status, some radical Christians who were under the control of Muslims rejected the Arab-Islam civilization and the secular world; there happened martyrdom and some ones defended it. In response to it, other Christians, the Muslim government and some Islamic jurists expressed their different reactions. Through the description of Christians'living condition and the feature of Cordoba society of ninth century, this dissertation inquires the motivation of martyrs and the reasons of other people's different reactions. Further more, after the description of those moods and reactions, including the social reality, it will explore the self-adjustment of each civilization and the assimilation between culture circles under the condition of cultural diversity.This dissertation comprises three parts, including exordium, text and concluding remarks.Part one is exordium. Exordium briefly reviews the current research situation both in domestic and abroad. Based on the research of predecessors, this part introduces the academic achievements about the research of Martyrdom in Cordoba of ninth century and the nation-religion relationship in medieval Spain, the important recognition of the cultural diversity and interaction, the statements of dissertation's research, significance and method.Part two is composed of three chapters.Chapter one briefly describes the living condition of Christians in Cordoba of the ninth century, focuses on their embarrassing legal and social statuses. These Christians under Muslim governing included New Muslims and dhimmis, they were the heroines of martyrdom. They enjoyed the limited but true freedom under the Muslim control, so their statuses were very subtle.Chapter two introduces the martyrdom during the year of 850 to 859 in Cordoba, and exemplified some martyrs, focusing on their statues. Most of the martyrs were New Muslims, monks, and nuns those Catholic people. This part pays more attention to one of the martyrs Eulogius and his role change in martyrdom, who was a supporter, a defender and a martyr; and inquires Eulogius how to establish the atmosphere of religious persecution. Chapter three combines the feature of martyrdom and Cordoba society; analyzes the three phenomena of acculturation, conversion and interfaith marriage in order to explore the martyrs'mood, other Christian's insensitive reaction and the response of Muslim government and Islamic jurists, offering the reasons of those moods, reactions and responses. There is the relationship between those moods and the social reality—one is the rejection to the Arab-Islam culture and the secular society, the other is the enjoyment of the true but limited freedom in Cordoba. On the other hands, Muslim government dealt with the martyrdom from the control of domestic violence but ignoring their religious motivations; the Islamic jurists adjusted the whole society through establishing laws because of the martyrdom. Those moods and responses explain that under the co-existence of diverse culture, each culture circle has the phenomenon of self-identity and differentiation from others.Part three is the concluding marks. After the enquiry of this Martyrdom, this dissertation has the concluding: some Christians chose to be martyrs not because of their faith but of their struggle of getting out of the embarrassment of rejection to Arab-Islam culture and their sticking to Christianity. Other Christians'insensitive reactions explain the martyrdom has the relationship with social reality of the ninth century. The happening and ending of martyrdom explains that the trend of culture interaction is out of control. On the other hands, Christians'different reactions to it reflect that culture co-existence doesn't mean culture tolerance, the self-identity and differentiation from each other still remains in the environment of diverse cultures. The martyrdom in Cordoba of the ninth century reflects this culture phenomenon.