Spanish Or Portuguese? Andalusian Or Lusitano?
What's In A Name?
by Sylvia Loch
Continues........page 2
Spanish Or Portuguese? Andalusian Or Lusitano?
What's In A Name?
by Sylvia Loch
Continues........page 2
ANDALUSIAN
In this name, lies the greatest complexity of all. Our atlases show where Andalusia is today. What very few scholars realise is that at the time of the Moorish invasion in 711 AD the Arabs termed the whole of the Iberian Peninsula - with the exception of the Asturias - Andalus. This name is thought to have originally been Vandalus, ie: Land of the Vandals. Andalusia is most likely therefore to be a derivative of the Moorish name which in the 8th century was used by the Moors to indicate the entire Peninsula.
Gradually, however, Andalus came to refer to the southern provinces. As the Moors were forced back by the Christian knights, first out of Lusitania or Portugal, and then gradually from Castile, their whole empire of Andalus retracted its borders. Eventually, only that area around Seville, Cordoba and Granada, with the pleasant lands to the south were included. This today constitutes Andalusia.
Thus while the term Andalusian horse generally indicates a horse whose forebears were bred in Andalusia as we know it, it would be historically correct to term the following horses as Andalusian:
Breeders of the old school recognise the all-embracing nature of the name, and many regret that this name was dropped from the official Stud Book within Spain only recently. Others argue, however, that the term Spanish was always recognised worldwide whilst the term Andalusian was peculiar to the Peninsula and could confuse.
Foreign admirers of the Iberian horse generally consider that the name Andalusian indicates only the horses specifically bred in the rural area of the plains round the River Guadalquivir. Certainly it is accepted that the early Iberian horse in Spain developed principally in this area, before migrating in all directions. Even today, there is a greater concentration of animals in this region (as there is round the River Tagus in Portugal) than in any other province of Spain. But the name Andalusian is more far-reaching than most people imagine.
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Al-Andalus! The name has a moonlight, magical quality about it. This last outpost of the Moors so transformed the culture of that fertile land that it is still the undisputed centre of horse breeding. While the rest of Spain has become industrialised to the north and east, Andalusia has benefited from the superb system of irrigation organised by the Moorish invaders and it is here that sherry, the fortified wine which takes its name from Jerez de la Frontera, is made, preserving the rurality of the province and its independence from so many of the demands of the twentieth century.
Andalusia has always attracted foreigners. At the heart of the sherry industry are many Anglo-Spanish families and names such as Croft, Sandeman, Williams and Humbert, Terry and Osborne abound, reminding us of the English families who first came over to this part of Spain in the eighteenth century to organise the production of the special white grape for the then highly lucrative export of sherry.
It was, however, the ancient monasteries of Andalusia which first became the organised centre of horse breeding in the province. Alongside their carefully tended vineyards, the Catholic monks were responsible for the establishment of a planned breeding programme for their Iberian Horses, and from the fifteenth century onwards, the monasteries developed horses of pure blood as a work of dedication to the Church and the Crown. Spain's might as a great Catholic power had always been recognised as being attributable to her horses and cavalry, and the monks of Andalusia preserved the excellence of these horses as an act of devotion. This was further encouraged by the Inquisition.
In recapitulation, therefore, the term Andalusian - even in the year 2000 - may refer to an Iberian Horse bred by one of the Andalusian families with bloodlines dating back to the records of ancient monasteries built in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella (1479-1516). It may also refer to a Portuguese-bred Iberian horse, or an Iberian horse bred as far north as Santander.
Next issue, we shall be discussing the name "Spanish" in proper depth.
SYLVIA LOCH - from her book
The Royal Horse of Europe
published by J A Allen & Co Ltd
price £27.50
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