Denying the Islamic conquest of Iberia: A historiographical fraud

Abstract

The origins of al-Andalus have been traditionally a highly controversial issue in Spanish historical writing, mainly because of ideological reasons. The most fanciful version of this historical process was formulated by Ignacio Olagüe, an amateur Spanish historian who came to prominence by claiming that the origins of al-Andalus were not related to the Islamic conquest of 711. Questioning the Islamic conquest is currently being presented as a challenge to the notion of Reconquista, the main conceptual pillar of traditional National Catholic approach to Medieval Iberia. By doing so, Olagüe’s followers claim to be the only possible alternative to the conservative (National Catholic) reading of Spanish past, something that helps to explain much of their current success. However, negationist and National Catholic readings of the past are much more similar than they differ. On the other hand, taking into account the highly ungrounded and biased nature of negationism, both Olagüe and his current followers must be considered merely as a historiographical fraud.

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