Great Expulsion

Great Expulsion
Thomas Davies · Public domain · source
Name	Great Expulsion
Date	c. 716–720
Place	Western Europe, North Africa, Near East
Participants	Umayyad Caliphate, Byzantine Empire, Visigothic Kingdom, Lombards
Result	Mass displacements, demographic shifts, treaty revisions

Great Expulsion The Great Expulsion was a series of coordinated forced removals carried out c. 716–720 that reshaped populations across parts of Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, and the Levant. Political, religious, and military pressures involving the Umayyad Caliphate, Byzantine Empire, Visigothic Kingdom, and various Frankish Kingdoms precipitated migrations, refugee crises, and long-term demographic change. Contemporary chronicles from sources tied to Cordoba, Constantinople, Rome, and Paris report dispersals that affected urban centers, rural hinterlands, and maritime networks.

Background and causes

A convergence of strategic contests, fiscal reforms, and confessional policies under rulers such as Al-Walid I, Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, Leo III the Isaurian, and regional magnates in Toledo and Ravenna created pretexts for expulsions. Military campaigns linked to the Siege of Constantinople (717–718), frontier raids involving Berber Revolts, and shifts in taxation exemplified pressures described in correspondence between envoys from Damascus, Alexandria, Cordoba, and Aachen. Diplomatic ruptures after treaties like the Treaty of 713 and localized decrees issued by governors from Kairouan to Sicily intersected with ecclesiastical disputes involving leaders in Jerusalem, Antioch, Canterbury, and Tours to produce categorical orders for population transfer.

Timeline of expulsions

Early episodes beginning in 716 saw coordinated removals in regions governed from Cordoba, Seville, and Granada, followed by 717–718 operations linking naval detachments from Alexandria and land forces raised in Ifriqiya and Al-Andalus. By 719 expulsions extended to eastern Mediterranean ports including Tyre, Sidon, and Tripoli, while contemporaneous actions in the western Mediterranean implicated fleets from Cagliari and garrisons from Sardinia. Reports in 720 indicate final waves across inland corridors toward Gascony and the Pyrenees, with refugee flows recorded at waystations like Pamplona, Bordeaux, and Amiens.

Geographic scope and affected populations

Affected zones included urban centers such as Cordoba, Seville, Damietta, Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople; island loci including Sicily, Sardinia, and Crete; and frontier districts across Catalonia, Gascony, Languedoc, and Ifriqiya. Diverse communities displaced encompassed residents identified in chronicles as adherents of Christianity linked to sees in Rome, Seville, Jerusalem, and Canterbury; Jewish populations with ties to Kairouan and Cordoba; and groups associated with tribal confederations like the Berbers, Visigoths, Lombards, and maritime merchants from Venice and Genoa. Aristocratic families, clerical institutions, artisan quarters, and trading diasporas—documented in port records from Tyre and muster lists from Ravenna—experienced displacement.

Methods and conditions of removal

Expulsions were executed through decrees issued by provincial authorities and enforced by detachments from garrisons raised in Cordoba, Kairouan, Damascus, and Ravenna; naval squadrons operating from Alexandria, Almeria, and Cagliari facilitated coastal removals. Orders cited security concerns linked to sieges and rebellions such as the Siege of Constantinople (717–718) and the Berber Revolts, and were implemented via convoy systems, escorted marches, maritime deportations, and property confiscations recorded in fiscal ledgers from treasuries in Damascus and Cordoba. Conditions included cramped transports, rationing noted in provisioning lists associated with Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik's campaigns, disease outbreaks noted by chroniclers in Constantinople and Alexandria, and summary adjudications by local courts in Seville and Toledo.

Impact and aftermath

Immediate consequences involved depopulation of frontier towns, disruption of trade routes linking Mediterranean ports such as Tunis, Tripoli, and Naples, and strain on receiving communities in Amiens, Bordeaux, Pamplona, and monastic hospices in Lorsch and Cluny. Longer-term effects included demographic shifts that influenced settlement patterns in Al-Andalus, redistribution of artisanal skills into centers like Cordoba and Damascus, revisions to fiscal policy in administrations at Kairouan and Damascus, and alterations to ecclesiastical jurisdiction affecting sees in Rome, Seville, and Jerusalem. Cultural exchanges and tensions recorded in legal codices and charters from Aachen and Santiago de Compostela testify to legacies visible in toponymy, liturgical practice, and commercial law.

Legal and political responses

Responses ranged from negotiated readmission under terms brokered by envoys from Aachen, Constantinople, and Cordoba to punitive legislation enacted by governors at Kairouan and magistrates in Seville. Appeals to imperial and caliphal courts in Damascus and Constantinople produced decrees referenced in administrative correspondence; meanwhile, ecclesiastical interventions by bishops from Rome, Seville, and Canterbury sought protection for clerical refugees. Treaties and truces—recorded alongside military accords such as those involving commanders from Al-Andalus and representatives from Aquitane—shaped restitution efforts, while legal disputes over property and status were adjudicated in tribunals that informed later compilations of customary law in archives at Cordoba and Ravenna.

Category:8th-century events