2.7.1.4 - The Ruins of Medina Azahara

The City of al-Zahraaa, Medina Azahara (the shining city), is the famous Andalusian royal city, built by the Umayyad Caliph Abdul-Rahman III, son of Al-Hakam II, nicknamed al-Nasser, in the tenth century AD, 325 AH, and decorated and retouched with master palaces and decoration of factories and construction of buildings. Decorated with gold, alabaster and marble brought to it from all over the world, it had mercury basins that could be shaken to spread rays of sunlight reflected through marble walls and ceilings. The doors were carved from ivory and ebony, leading to vast lush gardens with exotic animals statues made of amber and pearls.

The Medina Azahara is about five miles northwest of ancient Cordoba and is connected by a paved road. Completed in 365/975 during the reign of Ibn Hisham, it was ravaged and looted after the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate. The ruins were used to build other rich quarries, from which stones, marble and building materials were extracted, until recently the Spanish government became aware of the importance of this archaeological city and they started to preserve it, and only in July 1, 2018, the site was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site with the inscription name “Caliphate City of Medina Azahara”.

The Greatest Shaykh passed through the city of Azahara after ruining and becoming the home for birds and the beasts. He stated that some of the shaykhs of Cordoba told him about the reason for the construction of this city, that one of the maids of the caliph al-Nasser died, and she left a lot of money, so he ordered that the money be used to free the Muslims prisoners, until all captives in the land of the Franks were freed, thus he thanked God Almighty. After that, his beloved wife al-Zahraa said that she would like him to build a city for her and call it after her name, thus he ordered the city to be built under the mountain three miles north of Cordoba. He mastered the construction, and made it a garden and a residence for al-Zahraa and the entourage of the heads of his state, and he engrave her image on the door. When she sat in her council and looked at the whiteness of the city between the stone of Montenegro, she said: Sir, do you see the goodness of this beautiful belle between the stones of that Negro? He then ordered the demise of that mountain, but some of his sitters advised him that if all the creation meet to break this mountain pits and pieces, they would not be able to remove it. Then he he ordered to cut the trees and plant fig and almond trees, and thus it was a better view, especially in the spring time of the flowering of trees between the mountain and the plain [Presenting the Righteous: I.106].

When the Shaykh passed by the ruins he composed some verses to remmind the sane, and alert the minded, and we mentioned these verses in section [ref:almansour in the first chapter.