2.5.1 - Cordoba - The Greatest City in Andalusia

Located in the west of the country and extending on the right bank of the Great Valley, Cordoba is one of the greatest cities of Andalusia. It is bordered on the north by the city of Mأ©rida, on the south by the city of Carmona, and on the west by Seville.

Cordoba was founded in the Roman era in 152 BC and conquered by the Muslims in 93/711, where they settled under the governors of Andalusia for nearly three centuries starting in 139/756, when it was declared as the capital by Saqr Quraish Abdurrahman Addakhil, making it the cradle of science, culture, arts and literature. It remained so until the Umayyad Caliphate fell in 404/1013, when the Berber soldiers rebelled against the caliphate and destroyed its palaces and demolished its monuments. The most important landmarks are the old Palace of Cordoba, the Palace of Rusafa, the Grand Mosque, in addition to more than 900 public baths.

After the fall of the Umayyad dynasty and the emergence of the Kings of Sects, such as Bani Abbad and others, as we saw in the first chapter, each prince seized an area of Andalusia. As a result of this relocation, Cordoba was devastated while Seville became the main city for Bani Abbad until it became the capital of Andalusia. However, Cordoba remained one of the medium cities and was able to retain some of its greatness until it was conquered by Fernando III in 633/1236. The city was thus abandoned and a large number of its Muslim population were forced to depart and replaced with other inhabitants of the Christians, who converted the Great Mosque to a large church.

One of the most important figures of Cordoba was Ibn Hazm al-Dhaheri, the author of al-Muhalla. Ibn al-Arabi mentioned him well but denied himself that he was influenced by him as we mentioned before. Other famous poets and scholars of Cordoba include Ibn Abed Rabbo, the author of “al-Iqd al-Farid”, Ibn Zaydun, the glorious poet, and Abu Abdullah Ibn Ahmed al-Ansari al-Qurtubi, the author of the famous interpretation of the “al-Jamii li Ahkam al-Quran”, and Isa Ibn Dinar, in addition to Abu al-Walid Mohammed Ibn Ahmed Ibn Rushd al-Qurtubi, the great philosopher and leader of jurists in Andalusia and Maghreb, who had a great impact in the renaissance of Europe and who met Ibn al-Arabi when he was still young as we’ll see in section 2.5.2 shortly.