Re: Muslim Spain - Reasons behind Fall
There was, during the Ummayad Caliphate period. After the Abbasids overthrew the Ummayads, the last surviving member of the Ummayad family fled to Spain, where he declared that by the legitimate Ummayad caliphate still held power in Spain. In doing so, Spain broke away from the rest of the Muslim world (or, from the Ummayad perspective, the rest of the Muslim world broke away from Spain).
After about 1 century centralised rule in Spain broke down (in a similar way to what happened in the Abbasid caliphate shortly thereafter). Muslim spain broke into many smaller states called ta’ifs. During their infighting, they not only failed to unit against the Christian reconquest of Spain, but some Muslim princes actively tried to use the crusaders against other Muslim states.