The experience of convivencia (coexistence) in the Umayyad state of Andalusia: The two sides of the coin golden age and chaos (711-1031)

The history of Andalusia, which is very important for the Islamic world reached an important point in Europe also with the convivencia period coined by Americo Castro which means coexistence. However, with the emergence of the convivencia period two perspectives emerged in the scholarly studies. A golden age and a mythological age which began to predominate most of the studies we encountered. Although studies in recent years go beyond the perspectives mentioned in different sources have been carried out, we have noticed that progress has been made with a one-dimensional perspective. At this point, our thesis, aimes to better understand our subject by considering the political process of Andalusia until the end of the Umayyad dynasty. Then, the concept of convivencia and the events of chaos in Andalusia were analyzed in a multidimensional way and it was aimed to fill in the missing places in the aforementioned studies. As a result of our study, it has been determined that the al-Andalus used the concept of coexistence pragmatically for the benefit of the state by keeping the society under control and that there was neither a legendary an eight-hundred-year trouble-free golden age period nor a mythological period to debate. When the concept of the golden age is considered for all societies in Andalusia, it is seen that it emerged in the era of a few powerful rulers and the term remained exclusively for the Jews. Finally, it was concluded that the events of chaos affected the concept of coexistence and the factor that caused these events was the Arab tribalism and the chain reactions it triggered in the country.