{ { Infobox martyrs
|name=Martyrs of Córdoba
|death_date=Between 850 and 859
|martyred_by=Abd ar-Rahman II, Muhammad I of Córdoba
|means_of_martyrdom=Decapitation
|feast_day=
|venerated_in=Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church
|image=EulogioCordovamart.JPG
|image_size=
|caption='The Martyrdom of Saint Eulogius of Córdoba, at Córdoba Cathedral, by an unknown artist of the 17th century. |birth_place= |death_place=Córdoba, Al-Andalus (modern-day Spain) |beatified_date= |beatified_place= |beatified_by= |canonized_date= |canonized_place= |canonized_by= |attributes= |patronage= |major_shrine= |notable_members=Aurelius and Natalia, Eulogius, Perfectus, Sisenandus, Roderick }}
The Martyrs of Córdoba were forty-eight Christian martyrs who were executed under the rule of Muslim administration in Al-Andalus (name of the Iberian Peninsula under the Islamic rule). The hagiographical treatise written by the Iberian Christian and Latinist scholar Eulogius of Córdoba describes in detail the executions of the martyrs for capital violations of Islamic law (sharīʿa), including apostasy and blasphemy. The martyrdoms recorded by Eulogius (the only contemporary source) took place between 850 and 859 AD, which according to the Mālikī judges of al-Andalus broke the treaty signed between Muslims and their Christian subjects.
Some of the Christian martyrs were executed for apostasy and blasphemy after they appeared before the Muslim authorities and insulted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, although there was a minority case in which some of them were accused of such violations by witnesses. The witnesses at points have exaggerated the scale of the statements made by the martyrs. This was however rare, as the Mālikī judges would ask for a testimony. One example we have is the case of Perfectus who was accused of insulting Muhammad and was asked to testify. When he testified he stated that Muhammad had committed fornication and he thought of Islam as "a corrupt form of Christianity"; he was then executed for this. It has been stated he was aware of the punishment for making such a statement.
The Mālikī jurist al-Qayrawānī (d. 996 AD) distinguished between two kinds of insult: an outright attack against Islam, made by ill intent and therefore punishable by death according to the Islamic death penalty, and a simple declaration of one's own religion. In this last case, the Christian could not be held accountable for this offense. If one insulted Islam beyond the needs of his religion, he or she would have to be executed. The lack of another source after Eulogius's own martyrdom has given way to the misimpression that there were fewer episodes later in the 9th century. There has also been skepticism on the account he himself was a "martyr". While Perfectus could have been liable for breaking the first law, he could not be held guilty on account of his religion. The attempt to persuade him and to dismiss his offense constitutes part of the legal proceeding and reveals a keen knowledge of local trial custom.
Historical background
In 711 AD, a Muslim army of Moors from North Africa had invaded and conquered the territories that previously belonged to the Visigothic Kingdom, which comprised the Christian Iberia. Under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, they landed at Gibraltar and brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign. The Iberian Peninsula was called Al-Andalus by its Muslim rulers. When the Umayyad caliphs were deposed in Damascus in 750 AD, the dynasty relocated to Córdoba, ruling an emirate there; consequently the city gained in luxury and importance, as a center of Iberian Muslim culture.
Once the Muslims had conquered Iberia, they governed it in accordance with Islamic law (sharīʿa). Blasphemy and apostasy from Islam were both capital offenses. In the Islamic religion, blasphemy includes insulting Muhammad and the Muslim faith. Apostasy is the crime of converting away from Islam. Under Islamic law, anyone whose father is Muslim is automatically a Muslim at birth and will automatically be guilty of apostasy if they proclaim any faith other than Islam. Anyone found guilty of either blasphemy or apostasy was swiftly executed in accordance with the Islamic death penalty.