Muladí
According to the dictionary of the Real Academia Española, muladí means "Christian who, during the domination of the Arabs in Spain, converted to Islam and lived among the Muslims",[10] while Bernards and Nawas say the plural form of the word seems to be restricted to al-Andalus, almost exclusively to the areas of Mérida, Granada, Seville and Jaén.
[11] Muladí has been offered as one of the possible etymological origins of the still-current Spanish and Portuguese term mulato, denoting a person of African (black) and European (white) ancestry;[citation needed] however, the dictionary of the Real Academia Española and several authorities trace mulato (and from it, English mulatto) to Spanish mulo 'mule', from Latin mūlus.
[14] Conversion to Islam also opened up new horizons to the native Christians, alleviated their social position, ensured better living conditions, and broadened their scope for more technically skilled and advanced work.
In the process of acculturation, Muwallads may well have adopted an agnatic model of descent, but without abandoning the bilaterality of late Roman kinship.
According to Abu Jafar ibn Harun of Trujillo a vast but silent majority of Muladi Muslims thrived, especially in the Extremadura region of Spain.
[16] The Muslim slaves were the Saqaliba, led by Ali ibn Yusuf, who profited from the progressive crumbling of the Umayyad Caliphate's superstructure to gain control over the province of Denia.
The Saqaliba managed to free themselves and gain dominion over the taifa, which extended its reach as far as the Balearic Islands, and their capital, Madina Mayurqa (now Palma de Majorca).
Several Muwallad nobles also used the name Al-Quti, ('the Goth'),[17] and some may have been actual descendants from the family of the Visigothic King of Hispania, Wittiza.
The Muslims also celebrated traditional Christian holidays, sometimes with the sponsorship of their leaders, despite the fact that such fraternisation was generally opposed by the Ulema.
The 10th century Muwallad historian Ibn al-Qūṭiyya was descended directly on the maternal side from the Visigothic King Wittiza.
[16] In about 889 a ship carrying twenty Berber Muwallad adventurers from Pechina near Almería established a fortress in Fraxinet, on the Gulf of Saint-Tropez in Provence.
Together with the Mozarabs they constituted the productive classes which were craftsmen and small tradesmen in the towns, and farmers and labourers in the rural countryside.
In spite of the Islamic doctrine of equality and brotherhood of Muslims, the Muwalladun were often looked down upon with the utmost contempt by the Arab and Berber aristocrats and were usually pejoratively referred to as "the sons of slaves".
This mutual feeling of hatred and suspicion provoked frequent revolts and led the Muwallads to support the Abbasid political agents, the preachers of Shu'ubiyya (a non-Arab movement), and subversive activities against the Umayyad rule in Iberia.
[20] In Al-Andalus, the large numbers of Christians adopting Islam prompted concern among the authorities about the weakening of the tax base and further inflamed resentment towards the Muwallads.
[21] The Muwallads were in almost constant revolt against the Arab and Berber immigrants who had carved out large estates for themselves, farmed by Christian serfs or slaves.
[21][better source needed] The most famous of these revolts were led by a Muwallad rebel named Umar ibn Hafsun in the region of Málaga and Ronda.
For instance, when the Muwalladun of Toledo revolted, aided by the large Mozarabic population of the city, Ordoño I of Asturias, promptly responded to their appeal for help, but the Emir's forces were routed by the Toledans and Asturians at the battle of Guadalacete in 854.
These included: On the western frontier of Al-Andalus, the Muwalladun and Berber families divided control of the region containing Mérida, Badajoz, and their environs.
