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Cordoba
was founded by the Romans and due to its strategic importance as the highest
navigable point of the Guadalquivir River, it became a port city of great
importance, used for shipping Spanish olive oil, wine and wheat back to Ancient
Rome. The Romans built the mighty bridge crossing the river, now called "El
Puente Romano". But Cordoba's hour of greatest glory was when it became
the capital of the Moorish kingdom of El-Andalus, and this was when work began
on the Great Mosque, or "Mezquita", which – after several
centuries of additions and enlargements – became one of the largest
in all of Islam. For more information about property
for sale in Spain please contact us.
Cordoba was conquered by the Moors in 711, and Moorish influence can still be felt in the city. During the time of Islamic rule, Cordoba was the largest city and embodied the most sophisticated culture and the most developed bureaucracy in Europe. When the Umayyad Caliphs were deposed in Damascus in 750, the dynasty relocated to Cordoba, ruling an emirate there until 929. When Abd-ar-rahman III submitted a rival claim to the title of Caliph, then held by the Abbasids in Baghdad, he assumed the title Caliph of Cordoba and transformed his kingdom from an emirate or sultanate into a caliphate.
Cordoba reached its peak in the 10th century,
under three great rulers: the first Caliph, Abd-ar-rahman III ("al-Nasir,"
912–61), his son al-Hakam II (961–76) and the dictator Al-Mansur
Ibn Abi Aamir, more familiar as Almansor, "the Victorious," (981–1002).
The 10th century Caliphate of Cordoba was the largest, culturally the most
sophisticated polity in all Europe. Contemporary chroniclers, all of them
Arabic, like the geographer Ibn Hawkal in 948, marveled, "The amount
of coins in circulation! The variety of crops grown! The people!" —
Cordoba may have had a quarter of a million people — "the textiles!
the gardens! the mosques!" — there were more than 1,000 mosques
and 600 public baths.
The German Emperor Otto I sent his emissaries to the Caliph; But in the 1020s
and 1030s the whole imposing political structure collapsed, fissioning into
more than a dozen successor statelets, known to historians as (the reinos
de taifas) such as Seville, Badajoz, Toledo, Saragossa,
Albarracín, Valencia, Almería and Granada.
While they were heirs to the wealth of the Caliphate, their instability and
endemic hostilities among themselves made them vulnerable to attacks from
the Christian north. The history of Córdoba after the mid 11th century
shrinks to the story of the city and its immediate hinterland.
The most important monument in the city is the former Mosque (the 3rd largest mosque in the world), known as the Mezquita. After the conquest, the Christians rebuilt the cathedral that had once stood before it was 'converted' into the mosque. Another splendid monument is the city (in ruins) Medina Azahara (Arab: Madinat Al-Zahra). Other important monuments are the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, where in 1492, Christopher Columbus got permission to travel to the "Indies". The califal baths and its churchs and typical streets of the Jewish quarter Judería.
As well as the unique mosque-cathedral, Cordoba's treasures include the Alcazar, or Fortress, built by the Christians in 1328; the Calahorra Fort, originally built by the Arabs, which guards the Roman Bridge, on the far side of the river from the Mezquita, and the ancient Jewish Synagogue, now a museum. Cordoba's medieval quarter, once the home of the Jewish community, is called "La Judería" (The Jewry), a labyrinth of winding, narrow streets, shady flower-filled courtyards and picturesque squares such as La Plaza del Potro. In early May, homeowners proudly festoon their patios with flowers to compete for the city's "most beautiful courtyard" contest. .
Cordoba
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