España y su Edad Media

The legendary Battle of Guadalete in 711 and the expulsion of the Nasrid Sultan Boabdil from the city of Granada in 1492 define the intense medieval period on the Iberian Peninsula. Over the course of those nearly eight centuries, ancient Roman Hispania was transformed into the rich and flourishing Muslim Al-Andalus—an unquestionable cultural bastion that enlightened Europe through its philosophers, physicians, and historians. However, the peninsula during the medieval era was not a homogeneous territory, and its history is as turbulent as it is fascinating. From the north, Christian kingdoms ceaselessly vied for control of Iberian territory—first against the Umayyad Caliphate and later against the *taifas*—until they expelled Muslims and Jews from the newly united Kingdom of Castile and Aragon at the dawn of the 16th century, just as the rest of Europe was being illuminated by the Renaissance.