Historical context of Hispanic-muslim architecture (I): Emirate (711-929) and Caliphate (929-1031)

Presence of Islam on Spanish solar covers eight centuries, from 711, when the Muslim invasion of Iberian Peninsula by Tariq and Musa armies, emissaries of Umayyad caliphate in Damascus, until 1492, when making of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs, who ended the last Nasrid Sultan.

 Iberian Peninsula c. 750.

 Iberian Peninsula c. 814.

 Iberian Peninsula c. 980.

Al-Andalus is the name given by Arab historians to the Iberian peninsula lands ruled by Islam; its very history acquires a peculiar bias in 756 when Abd al-Rahman I, a Umayyad survivor from Abbasids massacre is installed in Córdoba, and proclaimed himself independent emir from eastern Caliphate Baghdad. His desire to make Cordoba a new Damascus in the West gave defining features to Andalusian culture. For three centuries, from 8th to 10th, Cordoba was the Western Umayyads capital, and a creator and disseminator art focus. Its heyday period coincided with Abd al-Rahman III proclamation as caliph in 929. Great Cordoba Mosque (786-990) and archaeological remains of Medina al-Zahra (936-976) (Abd al Rahman III and al-Hakam II Caliphate Capital City), are Cordoba period most unique monuments. 

Cathedral-Mosque of Cordoba (784-987). Plan of muslim mosque before later christian aditions. 

Cathedral-Mosque of Cordoba (784-987). Ideal reconstruction during caliphate. 

Plan of palatine area of Medina Azahara, founded by caliph Abd-al-Rahmán III in 936.

Lecture taught at Notre Dame School of Architecture in South Bend, Indiana (USA), January 28, 2011.

Author: Pablo Álvarez Funes