re: Serbia-Kosovo conflict reigniting

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One adjustment both communities were spared: changing their religion. Both Christians and Jews could convert, if they wished, but the victorious Muslims did not force either group to do so since according to Islamic law they were dhimmis, i.e. they enjoyed protection because they were Ahl al-Kitab, “Peoples of the Book” whose faith was founded on revelation. (The “Book” was the Bible, a partial and incomplete revelation of God’s word, which was fully disclosed in the Qur’an.)

This protection afforded to Christians and Jews was a religious obligation founded on sharia, or traditional Islamic law, and not subject to the whims of politics, at least in theory.

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By virtue of isolation, rural areas contained a substantial number of Christians, even a majority according to the observation made by the Arab geographer, Ibn Hawqal, on a visit to al-Andalus in 948.

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Muslim Arabs substituted the Visigoths as rulers over the local Hispano-Roman population, who were (even if only nominally) Christians and whose languages were Latin and Romance. They, together with the Jews, became "protected peoples" (dhimmis ), being allowed to preserve their religion and their community life, although always in a position of subordination to the Muslims.

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Latin culture was still predominant in the ninth century, but in the tenth century the Christians of al-Andalus started to translate their religious literature (the Psalms, the canons of the Visigothic church) into Arabic.

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In the tenth century, Arabic became the predominant written language and in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the predominant spoken language. Arabic monolingualism (with diglossia between written Arabic and the spoken dialects) became the norm from the thirteenth century onward.

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In opposition to what happened with Latin and Romance language and culture, the Jews of al-Andalus were able to maintain Hebrew as their religious and literary language and it became pivotal in the defence of their cultural identity, while at the same time they carried out a deep absorption of Arabic language and culture.

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