Convivencia in Cordoba
By Danny Zappin
Today started off warm and with a sharp 8:15am departure, utilizing a newfound sense of urgency with timed entries and tours here in Spain. We headed to Cordoba, riding on a smaller, faster bus, but actually drove right through Cordoba to get to our first stop outside the city: the archaeological site of Madinat al-Zahra. We arrived at the museum at the base of the site and then got onto another bus to take us to the actual archaeological dig. We learned that only 11% of the city has been excavated, so the area that the second bus took us through is undiscovered remains of the city! Our tour was of the city palace, the seat of power for the Umayyad Caliphate.
We started with an overview of what we were looking at, with a history dating back to the 700s CE. In 750, a man named Abd al-Rahman I was a part of the Umayyad dynasty in Damascus when they were defeated by the Abbasids. Abd al-Rahman was able to escape to Al-Andalus and there he slowly was able to make a bid for power. He became the Emir of Cordoba, leaving the title of Caliphate for the Abbasids in Damascus, but that wouldn’t last long. His 7th descendant Abd al-Rahman III (not his grandson) continued to consolidate power and with it decided to give himself the title of Caliph in 929. To celebrate the new position of power he began building Medinat al-Zahra in 936.
The location is picturesque and strategically valuable with the mountains behind it, existing Roman infrastructure, Cordoba within view, and access to water to the south. The city was situated such that the highest seat of power was at the highest point in the mountain, so the Caliph was on top with those in successive power below. We began our walk through the Wazir’s residence (like a prime minister), as the Caliph and his successors’ homes are not open to the public. As we journeyed through, it was obvious the grandeur the city was conveying to the world. Unfortunately, we had to spend much of this morning using our imagination because with the city’s fall came its plunder. The white marble floors, red painted walls, intricate tile designs reminiscent of Morocco, and impressive arches are mostly missing from the site. The city lasted around 70-80 years, but due to political instability, civil war (Fitna), and attacks from northern kingdoms, the Umayyad caliphate fell, and with it Medina al-Zahra. What remains is from the 20th-century restoration efforts and pieces that, by luck, were left behind. Thankfully, the city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2018 and currently has three universities, two from Spain and one from Germany, working on the site, allowing us to uncover and preserve this interesting glimpse into the past.
We then headed into Cordoba to explore the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim heritage throughout the city. Starting off in the Jewish quarter, we quickly took a walk down the street aptly named “Calle de los Judíos,” or Jewish street, to see one of three synagogues that remained after the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492. In the Mudejar style, we saw intricate Hebrew inscriptions on the walls, but did not have much else to see. The building itself is small and not very impressive, but that was by design as synagogues were not allowed to be bigger than the smallest church in the city. Afterwards, we made our way through the Jewish quarter, with a quick stop at the statue of Maimonides, born in Cordoba in 1138, who is a towering figure of rabbinic Judaism.
We then made our way to the Cathedral-Mosque, a huge plaza in the city’s center with a fascinating history. The first structure was built in the late 8th century by Abd al-Rahman I (same guy as before!) and had multiple expansions afterwards. The original minaret and mosque are still standing today, but have been converted into a cathedral, bell tower, and many chapels, all in the impressive structure. We started our tour going into what was the ablution plaza, where Muslims would ritually purify themselves. The huge mosque was decorated with intricate tile work, all handmade, and marble from both the north and the south of Al-Andalus, a show of strength and dominance over the large empire. After the fall of Cordoba, the mosque came into Christian control, but there was much opposition regarding destroying the mosque compared to the usual ease of doing so. Much of this concern was due to people having graves on the land. This points to what Professor Rabinovitch has been discussing regarding the Maghreb and Al-Andalus- if the whole country were to have been taken over by new people of new faiths, there likely would not have been a problem with leveling the building. But since a lot of the religious conversion of the country had been internal, there were people in Cordoba who may have changed religions but had ties to the land and didn’t want to see the building destroyed.
The solution then was to put a cathedral right in the mosque’s center. In the grandest of style, the Christian community utilized the then largest mosque outside of Mecca and made it into a giant cathedral. The high ceilings, intricate carvings, massive organs, and ornate statues were breathtaking. We saw the choir area with depictions of the life of Jesus and the Old Testament, all hand-carved into wood, with the grave of the leading artist of the project right there on the floor. Like the others we have seen, this cathedral is truly an incredible feat of human ability to build and express ideas through physical items. The cathedral’s construction took place between 1523 and 1607, relatively quickly for a cathedral!
After an amazing tour, we quickly took a group photo and then hustled out as the building was closing for a ceremony, and for us, it was lunchtime. In the lively streets of Cordoba, we set off to get some food and then met back up for our final stop—the Casa de Sefarad. This incredibly immersive museum walks through the history of Spanish Jewry with general information about Jewish culture, religious practices, and figures alongside more niche information about Sephardic Jewry, like their exhibit on influential Spanish Jewish women. We spent a few minutes exploring the building and then began our tour of the Sephardic diaspora through music. We learned about the tradition of Ladino, a once widespread Spanish Hebrew dialect that is now sadly dying out. Our museum guide sang several songs in different locations around the Sephardic diaspora, teaching us about their origins and meaning. Not only was he incredibly knowledgeable about the history, but he also had an incredible voice. I really liked his rendition of “Yigdal,” a poem based on Maimonides’ thirteen principles of faith. It’s a song traditionally sung every Friday night, and I had always heard it in services, but never knew much about its meaning, and had never heard the melody he used. We finished up in the exhibits about the inquisition and the influence of Jewish culture on the Iberian Peninsula. From food, handicrafts, music, and clothing, it is obvious that not only have the Jews influenced the Christians and Muslim communities, but the Jews were equally been influenced by their neighbors.
After this jam-packed day, we hopped back on the bus to Seville. I took a much-needed nap as soon as we arrived back and then enjoyed Seville for the night!
