In the Eleventh Century AD, Spain was a patchwork of constantly warring kingdoms. In the north and centre of Spain were the Christian monarchies, to the south, the Muslim taifa (principalities), originally provinces of the Caliphate of Córdoba, and later as independent states. Until the period known as the Reconquista (‘reconquest’, Thirteenth to Fifteenth Century AD) there was no concerted effort by the Christian rulers to drive out the Muslims. Instead, Islamic Spain (al-Andalus) co-existed alongside Castile, León, Navarre, Aragón, Asturias, Barcelona and Portugal; Christian Kings regularly sided with Muslim princes (hajib) when it was to their advantage, and vice versa. In this period, European knightly chivalry collided with the separate courtly traditions of the Islamic World. Great individual knights were well-known, sometimes lauded as heroes. The greatest of all these knights was Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, better known to history as El Cid (from the Arabic al-sayyid ‘the master’). Born into minor nobility, El Cid began his career in the service of Sancho II, Christian King of León and Castile. He successfully drove out the King’s brothers, his main rivals, and secured Sancho’s reign. However, when Sancho was murdered in a palace coup, one of these brothers – Alfonso VI – acceded to the throne. El Cid lost his position of prominence, and by AD 1081, was exiled.

Without the protection of a monarch, El Cid found refuge with the Muslim Prince of Zaragoza, whom he defended from their enemy, the Christian Kingdom of Aragón. His victories on behalf of Muslim leaders were legendary, and when the Moroccan Almoravids invaded, Christian Kings were forced to set aside their resentment of El Cid, and seek his rehabilitation into the Catholic world. It was in fact his old enemy, Alfonso VI, who hired El Cid, and it was in his service that he defeated the Almoravid invasion. But El Cid had his sights on land of his own, eventually laying siege to Valencia, a prosperous Islamic city on the south coast. He subjected the hajib, Yahya al-Qadir, in AD 1092. Al-Qadir was murdered in AD 1094 on the orders of the Almoravids, and El Cid took the chance to lay siege to the city. El Cid established his own independent principality as Lord of Valencia, which survived his death (AD 1099) under his wife Jimena, until she was exiled by Muslim rulers in AD 1102. El Cid is remembered as the greatest knight in Spanish history, and remains something of a national hero in Spain to the present day.

Throughout his campaigns, El Cid had two constant companions. One was his horse, Babieca, and the other his sword, la Tizona (‘the firebrand’). According to legend, El Cid won his sword from the Muslim ruler of Valencia, Yusuf ibn Tashfin. The sword was kept by El Cid’s side until the knight gave it to his son-in-law; later, however, it found its way back to El Cid’s hand. According to the various legends of El Cid, recounted in the epic poem El Cantar de Mio Cid (‘the song of my Cid’), the sword was always destined for Cid; it struck feat in anyone unworthy who tried to wield it or fell to its blade. Numerous references in the poem depict individuals falling away in terror even from the mere drawing or raising of the sword. It is unknown whether the real sword exists today. A weapon traditionally associated with la Tizona may be found today at the Museo de Burgos (MBU 10.016). Metallurgical testing has dated the blade to the Eleventh Century AD, but the Moorish-style handle, hilt and a pair of inscriptions running down each fuller (the gulley down the middle of each side of the blade) must date from the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Century AD.

This sword, produced in the Nineteenth Century AD, is a direct imitation of the sword now in the Museo de Burgos. The blade takes the form of Oakeshott’s Type XIII (Oakeshott, E. (1960) The Archaeology of Weapons: Arms and Armour from Prehistory to the Age of Chivalry. London.). This is the classic European knightly sword: a slightly tapering blade, with a deep fuller, which turns in at the end towards a leaf-shaped point. The blade was designed for a heavy pommel, which would balance the long blade in the hand. The present handle, hilt and pommel are after the Hispano-Moorish design which was added to the Burgos sword in the Fifteenth Century AD or so. Consisting of a curved cross-guard, which reaches forward to almost touch the blade. Each prong of the cross-guard takes the form of a teardrop palmette, which opens out at the terminus, and is mirrored by a half-guard, across which is affixed the belt-loop. Unusually for a sword of the type, the belt-loop is attached to the sword itself rather than the scabbard; this is in keeping with the Burgos example. The openwork pommel, as well as the blade, are decorated with the rub’ al-hizb, an octogram of two overlapping squares common in Islamic art. The pattern is designed to call to mind the divisions of the Qur’an. Along each fuller is an inscription, one in Mediaeval Spanish and one in Latin, which mimic the later inscription added to the Burgos sword, with the addition of El Cid’s name, and the Toledo origin mark. This sword bears identical dimensions to the Burgos example.

This sword can be attributed to the Zuloaga Workshop, a prominent centre for damascening (i.e. inlaid gold into steel), which can be found on the handle, hilt, pommel and scabbard. So-called because the intricate patterns achieved reminded the first Europeans who saw it of Damascus silk. The Zuloaga family are famed for producing multiple generations of esteemed artists and craftsmen; Ignacio Zuloaga was a noted painted, Eusebio Zuloaga was gunmaker to the Spanish Kings, and Plácido Zuloaga was the undisputed master of damascening. Plácido perfected the art of damascening, which required incising patterns into heated steel or iron, laying on gold or silver wire, and then hammering them into position with a manual punch. Additional details were added through shading (sombreado) and through a process called beading (pearleado), during which a texture was added through the twiting of wire into a string of beads. Plácido’s workshop produced mostly everyday objects and rarefied artworks, such as altarpieces. However, he also tapped into Toledo’s millennia as a sword-producing hub, and combined the expertise of his neighbours in producing watered steel blades into his own art.

Translation: ‘I am la Tizona of El Cid, who was made in the year 1040.’ | ‘Hail Mary, full of Grace; the Lord be with me. Toledo.’