Day 3-5

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As we cross the mountain ranges into Andalucia from the North, Some 140 Km south of Navas de Tolosa, lies the capital of what was oncethe Caliphate of Al-Andalus, Cordoba. During our sightseeing day, we will witness the unique culture and historic buildings from the Caliphal period of Al-Andalus(929-1031). Prior to Cordoba being a caliphate, al-Andalus was kept together as an Emirate since 750 and ruled from Cordoba by the Umaya family. We will visit Cordoba's main Mosque, which contains many secrets as it stands witness to History. Nowadays the mosque is used as a Cathedral since its reform in the mid 16th Century.

We'll also visit what was effectively the first Parliament in Europe. The Palatial City of Medinat al Zahra from where the government organized and commissioned taxes that were collected from as far as the silk and gold routes reached: eastwards to China and India and southwards to Senegal and deeper into Africa! Although the Court city only lasted just under 100 years, it symbolizes the climax of Muslim Spain, the Umayyad Caliphate and its downfall. After this period the Caliphate fell into smaller units or provinces becoming fortified Kingdoms in themselves.

As we penetrate into Andalusia we will at times have views of fortress cities surrounded by olive tree fields that stretch to the horizon. The River GuadalQuivir(Kabir)from Cordoba to Sevilla, makes it's way through the'campiña':fields planted with sunflowers, wheat and corn, a s well as olive, orange and other fruit orchards. It was here that during the Caliphal period up to 10.000 arrows and 2.000 bows where fabricated monthly, and it was also the land which bread the best'arabian'horses.

The Umayyad safe guarded the capital of a newly declared Islamic state of Al-Andalus in Cordoba, founding here the epicentre of one the greater Civilizations in history. Iberia had just stepped from the dark ages, to a brighter future becoming a bridge towards later technological, scientific and industrial revolutions in Europe and around the world.

Under the Muslims, both Jews and Christians, who were"Peopleof the Book" were treated well, aside from taxes(theIslamic zakat) and allowed to worship freely, with a few restrictions - the Christians were not to ring their church bells. Muslims, Christians, and Jews all dressed similarly, and the Muslims often attended Christian celebrations. These Christians who lived in many ways like the Muslims, were known as Mozarabs from the Arabic word musta'rib, meaning arabized. As we know most of Spanish Christian population practised an Arian approach to their faith, in so being very in line with the'new'faith of Islam.

Slaves at this time were mostly war captives and included Africans, Slavs, and Germans, among others. Those who became Muslim would be freed and those who became soldiers would be paid generously. The Muslim Caliphs of Cordoba formed great armies of Slavs. Abd al-Rahman II is well known to have had a personal army of 20.000 Slavs whom where called the'silent'ones since they couldn't talk Arabic. Captured Jews were generally ransomed by the Jewish community. Christians in north Europe where even embarrassed by the flood of Christian slaves who fled to al-Andalus from their Christian masters in the north.

The Iberian Peninsula is large and holds a complex geography. It's cities well spaced and self governed, it took a great leader to organize and unite them into one nation. Forty years after Musa reaching Toledo in 712, rivalry and instability again swept across the Peninsula

In 756 a ginger haired, blue eyed warrior named Abd al-Rahman, arrived in Spain after some years of hiding in Tunisia. He claimed to be the only survivor of the last Umayyad Dynasty in Damascus. The Umayyads, while out of power were not destroyed completely it seems. The only surviving member of the Umayyad royal family ultimately made his way to al-Andalus!

Striving for the unity of the Iberian Peninsula Abd al-Rahman fought several battles and further declared an Islamic Emirate based in Cordoba. He is since to be remembered as Abd al-Rahman I, the first Umayyad Emir of al-Andalus.

Al-Andalus was again one united state and continued to be an independent Muslim kingdom, under the blessing of the caliphs in Baghdad. This was the beginning of the Umayyad emirate during which the successors of Abd al-Rahman made al-Andalus the most advanced country in the West.

We have to see this period as a very delicate mosaic in the religious aspect, yet balanced by a central Emir who's duty was to seek justice beyond the veils of Religion. In 817 there had been a revolt in Cordoba where a group of Muslims rose against the Caliph protesting about a general'religious'laxity and tolerance over the Jews, Christians and new converts to Islam. The Emir at the time, Al-Hakm II, grandson of Abd al-Rahman I and father of Abd al-Rahman II, ordered the exile of the entire rebel area and for the district to be literally'flattened'forbidding it's reconstruction. This is said to be the origin of the Andalusi Medina within the city of Fez, in Morocco, where the inhabitants of this district fled to.

A more dramatic conflict occurred when the Catholic monk Eulogio discovered about the new religion of Islam, in 850 from texts about the new Prophet Muhammad and his revelations. Hearing the news, Christian monks would approach the Emir at Cordoba and after enquiring about the religion of Islam and the prophet Muhammad, insult and defame him publicly and insistingly until AbdelRahman II great-grandson of Abd al-Rahman I, punished them by public execution. This manner of Christian martyrdom became popular for a while until it was condemned as'suicidal'and improper by the head of the Catholic Church in Toledo. Later Christian acts of these kind where punished with exile.

In 844 the Vikings from Scandinavia and Northern Europe sacked Lisbon, Cadiz and Medina Sidonia, and then captured Seville. However, the Muslims counter attacked and defeated them. The Vikings carried out further raids on al-Andalus but the Muslims fought back effectively. The first navy of the Emirate was built after this humiliating Viking ascent of the Guadalquivir in 844. These and other raids prompted a shipbuilding program at the dockyards of Seville. The Andalusian navy was thenceforth employed to patrol the Iberian coastline under the caliphs Abd al-Rahman III and Al-Hakam II(961– 76). By the next century, piracy from North Africans superseded Viking raids.

Another story relates about Umar Ibn Hafsun, in 889, who was a Muslim'convert'natural of Ronda and descendant of the last Visigoth King Witiza. In face of what he considered classicism and hypocrisy from behalf of the Umayyad Rulers, turned back to his roots as a Christian, of the Arian Unitarian faith. Moreover he formed a rebellion over the midlands mountains of Al-Andalus,'protecting'nearly all of what was later to be the Granada Kingdom, against the Caliphs tax collectors, defending and promoting a popular class in the form of his own Kingdom. This Christian Kingdom within the Emirate of the Umayyad Dynasty was to last for 40 years until 917. Sources vary as to whether Umar Ibn Hafsun died under the Christian name of Samuel in his local town, Bobastro, or whether he was captured and sent as a mercenary to the North fronts due to his courage.

In this uneasy but steady manner, the Umayyad Dynasty of Cordoba was to last for nearly three hundred years, although at no stage could it boast of having'fixed'borders, nor internal stability. Al-Andalus was in fact under permanent siege by the Catholic Kingdoms of Aragon and Castile from the North and yet a worse threat from the South by the Fatimid Caliphate, a new disloyal movement against the existing Abbasid Caliphs, which had formed in the North of Africa. The Fatimid threat shared it's roots within the very Umayyad Dynasty of Damascus and hence was a larger threat to the state of Al-Andalus then the'lesser'problem of the Christian advance in the north.

Under this climate, seven generations after Abd al-Rahman I, Abd al-Rahman III declared himself the Caliph of Islam turning Al-Andalus into a Caliphate. He declared sovereignty over Muslim faith from a politically and religiously independent state, this represented the peak of an Islamic Golden Age in Spain.

Map 1: Al-Andalus, 790 to 1300 a.c.

Furthermore, out of nostalgia for his nationalist origin, he constructs at the border of Cordoba a summer residency, the Rusafa palace, in remembrance of his grandfather

« A place of retreat intended, for him and his new family; hence with a botanical garden in which he can unite the beautiful things from Syria. »28.

Many pomegranates were planted under his ruling, until this day we still eat fruits that were planted during that time. The first palm tree in Spain was planted in that time and he identified very strongly with it and dedicated a poem, evoking the nostalgia from his lost homeland:

« At the heart of Rusafa, a palm tree appeared, lost, but truthfully, on this Occidental terrain, so far away from the palm tree countries; you are similar to me, I told him, you living in exile and so distant, and who, since a long time, separated from my children and family! »29.

In his last days he seemed to be haunted by demons, becoming more solitary, more lost, more despotic,

« protected by terror and isolated by hate »30, he dies in Cordoba in 788.

In a location close to the Ummayad Mosque, perhaps by the door of AbdulRahman I so that it covers from inside the mosque , to outside from the street. Also by the river, as we enter Cordoba, from the North of the city.

The destiny of Abd al-Rahman is like that of a phoenix. Broken, reduced to a fugitive state, without a moment of pause or the right to rest, he would elevate himself to higher powers by becoming the Umayyadian Emir of Cordoba. And since it was in the fusing moment of a heightened violent chaos and without having mercy for the power changes that characterises him, he becomes a stubborn man, determined but necessarily ruthless and tricky. Member of the Umayyad dynasty at the head of the Muslim empire in 650 until 750, from a Syrian father and enslaved Berber mother, he enjoys a soft education as a prince in his lineage. The sweetheart of his grandfather Hisham the caliph, who lives in the Al-Rusafa palace, a fortified oasis, used as a family retirement, close to Euphrate. In 750, at the age of nineteen, his life changes completely. Rebellions explode in the Oriental province and take the Umayyad power down in Damascus. The new masters call themselves the Abbasids and get installed in Baghdad, the circular city, the new city of the Muslim empire21. The new caliph Abu l-Abbas al-Saffah, the Giver of blood, assigns the task to abolish the predecessors. He starts by profaning the tombs of the Umayyad Caliphs, he lets his aunty Abd al-Rahman be stabbed, cutting of the foot and hand of one of his cousins and taking him on a donkey for one year in the Syrian villages to humiliate him. Then later he asks for amnesty and organises a banquet of reconciliation. Abd al-Rahman did not participate but instead 70 Umayyadin surrendered to Abu Futrus, in Palestine. The doors closes, a poet recites and announces the end of his poem on the extermination of the Umayyad. The ambush was done. Abu Futrus is covered by blood. Alerted by a messenger, Abd al–Rahamn,accompanied by his brother, two sisters and his sons, crossing the Euphrate and went hiding in a small village. The manhunt continues. At the end of a certain time, in the distance, horses with black banners of the Abbasids would arrive at the horizon; the little one who was playing outside comes home crying and completely terrorized.

The two brothers escape and face the Euphrate again. Abd al-Rahman manages to cross but his cadet could not confront the current. He comes back at the shore, directs himself to his soldiers and they see his aging unfolding in front of them. Despite that, Abd-al Rahman doesn’t return nor revives his fatherland.

During 5 years, with his loyal servant Badr, he knew a life of wondering, crosses North-Africa, intrigued, strikes by cutting territory, chased from one city to another, afraid and undesired, he finally debarked at the age of 25 in Al-Andalus(Almunecar).A group of Syrians, who have served the Umayyad and the noble Arabs, will end up swearing allegiance to him. Strong trough his double ancestry, he manages to bring the Berber elements to his inner circle. The governor of Cordoba, who saw this new entrant with suspicion not knowing their intentions, tries to woo him; he offers some of his territories, even his daughter for marriage, but the immigrant refuses. He walks on Cordoba, moves the governor and settles himself to his new attained power. In 756, he creates the emirate of Cordoba. With that gesture, he initiates « an essential change for the outcome of Al-Andalus»22 since the Umayyad domination in Spain lasted 250 years.

Since the beginning of the state, known to be divided and not well outlined, the emir Abd al-Rahman the first was obliged to use all his political and military capacities to maintain his authority since « not even one year of his reign passed and he had to check out a revolt, punishing the rebels.»23. During the thirty years he faces many conspiracies by his family members, attempted murder attacks by the Arab tribes, and the desire for independence by the local Berber leaders. All these attempts were counterattacked with force and determination; heads were rolling. For the purpose of understanding the cruel punishments of this era, one has to remember that

« Estos guerreros(…)obedeciana un jefe solo cuando no cabia la menor duda de que detentaba la mision divina de gobernar, cosa que tenia que manifestarse en su santidad o en su poder irresistible. En el fondo, cada uno de ellos estaba convencido de que el mismo gobernaria mejor que el hombre que ostentaba el poder.(…)A los arabes y berberes mas audaces el peligro de ser decapitados no les arredraba lo suficiente como para desisitir de rebeliones, pues, en resumidas cuentas, cada uno tiene que morir alguna vez. »24.

In 777, a rebellion was a dangerous fact for the immigrant. With the initiative of the governor of Saragossa, de Muslim leaders demanded to capture the representative of Cordoba, they take him hostage, leave to the embassy in Saxe and offer him as their hostage and testify their reliance to Charlemagne25: they demand the help of the king of Francs to overturn the emir and capture Catalonia. Charlemagne accepts, puts himself at the head of the army, crosses the Pyrenees but arrives at closed city gates. The governor of Saragossa was being removed and the beleaguered townspeople gave an unexpected resistance, outraged about the alliance between Muslims and Christians combatting the co-religionists. The seat of Saragossa does not last for long and turns short since new revolts in the Saxe oblige the Christians to return back to their kingdom. It made it possible for Charlemagne to order the bag of Pamplona, a Christian village in the hands of the Vacons to return booty after the failure of the Spanish campaign.

But they avenge the French attack throughout de crossing of the Pyrenees, killing the army’s rear guard. The disastrous return in 778 has been told in the most ancient moving songs from Moyen Age, the song of Roland, the dukes name was Roland from Bretagne, the high dignitary Charlemange dies in action :

« Forced to traverse the Pyrenees trough narrow streets, his army, in Roncesvalles, fallen victim to the Basques who at the mountains, crushing the soldiers with rocks by throwing it on them, stole their baggage and throw it in the ravines. »26

The failure of the expedition nevertheless created a Franc march(areof security and defence) in Catalonia. A number of times, Abd al-Rahman ended up in conflict with the authorities in Bagdad. The Abbasids attempt to overturn the Umayyad interloper in his new territories. In 763, Mansour the caliph sends his man to eliminate the emir of Andalusia. Since he has been receiving decapitated heads of his officers, transported by a merchant arriving at the principal place of Kairouan, Abbasid zone, he cried out:

« Praise to God for putting the sea between such demons and me »27. Also the attempts in 777 to overturn the immigrant by caliph Mahdi were without success. Besides the function as a statesman, it was under his force that the first visible traces of Arab-Andalucía civilisation were exposed. Around 780, he started with the construction of the big mosque in Cordoba in which the pillars, comprised of antic columns or Visigoth columns enduring vaults and double arcs in the shape of the iron horseshoe, characterising the Andalus Umayyad style.

The period that opens up after Abd al-Rahman the first will have many succeeding emirs31 in which they will elapse in the same territorial space: the Iberian peninsula with exception of the Christian North: the kingdom of the Asturias, the little villages in the Pyrenees and Catalonia, Carolingian territories. In 822, when Abd al Rahman II ascends on the throne, the central power of Cordoba is strong and the country is stable. The society prevails progressively based on three elements: the politics of dhimmi, the Arabization of the society and the use of Roman language by the Muslims. The politics of dhimmi was established since the conquest of the peninsula; it consists of full recognition of Jews and Christians with the title of Koranic status « the people of the book », those who received a revelation; this made it possible for them to be part of the tax costs, to follow their customs, their religion, to live under authority of their bishops and counts, to practise their profession(eightgenerations of Jews experienced a peaceful life under the Umayyad dynasty). The Arabization of the population made it possible, trough the Arab language, by leaving its strict religious frame, and allowing it to become the language of daily life, the exchanges, the unifying business, also the ethical and religious strata in society: Arabs, Berbers, indigenous converts to Islam(muwallads),indigenous Christians(Mozarabs)and Jews. The third point, little has been mentioned in historical research, which assured the social membrane of strong ties, is the practice of the Roman language by the Muslims:

« The permanent contact of the Muslims with the Spanish forced the conquerors to learn the Roman language as the outcome of Latin-Iberian idiom.(…)In al-Andalus, until the XIIIth century , Muslims used two languages: Arab and roman, in that way they could serve the daily life with the artisans and their contact with the peasants. »32

These three aspects allowed a relative tolerance and conviviality between the different communities and this brought the emirate of Cordoba to its zenith: the reign of Abd al-Rahman II(822-852).Abd al-Rahman II succeeded his father Hakam the first at the age of thirty and inherited a stable country. In contrast to the latter, feared for his use of violence and force, he becomes an appreciated monarch33. When he reached his power, he takes sanctions that will earn him the respect of the people: decrease of taxes, punishment of corrupt functionaries, risking the removal of the rebellious and ambitious governors. He received a strong, complete education, within his armies as in his letters; he prefers the use of poetry, books, woman and sensuality during the summer period, during the implementation of the wars. According to some, he had « forty sons and forty-three daughters »34. As the cultivated patron, he also introduces pumps in Andalucia based on a model from Bagdad, which itself was inspired by the Persians: constructing the palace, beautifying the city, managing the peoples gardens and exotic animals like giraffes, rhinos, migrating birds, introducing a high number of domestication of animals. He for example invited, on high costs, three slave musicians of Medina who each gave a daughter to him:

« In the palace they directed a veritable orchestra of slave musicians for which the emir build a special pavilion. On the festive nights(…)the visitors would be regaled by the spectacle of dance and music. »35

The stability of the country made it possible for him to push his talent forward as a great organiser of the state: he created the money Hotel, he ameliorated the administration for the taxes by creating desks that controlled the taxes and payments of the soldiers. He constructed cities, fortifications and mosques. He enlarged the building of the big mosque of Cordoba by replacing the meridian wall more to the South and by adding eight building spans. To test that time period, two protagonists from Cordoba embodied the transformation of the century. One representing the new Arab-Andalucian model: Zyriab al Bagdadi; the other, Eulogue, the « furious theologian »36, rejects this model and anchors himself in the ancient Visigoth and Christian world that disappeared.

Zyriab al Bagdadi, the black bird of Bagdad, was born in 789. As a brilliant student of the caliph’s favourite musician, Al Mawasali, Zyriab seized an occasion to present his brilliance by leaving the given limits of his master. The young man addresses the caliph: « I sing what others know, he says, but I also know how to sing that what others don’t know. If you like, I can sing you something nobody every heard before.»37

He plays on his own 5-string lute instead of the traditional 4-string lute. He uses an eagle’s claw instead of the wooden lamella. It had such a strong effect on the caliph that he was asked back the next morning. The old master conscious of the effortless genius of his student saw it as a threat to his position as the favourite player.

Al-Mawasali orders the young prodigy to immediately leave the city under the mum of a dead penalty. The caliph never saw him back. Zyriab starts his journey the next morning on the roads that Abd al-Rahman the immigrant had borrowed before him; he crosses North Africa as a wondering musician. At the age of 33, Hakam the first invites him to his courtyard in Cordoba. But it is only under the reign of Abd al-Rahman does he join Cordoba. He was treated like a prince. He was given a house and a big sum of money. He was not anymore a wandering musician, but he becomes a close friend to the emir by sharing the joy of woman and poetry. For the elite in the society, he also imposes himself, thanks to his experience at the courtyard in Baghdad, as a reference of respectability. He opens up a conservatorium, he introduces the chess game, he teaches table manners, the order of plates, he suggests new hairstyles and cosmetic recipes: he is « from 822 until 857, the real referee, of highest societal elegance in Cordoba. »38. The antipode of the hedonic oriental life style(pleasure,joy, music, woman) by Zyriab, the priest Eulogue, worked from his younger years in mortifications and penitence, he worsened in front of all the unacceptable transformations in the world. A descendant of a patrician Hispanic-Visigoth family, he rejects since his birth the loss of his predominantly Visigoth Christian essence.

He becomes merciless towards the Arabization of the society and the disaffection for the Latin culture and the religious, traditional formation »39 like the witness of his laic friend Alvaro written in his letter:

« My fellow religious friends like to read poems and romans of the Arab, they study the theological and philosophical writings of Muslims, not to refute but to form a correct and elegant diction. Where does one find a laic that would read the Latin comments of the Holy Writings? Who would still study the evangelists, the prophets and the apostles? Alas, all the young remarkable, talented Christians knew the languages and literature of the Arabs: they would read and study with a lot of devotion the Arab books, they would invest in big libraries… they would speak differently about the Christian books. They would answer with contempt that those books are not even worth their attention. What a pain! The Christians forgot their own language and of the thousands of you there will not be one who can write a convincing letter to a friend in Latin... » 40

In that context, Alvaro shares a distressing realization of the Mozarab situation,(Christiansliving under domination of the Arabs and using Roman as the common spoken dialect) and their immersion in a tradition and language that is not theirs. He approaches the forgetting of their liturgical and scholarly language: I don’t wish their identity to disappear. In defence of the deprivation of his culture, its members add hate towards the Muslims, their God and prophet. Eulogue, head of a small group of partisans, incites his fellow religious people to become martyrs. The method is simple: it consists of leaving to a public place and insult the prophet of Islam; the offense was privately tolerated but not publically, in that time era, this resulted in dead penalty. Some of them even went on Fridays, the day of communal prayer, at the big mosque in Cordoba, in great despite of the judge, who did not understand the motivations of these fanatics. However the Mozarabs could practice their religion, their procession, and their funerals and sound their bells; one council condemned the appeal to martyrdom. During multiple years, the number of people who committed them selves to martyrdom and only trough the death of the principal instigator did the movement finally knew an end. Eulogue ends up being publically executed and later the Catholic Church sanctioned him. These events are known to be the martyrdom of the Mozarabs.

It is interesting to talk about a study made by the American historian Richard W. Bulliet by analyzing medieval Islamic biographical dictionaries, which where a common genre of the time and provide a generous amount of biographical and genealogical information. We can conclude from the study that the very diverse population present in the Iberian Peninsula, would over a period of two centuries, no less, turn towards a dominant oriental culture and only later be influenced by the'newreligion' of Islam. Muslim names with diverse family names, would roughly double in numbers every fifty years until a natural balance was reached. An early 8% in 800 turned into 12% of the population by 850, to then double again by 900 and reaching a rough 50% by 950 A.C. The curve gradually flattens at a 75% Muslim population by the year 1.000.

This can be contrasted to the fact that in Cordoba, the very heart of the Caliphate, it is not until 850 C.E. that the Catholic-Roman Church would learn about Islam through Monk Eulogio's readings about'thenew Prophet (Muhammad(s) in manuscripts he found at a Christian library during a journey to Navarra. Precisely around the same time, the first Muezzins would start to call publicly to prayer from the minaret of the mosque at Cordoba and Islam was to become socially noticeable.

In 929, nearly two centuries after the Umayyad Abd al-Rahman I came to Spain, his descendant Abd al-Rahman III declared himself Caliph or spiritual leader of the Hispano-Muslim. In other words, completely independent from the caliph in Baghdad both politically and spiritually, it was the birth of the Caliphate of al-Andalus.

Under his rule Muslim Spain reached it's maximum expansion, covering three quarters of the peninsula and connecting to Tangier and other locations in Maghreb. The splendid court of the caliphs, where science and arts glowed from, was moved to a fortress court city to the north of Cordoba, the famous Medinat al-Zahra.

Cordoba under the Caliphate, with a permanent population of some say 1.000.000, others 200.000, however it overtook Constantinople as the largest and most prosperous city in Europe.

Within the Islamic world,

Cordoba took an economic lead over East and West and was one of the leading cultural centres. The work of its most important philosophers and scientists (notably Abulcasis and Ibn Rushd /Averroes) had a major influence on the intellectual life of medieval Europe.

By the end of the reign of Abd al-Rahman III, the king of Leon, the queen of Navarra, and the counts of Castile and Barcelona, all Christians, acknowledged him as their overlord and sent him annual tribute.

Paradoxically quite a few Andalusian"Moors"had red and blond hair and blue eyes, since Spain had been populated by Visigoths, Vandals, and other Germanic tribes before the Arab and Berber invasions and subsequent conversion to Islam. Abd al-Rahman III - with his red hair and blue eyes, typical of many Andalusian rulers - reunited al-Andalus in a golden age.

After the death of Abd al-Rahman III, Hisham II, who was yet a boy aged thirteen, ascended to the throne. The real ruler was Ibn abi Emir, General and Chief of state, also known as Al-Mansur, The Victorious. He continued to lead al-Andalus with military might.

Reached this point in politics, the Caliph himself being overruled by his own chief of State, with the death of Al-Mansur, al-Andalus fell into a period of political instability that ended with the fall of the caliphate. The Umayyad would decay until in 1031, a republic was declared in Cordoba since no one was prepared to accept the position of Caliph. Civil war and unrest followed, with 28 princedoms being formed. These multiple princedoms were known as the Taifa Kingdoms.

In 912, Abd al-Rahman the third, child of a franc concubine who gave him light eyes and ginger hair(hespoke the Roman language) and the Umayyad prince, he was designed to succeed his grandfather emir Abd Allah on the throne of the emirate. His enthronement goes smoothly, the members of his family and the high dignitaries pledge allegiance to him(baya).However, in contrast to his homonym of the precedent century, the political situation when he comes to power is troublesome: it’s an era of fitna, chaos and conflicts. Until the end of Mohammed the first’s reign, in 884, the authority of Cordoba was mainly challenged internally then externally. Internally, the three zones, the border zones with the Nordic Christians, became independent by the hands of the Muwalladian aristocrats. At the centre, the revolt of the Muwallid Omar Ibn Hafsun, who threatens the gates of Cordoba, which were the heart of the Emirate. Externally, in the North, the Christian kings enlarged their territory by wounding the emirate and in Africa the Fatimidians became the most powerful. Four months after his ascent to power, which stayed for 20 years, Abd al-Rahman launches a political conquest and consolidation of the territories. He stabilises the countryside and imposes himself in the cities(thesiege in Seville lasted two years); he has put a definitive term on the revolt with the one of Ibn Hafsun by eliminating his descendants.41 ; He fixes the borders with the Christians in the North and fortifies his positions in the north of Africa to limit the influence of the Fatimidians. It is possible to affirm this period

« fue el periodo de la historia de Espana en que el poder y el control de la peninsula Iberica se hallaban, sin ningun genero de dudas, exclusivamente en manos musulmanas, bien fuera de manera directa, bien à traves des pago de vasallajes. »42

Strong after his success in 929, he reclaims the title of « prince of the believers »43, a caliph, literally means the lieutenant, the representative of God on earth. A letter send by the governors in the provinces of al-Andalus, taken from the Anonymous chronicles Abd al-Rahman III, a compilation dating from the eleventh century but with contemporary writings of the events, witnessing the positional statement:

"In the name of the Most Merciful and lenient God. May the blessings of God be upon our Prophet Mohammed.

We are the most worthy to claim our right and to be of those who deserve the most complete of fortune and favours including the almighty who we have invested in; this is the reason for which God has given us this privilege, we have shown its preference, and we raised our authority up to this title. It has allowed us to get through our efforts, we facilitated the task, to us and to our government; it has extended our glory in the world; it has proclaimed our authority on the land; the fact that the hopes of the world are based on us; he ordered to those who are gone astray back to us and that our subjects, rejoice to live in the shadow of our government(allthis by the will of God; Praised be God, the giver of the benefits, he who has delivered, as well he deserves the greatest praise for the grace that He has granted). Accordingly, we decided that we would call him now the"princeof believers" and that, in the letters, both those that we will give and those that we receive would give this Title. The one who uses the name outside of this is appropriating it undeservingly; he is an imposter who is assuming a title that he does not deserve to wear. In addition, we have understood that continuing in governing without the use of this title that we have given, it is depriving him from the rights we have, and it is to lose an essential designation. I therefore order the preacher of jurisdiction that he employs this title, and thee, uses-The now when we write you. If God is willing.»44

The political stability well held in the Rennes of the caliphate allows the flourishing development of the economy. An effective network of trade routes and mercantile infrastructure benefit the cities, which in turn will become the centres of fruitful administration and economy. The Alhondigas emerge warehouses-hostels for traders and their transport animals and will bear witness to this development. « Their prostitutes lived elsewhere in the warehouses-hostels. They were required to pay a contribution ». But the regular bail-out and prosperous state offers is ensured by other means: the tributes of vassalage Kingdoms and Christian counties; taxes on crafts; taxes on the domestic and international trade: the import of luxury products from Egypt, Tunis, the export of manufactured products such as tissues, ceramics to northern Europe. Abd al-Rahman goes up to create his fleet for defensive and mercantile purposes by reducing the intermediaries and increasing the profits. All levels of society, leaders, traders, take advantage of this particular opulence and material well being in Andalusia. The peasants don’t stay inactive. A side of these heights is the development of irrigation techniques, allowing an intensive culture of Andalusian soil: the manufacturing of wheels, Noria(thatof the Albolafia of Cordoba was built by Abd al-Rahman(I),the drilling of wells, the construction of the Acequias who provide the terrace cultivation in flanks of arid mountains. The introduction of new crops such as the orange, the pomegranate, the lemon, the almond tree, apricot, peach, chestnut, the banana tree, the melon, the asparagus, the date palm, sugar cane, rice, and the contribution of botanical knowledge solving the problem of fertilizers and diseases, providing an Andalucian agriculture and horticulture with a great prosperity, which was significantly higher than in the rest of Europe. At the time of the caliph, « la agricultura era indiscutiblemente la base de la sociedad, y de tal importancia que determino la superioridad economica andalusi con respecto al resto de Europa. »45. This document of the Calendar of Cordoba of 961, indicating for each month the corresponding agricultural activities, testifying the wealth and diversity of Andalusian territories: Let us look at a few lines about the month of January:

« The horses graze the fertile lands, cows are being calved and give abundant milk; there are small groups of geese and ducks(…)we plant the guardians of olive trees, pomegranate and other similar trees. The narcissus flowers early; we size up trellised vineyards and plants that do not provide table grapes; we sow the floating duckweed early and we harvest the sugar cane. We make jam of citrons and can the carrots, as well syrup made of lemon acid. »46

As soon the year 936 enters, to give more splendour to the Caliphate, after having spent half of his reign in the Alcazar inaugurated by Abd al-Rahman the first, like the Abbasids who were gushed out of Baghdad, Abd al-Rahman III inaugurates outside the city ramparts, on the slopes of the Sierra, a huge site: the construction of the palatine city Madinat al-Zahra, the name of one of his concubines. During these 16 years, more than ten thousand workers, masons, craftsmen, donkey riders are working every day to build this city, in a rectangular shape, 750 m by 1500 m under the direction of the prince heir Hakam. The materials such as the columns are derived from the ancient sites, the marble from Carthage or from Constantinople. Surrounded by a bastion, the city is divided into three parts: the upper part, the palace; the lower part, the Great Mosque and homes; between the two, the gardens and the vineyards.

In 945, Abd al-Rahman settled there with his court."Morethan 6300 women from who were the wives, the concubines and maidservants " worked there. The embassies that came from the north are crushed by the Andalusian luxury. Leaving behind the dark castles, cold and no direct access to water, they passed through scented gardens of flowers where the nightingales sang, where the water was controlled and passed from basin to basin, to reach the palace to the bright parts, fresh and open. At night, a garland of torches illuminated the path between Cordoba and Madinat al-Zahra. In 939, the defeat to the Christians at the Battle of Simancas was a turning point to the policy of the caliph who decided to stay in his palatine city:

« Al-Nâsir was overwhelmed by his failure in this campaign, failure with everything that had happened before; dissatisfied with its bad fortune, had tormented his spirit and he ended up being unfair to himself: That is why he was advised to divert his worries and to devote himself to his greater pleasure, the construction. It is said that there is a certain dedication, while making Madinat al-Zahra, not far from Cordoba, that still obtains, thanks to the magnitude and the majesty of its building, which shows the rest of his Spirit and the oblivion of the world; therefore, it ceased to personally conduct his troops »47.

He delegates to the faithful families, the Government of marches, in particular the top march, but never ceases to send each year quotas to the disciplined men to ensure his authority towards the Christians:

« Thus the succession of his conquest; accompanied by triumph, his luck continues, which enables him to have lived the greater part of his Caliphate peacefully on his throne, enjoying the tranquillity of his reign, without warfare itself, until his death.»48

In sum, with the foundation of the Caliphate, Abd al-Rahman III restores to the Omayyads the title appropriated 250 years earlier by the Abbasids. He makes of Cordoba the major centre of the West, of which Cordoba competes with two major metropolises of that time: Constantinople, in the Christian East, with which it maintains respectful exchanges, and Baghdad, in the Muslim East. He also marks clearly its position on the European political chessboard, playing the role of an arbitrator in conflicts between piracy and the Court of the first Otton, restoring The Christian king, Sancho the big, who was removed from his throne, but also on the political Muslim chessboard, claiming to be the face of the Fatimid and Abbassis caliphate. It displays therefore in the eyes of the world its mastery of the great Andalusian destiny on the level of social well being exceeding the rest of Europe which only knew how « to keep the pigs in the mud »49. Culturally, his son, Hakam II, second Caliph, leads the Iberian Peninsula to its vertices and contributes to the golden age of the Hispano-Arabic civilisation, « the most brilliant State the Middle Ages has ever known»50.

Hakam II, son of Abd al-Rahman III, accesses to power at the ripe age of 46 years. He remains in the shadow of the long reign of his father(almost60 years) who apologized for his reigns longevity. A pious man, in fragile health, educated by the best preceptors, ends up spending his time between the palace, the gardens of the Madinat the Zahra which he oversees its construction and beautification and the Library of the Alcazar, located on the inside of the city. He inherits a very prosperous and stable territory, which made him one of the richest and most powerful monarchs of his time. Concerned for his people, he makes enormous means at disposal to construct water systems, roads and bridges; he also strengthened mosques and public hostels

In Cordoba, he founded 25 free schools for children from disadvantaged backgrounds personally paying the main teaching necessities; he offers medical care to the poor and opening the doors of the pharmacy of Alcazar. He enlarges and beautifies the Great Mosque. He has the temperament of a little warrior, and no taste for military expeditions in view of simple looting and he refrains himself from conducting war to indicate his strength and authority in respect to the Christian North and Southern Fatimids.

« In a testamentary letter directed to his son Hisham, he wrote:"Don'tgo into war if not needed to. Maintain the peace for your own well-being and that of your people. Never use the sword except against those who commit injustices. What pleasure is there in ravaging and invading nations, to pillage and destruct until the ends of the earth? Do not let yourself be dazzled by the vanities: your image of justice should be like that of a calm lake. »51.

On top of all that, the second Caliph of al-Andalus is known in history to have been " the Lord of the books“.If his father has led Andalusia into a political and economic apex, then Hakam II placed this apex " the intellectual plan at the forefront of civilized nations". He loved reading and revelled in the pleasure of studying. " An impeccable learner", by the time he attains the power, he has acquired an encyclopaedic knowledge affecting all areas: from logic to history, grammar to mathematics, and poetry to theology.

Under his reign, the cultural life flourishes, there are approximately 70 libraries in Cordoba, and the Court enriched by many scholars, poets and theologians who came from the East. His personal library located in the Alcazar, was the largest one in Cordoba during his time. According to descriptions of particular catalogues, Ibn Hazm had 400 000 books, many marked by the hand of the caliph and dealing with various types of knowledge. There were 70 copyists, scholars, men and women, who were working there on a daily basis. Ambassadors sent from various major cultural centres from, Damascus, Cairo, and Constantinople. These centres had to find the rare books to satisfy the richness of the enlightened sovereign. When the library was moved, the relocation lasted 6 months. He was also a great patron supporting several scholars of his time, including Jews Hasday Ibn Shaprut and Abucassis, but also the Christian bishops. In the eleventh century, the cadi of Toledo gives a portrait of Hakam II.

« He took it on him to cultivate science and to sponsor the scholars. He came from Baghdad, Egypt and elsewhere in the East and other Work Capitals where they study the rare sciences, ancient as well as modern. He stays until the end of the reign of his father and, subsequently, during his reign staff, an amount almost equal to that convened by the Abbasid. This task was made easier by his extreme love for science, and his desire to acquire all the virtues that will make him resemble the wise monarchs. Everyone went to read books and to study the doctrines of the former. »52

In 976, he dies of hemiplegia.

Mohammed Ibn Abi Amir grows up in Algeciras and moves to Cordoba with the death of his father to study literature and theology. He begins to earn his living as a calligrapher and writer for the public under a porch in the medina. Thanks to his talents, he gets employed to the offices of the Grand cadi and to the great mosque and then becomes the scribe of the Grand Vizier in the offices of the Alcazar. When Hakam II refers to his second son Hisham II as successor, he is chosen as the guardian of the property of the throne and continues his social ascent in the circles of power: First director of the hotel of currency(whichgives him a direct access to the Public Treasury) and then as the commander of the caliphs guard.

Supported by the vizier al Mushafi, sustained by the General al Ghalib(GrandGeneral under the first two caliphs), very definitely a lover of Subh, the concubine of Hakam II and Mother of Hisham II, he becomes more intriguing, richer, more powerful and also more ruthless at the Court. Fed by an extreme ambitious vision, as a student already he asked his friends to know what function they wanted to obtain when he would hold the reins of power. The death of the caliph Hakam II(976)gives him the opportunity to realize his thirst for power. At the age of 12 years, he presents to the people the new sovereign, caliph’s child Hisham II; on the podium behind him are the three real masters of the State: The Grand Vizier, Al Mushafi; the old General al Ghalib and Mohammed Ibn Abi Amir. Dissatisfied with this trio, he framed an eviction of his two competitors. He organized a trial against al Mushafi, accusing him of multiple unfounded accusations and he finished miserably in a Dungeon(978).He then engaged in a battle against Al Ghalib who died there at the age of 80 years(981).Only now as the head of power, he built a new administrative centre outside of the city, Madinat al Zahira, and now the caliph ends up living in a golden Prison, apathetic, enjoying the pleasures of women and the vapours of alcohol.

It also supported his power of the jurists in his time, from which he drew the favours by burning many books of the Alcazar that were considered unorthodox. There were only the remains to shine in the military actualities. Aware of the potential dangers of Arab contingents always capable to rebel, he engaged and trained mercenaries who were mainly Berbers, slaves and Christians Catalans. By paying them a good balance and an offer of promises of loot in exchange for an allegiance faithful to the supreme head of the State; himself. Mohammed Ibn Abi Amir then becomes a general feared and invincible. During the thirties, he organizes more than 50 expeditions: his intention seemed less to expand the Muslim territories then to plunder the Christian Territories and report triumphantly the trophies of war in the streets of the capital. He burns Barcelona(985).He plunders Santiago de Compostela(997),which will leave a deep imprint in the Christian memory. On his return of a victorious expedition, he assumes the title of al-Mansour, the victorious, ranging up to demand his hand to be kissed, a privilege only reserved to the caliph. He installs a kind of prosperous dictatorship: the prices of slaves and foods have never been as low and the streets of Cordoba never as safe.

In 1002, he departed at the age of 62 years during a military campaign. His reign is considered to be the climax of the Western Caliphate, just before its collapse. According to Ibn Khaldun,

« This is where the last sparkle of the wick before it turns off, as it happens for the flame of a lamp which, on the point of dying, produces suddenly a glare that makes us think it will get lightened up again.»53

Before it turns off permanently, enjoying the brilliance of Cordoba in approaching the city and its great mosque.

In its most prosperous time, Cordoba, in the 10th century, the city and the surrounding villages of the fertile plain of the River Guadalquivir, accounted by an estimated 100 000 inhabitants. It was"thelargest city in the West on the built surface".It had six hundred mosques, three hundred hammams, fifty hospitals, eighty public schools, ten-seven madrasas, and twenty public libraries. The abbess Hrotswitha visiting Otto the first describes Cordoba as follows:

« Shining jewel of the world, new and beautiful town, proud of its force, celebrated for its delights, resplendent with the full possession of its property »54.

Outside the ramparts are the buildings of the Madinat al-Zahra, City of the Caliphs, Madinat al Zahira of al-Mansour, Al Rusafa of Abd al-Rahman I. There are also the Jewish, Christians and Muslims cemeteries, which would be filled on Fridays, both to see the deceased and to reunite in the meetings, the homes of the campaign, the munyas, small properties of aristocrats or dignitaries surrounded by irrigated lands with gardens, fruit trees, cherry trees, almond trees, pear trees, orange trees, lemon trees…oasis during the summer. As the interior of the ramparts, trough seven gates surrounding the heart of the city in Medina. A main street crosses the medina from the north to the south, from the door of the Ossuary to the bridge or the Statue, passing between the buildings of the Alcazar and the Great Mosque.

The urban landscape is organized around this main artery and deploys a labyrinth of narrow streets due to the chaotic growth. But the city is hospitable. The streets are paved, accompanying the night by lanterns hung on the walls of houses, regularly cleaned with the help of oxcarts. They sometimes lead to deadlocks of grids closing the crossing at night for security reasons. It hears the call of the muezzin, the sound of the bells on Sunday. Among crossroads of donkeys and mules caravans, there are also a multitude of characters: rabbis or Jewish merchants, peddlers, musicians, black slaves or blonds, water carriers, perfumers, craftsmen, wild madmen, beggars, Arab theologians, grumpy monks, thieves, haughty aristocrats… The facades of the houses without windows separated the public space from the private space, concealing courtyards which were surrounded by various parts with on the ground pitchers containing oil, flour; the patios, the wealthiest ones had a well, a place of family privacy, of calm…

… Cordoba counted around its medina up to 21 suburbs, each with its wall, its baths, its Mosque, its souk, its alimentation shops:

« Butchers that would expose skinned goats and sheep as well as major working class of beef, merchants of four-seasons which proposed fresh vegetables of the valley of Guadalquivir, fruitarians, merchants of spices which also sold oil, salted butter, eggs, sugar and honey, manufacturers of pastries which proposed their sweets with much support from the Andalusians were very fond of it, comfortable cooking their foods in public and where we could buy toasted head of sheep, fried fish, laced sausages, while an aroma of thick odours invaded the air and afflicted the stomach of the hungry. »55

There is the suburb of the Jews, the juderia, the district where parchments were manufactured, the skin of veal being the most adaptable, the neighbourhood of the copyists with their inkwell attached to the belt. A famous suburb was that of the Secunda, which housed the Muwallad merchants, and craftsmen that were completely razed to the ground as a result of a rebellion by the emir Hakam the first and later transformed into a cemetery. By entering through the south, it must be before crossing the roman bridge and therefore by the Land of the dead. Between the Secunda and the bridge are two large esplanades where it meets on the feast days, of military parades or parts of polo. There is an aisle located at the foot of the wall where executed bodies were sometimes exposed. In the heart of Cordoba, the great mosque is the entry door to excellence for the incoming Hispano-Arabic civilisation, as has been masterfully demonstrated by T. Burckhardt. Rare architectural testimony of the Umayyad capital with remains of walls and ruins of the Madinat al-Zahra.

To find the primitive state of the Mosque, make an effort to imagine it as it was, dispensing the Church in the middle of the Mosque planted inside the clear forest of columns and arches as a massive cross, with the silhouette of a foot, treading right on the previous culture that constructed the mosque. Exiting the wall separating the current patio of the orange groves from the interior of the building, the light of the day could thus freely enter the forest of the pillars in the prayer room; imagine the patio with basins where the believers could do their ablution before entering the mosque; to represent the doors open sides giving access to the merchants and surrounding inhabitants to the canonical prayers.

The building can be approached according to three aspects:(a)it attests to the presence and the evolution of the Omayyad dynasty,(b),it recalls the social functions of the Mosque,(c)it evokes the spiritual meaning of Islamic art56.

(a) The construction of the Great Mosque of Cordoba is made throughout more than two centuries by the great emirs and the great Umayyad caliphs. Until the arrival of Abd al-Rahman I to Cordoba, the church of Saint Vincent had a shared wall that separated the Christians and Muslims while praying.

During the times of the Muslim population increase, Abd al-Rahman I buys the Christian part for a hundred thousand dinars, completes the work of the building and inaugurates the mosque in 786. His son and successor Hisham I completed this first step by adding a building solely reserved for women, a minaret and basins for ablution. This first mosque includes twelve rows of columns forming eleven bays of which the central leads to the mihrab. The style is one of the most original Muslim art, perhaps inspired by the Roman aqueducts or by the Mosque of Damascus: the columns, borrowed from the Christian monuments or Visigoths, bear a double series of arcs to the alternating colours; the lower arcs are in the form of horseshoe, separated from each other by pilasters extending the main columns on which the upper arches are based; the space between the upper arches is closed by stonework on which the roof beams rest. This construction with double series of arcs recalls the form of a palm tree, an important symbol for the Andalusian people.

From this first step, the construction evolves depending on the religious needs of the population and the financial means of the emirs and the rightly guided caliphs. Abd al-Rahman II(822-852)enlarges the building by moving the southern wall more to the front towards the south by adding eight spans. Abd al-Rahman III built a new minaret(theminaret of the mosque is today incorporated in the bell tower of the church) to the side of the Court of ablutions. In 962 Hakam II builds a house of rest for travellers and beggars, by renewing the southern wall with twelve spans. Since being the heir of a very flourishing state, he could beautify the mosque in majestic ways. He builds a portal with Kufic entries, which leads to a mihrab decorated by tiles sent by the Byzantine emperor. The tiles had an octagonal form and were covered with three cupolas. This part of the mosque is magnificent: It is decorated with carved marbles, stuccoes appearing of plant motifs, mosaics carried out by workers of Constantinople. A maksoura, a fully sculpted space reserved for the Caliph of 11 meters to 40 and a mimbar, the Chair of the preaches, only completed in 5 years attests to the luxury of the mosque. The transport of new basins of ablution, from a quarry near Cordoba, emphasizes the size of the site:

« Arranged on a plate of wood, wrapped in a rounded form strengthened iron seat frames, placed on a truck dragged by sixty robust bulls on an established route. At the end of sixty days, the convoy reached the mosque and the vats were recessed in the pits prepared to receive them ».57

20 years later, the final extension of the mosque is made by al-Mansour. He puts his touch to the prestigious building and responds to the increase of the population by putting quotas on the Berbers. He could not lengthen the mosque in the direction of the south because of the River Guadalquivir, so he expands it in the direction of the east. The eastern wall is therefore destroyed; homes are expropriated by adding the new wing, also off-centring the position of the mihrab within the building. During his expedition to the Compostela, he returns with bells carried on the back of Christian captives, which will become the chandeliers of the mosque. During the taking of Cordoba by Ferdinand III in 1236, the bells will be returned to Santiago de Compostela on the back of Muslim captives.

(b) The Great Mosque where the population would meet to celebrate the annual Feasts of the Muslim calendar has vital social functions outside of the obligatory Friday prayers, the mosque is a meeting place, a place of rest and relaxation where you can take refuge from the heat and the hustle and bustle of the city, in the shade of the orange trees, palms, galleries and around refreshing water of the basins. The mosque is also a place of teaching of the Koran and religious sciences, jurisprudence and grammar. Masters, often travellers, coming from the East or of the holy places, teach books learned by heart, backed by a pillar, to disciples of all social strata. It also becomes at specific times the room of the Tribunal for the Grand Cadi, Supreme Court judge, who, sitting simply on a mat, gives his sentences deemed for their accuracy and their righteousness. Impartial, independent of the power, leading a modest life, the cadis of Cordoba are famous for their exemplary nature. The grand cadi also plays an important role in the social structure of the caliphate. He is the second in the hierarchy of the kingdom at the same rank as the chancellor, after the Caliph himself.

But unlike the chancellor who usually lived in the luxury of the Court, directs the Council of Ministers and is in charge of the royal treasury, incomes of royal properties, the supreme judge who exerts to the great mosque is a modest person with impeccable morals. He ensures the contact with the population, making the bridge between the classes in power and the citizens. He manages the donations left to the mosque by distributing it to schools, mosques or to other public offices. He is responsible for the religious education part and often happens to be the Imam of the Great Mosque. There are numerous biographies on the judges of Cordoba. They represent a kind of paradigm of generous justice, right and wise to the application and interpretation of the law.

(c) Unlike Christianity in which there is a hierarchy of priests, any person can play the role of the imam in Islam. This principle is found in the religious architecture that is radically different from a church and a mosque. In a church, any one moves through a corridor that leads to the centre of the building: the hotel overseen by the priest. In a mosque, the infinity of pillars and mats laid on the floor create a homogeneous space, without centre, which is where there is the praying person is the centre of the mosque. Moreover, becoming Caliph, a representative of God on earth, beyond his political meaning, is the spiritual end of any human on earth.

Certainly the niche of prayer(mihrab)seems to play the role of the altar in the Church but it has the function to indicate the direction of Mecca and to echo the words of the Imam to make them audible in any mosque. As well the mihrab, the niche, even if it is not essential to the Muslim ritual it exist since the beginning of Islam; its form and its name recall some of the passages of the mysterious Koran:"Theniche of Lights", symbol of the divine presence in the human heart. The arc entry of the mihrab, the mihrab itself and its dome are at the service of the Verb, its recitation:

« Es caracteristico del arte islamico utilizar la decoracion mas suntuosa para enmarcar y honra algo que, en si mismo, no es visible : la palabra hablada. La palabra es para el Islam lo que para el arte cristiano la imagen sagrada. »58

The entry of the niche is crowned by an arc, forming a range, delimited by a framework,(alfiz,rectangular molding) on which is written the Surah 59, 24:"Itis God!!!! There is no God then him!!! It is the King, the Holy, the Peace, The one who testifies to His own truthfulness. The Vigilant, the Almighty, the Very Strong, the Very Great. Glory to God!!!! It is very far from what they associate with Him! " 59. This entry

« emite sus rayos como el disco de la luna o del sol cuando se esta élévando paulatinamente sobre el horizonte ; el arco no es rigido, parece respirer, ensachando su pecho con la plenitud de su lelicidad interior, mientras el marco retangular, que le encierra, compens su dinamismo : energia irradiante y quietud estatica llegan a un equilibrio insuperable. Precisamente en esto consiste la formula basica de la arquitectura musulmana occidental. »60

It is a balance between revitalizing energy and static tranquillity, it allows access to the niche of the heart where the revealed Word of God is recited and listened to, like a shell61. The space of the niche is covered by a barrel dome in the shape of a ribbed shell, which houses a pearl. The legend tells that a spring morning the shell rises to the surface of the sea opens to receive a taste of dew that ends up growing into a pearl.