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The Martyrs of Córdoba were forty-eight Christian martyrs living in the 9th century Muslim-ruled Al-Andalus, in what is now southern Spain; their hagiography describes in detail their executions for deliberately sought capital violations of Muslim law in Al-Andalus. The martyrdoms related by Eulogius (the only contemporary source) took place between 851 and 859; with few exceptions, the Christians invited execution by making public statements tactically chosen to invite martyrdom: some martyrs appeared before the Muslim authorities to denounce Muhammad; others, possibly Christian children of Islamic-Christian marriages, publicly proclaimed their Christianity as apostates (Coope 1995). The lack of another source after Eulogius's own martyrdom has given way to the misimpression that there were fewer episodes later in the 9th century.〔 ==Historical background== In 711 AD, a Muslim army from North Africa had conquered Visigoth Christian Iberia.〔 Under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, they landed at Gibraltar and brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign. The Iberian Peninsula was called Al-Andalus by its Muslim rulers. When the Umayyad Caliphs were deposed in Damascus in 750, the dynasty relocated to Córdoba, ruling an emirate there; consequently the city gained in luxury and importance, as a center of Iberian Muslim culture. Once the Muslims conquered Iberia, they governed it in accordance with Islamic law. Blasphemy and apostasy from Islam were both capital offenses. During this time, Christians could worship freely, and retained their churches and property on condition of paying a tribute (jizya) for every parish, cathedral, and monastery; frequently such tribute was increased at the will of the conqueror. Many Christians fled to Northern Spain; others took refuge in the monasteries of Sierras, and thus the number of Christians shrank eventually to small proportions.〔(Osuna, Manuel Garcia. "Cordova." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 18 Feb. 2014 )〕 In 786 the Muslim caliph, Abd-er Rahman I, began the construction of the great mosque of Cordova, now the cathedral, and compelled many Christians to take part in the preparation of the site and foundations. The martyrs caused tension not only between Muslims and Christians, but within the Christian community. Abd ar-Rabmán II at first ordered the arrest and detention of the clerical leadership of the local Christian community. As the outbursts seem to subside, they were released four months later in November 851. When several months later there was a new wave of martyrs, the emir turned again to the Christian leaders as the ones most capable of controlling the zealots. Instead of imprisoning them, he ordered them to convene a council in Córdoba to review the matter and develop some strategy for dealing with the dissidents internally. He gave the bishops a choice to stop the martyrdoms or the Christians would face, harassment, loss of jobs, and economic hardship. Upon the death of Abd-er Rahman I in 852, his son and successor, Muhammad I removed all Christian officials from their palace appointments. Reccafred, Bishop of Córdoba, taught the virtues of toleration and compromise with the Muslim authorities. Eulogius, whose texts are the only source for these martyrdoms, and who was venerated as a saint from the 9th century, viewed the bishop as siding with Muslim authorities against the martyrs, whom many regarded as fanatics. The closures of such monasteries where some martyrs belonged begins to be recorded towards the middle of the 9th century. The monk Eulogius encouraged the martyrs as a way to reinforce the faith of the Christian community. He composed tractates and a martyrology to justify the self-immolation of the martyrs, of which a single manuscript, containing his ''Documentum martyriale'', the three books of his ''Memoriale sanctorum'' and his ''Liber apologeticus martyrum'', was preserved in Oviedo, in the Christian kingdom of Asturias in the far northwestern coast of Hispania. There the relics of Saint Eulogius were translated in 884.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Martyrs of Córdoba」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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