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We
leave the Spanish capital of Madrid and head for the city of Malaga, which is
around 600 kilometers south of Madrid. The view of Malaga from the city's
castle is extraordinary. The population of Malaga is around 650,000, and the
place has the feel of a typical Mediterranean city. It is also a very popular
stopping-off point for tourists. Malaga is the second largest city in Spain's
Andalusia, and interestingly, it was the birthplace of famous artist Pablo
Picasso as well as current cinema star Antonio Banderas.
Visitors
to Malaga can tour the city in horse-drawn carriages or perhaps take a look
at the bullfighting arena.
After
spending some more time in Malaga, we set out for Gibraltar, which lies
across from Moroccan shores on the Straits of Gibraltar. From Gibraltar, it
is possible to get a very clear view of Africa, as the African and European
continents lie very close to one another at this point. From Gibraltar, we
head for the Andalusian city of Tarifa, a point from where visitors can, if
they wish, catch one of the regular ferryboats and take a 35-minute ride
across the Straits of Gibraltar to the Moroccan city of Tangier. It is
interesting to consider that not far from Tarifa lies Gibraltar, which is
British soil.
In
the year 711 Tariq ibn Ziyad set foot on Spanish soil for the first time
along with 7,000 soldiers. The moment he arrived, he ordered their ships to
be burnt so that none of the soldiers would harbor ideas of leaving again.
The arrival of Tariq ibn Ziyad was the first step towards the creation of the
Umayyad state in Andalusia. And from there onwards, Muslims were to rule for
eight centuries in this land. It took Tariq ibn Ziyad and his soldiers only
one-and-a-half months to take control of the enormous land of Spain before
them. The centuries that followed were ones marked by tolerance and peace.
Even
today there are many traces of Islam evident in the Spanish city of Tarifa.
Narrow streets and homes which bear very similar architectural flourishes to
ones found in Morocco are just a couple of these reminders. In fact, Tarifa
has strong, regular trade and cultural communications with Africa. Tarifa has
many wind farms on its hilltops to generate electricity.
Another
Andalusian city is Marbella, which lies not far from Malaga and hosts many
visitors, particularly through the summer months. There is a mosque along
with a minaret in Marbella that was ordered built by the king of Saudi
Arabia.
Cordoba:
a former Islamic capital
We
head from here to the Spanish city of Cordoba. This city was for many years
the capital of the Andalusian Umayyads. Under the reign of the Andalusian
Umayyad state, the population of Cordoba rose above 1 million. This is
particularly striking when you consider that nowadays, Cordoba's population
is a much smaller, at around 300,000. Cordoba was a striking city even then,
notable for its advanced sewage systems, universities, hospitals, libraries,
clean streets, clean drinking water and general appeal. Cordoba under Umayyad
rule even had street lamps that were connected through the use of an oil
system. This meant that Cordoba maintained a clean, well-lit atmosphere while
other cities like London and Paris were in the dark.
The minaret of the Great Mosque of Cordoba - A street in Tarifa
There
were enormous libraries at the time in Cordoba, as the city was a capital of
knowledge and culture. Interestingly, Ibn Rushd (known in European literature
as Averroes) was born in Cordoba; he was a man whose books were to be read
for hundreds of years in universities both east and west. Later, these same
Andalusian lands were to produce other important thinkers in addition to Ibn
Rushd such as Ibn Tufail and Ibn Bajjah. As it turns out, these Muslims from
the Umayyad state in Andalusia were to play an important role in the European
renaissance. Some of the first European universities were to be formed by
students who came to Cordoba to learn. And books written on subjects as
varied as mathematics, medicine, astronomy and chemistry as well as other
subjects by Andalusian intellectuals were also to become important in the
changes that took place in Europe. In fact, the Islamic intellectuals from
Andalusia said far in advance of their Western counterparts that the world
was in fact round and not flat. And while there were still no schools in
Europe, Andalusia boasted a school system that stretched all the way to its
villages.
Another
striking aspect of the Islamic civilization here was cleanliness. One of the
first moves made by Muslims no matter where they settled was to open up large
hamams (public baths) for the local people. In Cordoba alone, there were 990
hamams for the local residents of this city. Europeans at the time were very
influenced by the hygienic habits of the Muslims they encountered. In many
ways, the state of Andalusia was at the time the most modern and developed
part of Europe under the Umayyads, and the city of Cordoba was Europe's
largest metropolis at the time. A full 99 percent of the city's residents
were literate.
During
those years, seven different races and three major religions could be found
in Andalusia. Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together in peace and
tolerance, an example the likes of which Europe was not to see again for a
long time. The heights of civilization achieved at this time in the
Andalusian region were unparalleled at the time in Europe.
There
is only one mosque left standing these days in Cordoba, though at the time of
the Muslim Andalusian state, there were 1,600 mosques in Cordoba alone. The
Great Mosque of Cordoba, or the Qurtuba mosque, is a structure built during
the eighth century under Abd ar-Rahman I. This mosque went through many
different stages and additions, though it was finally completed in the 10th
century. The Cordoba mosque is often referred to as the largest, most
glorious mosque in the West. It stands on a large piece of land and can hold
up to 50,000 people at one time, if you include its courtyard. It is so large
that when you enter, you feel almost as though you are wandering through a
forest of columns. The mihrab of the mosque is quite memorable, though the
mosque's mimber, an unparalleled example of woodwork which took seven years
to create, is missing.
Spaniards
call this mosque La Mezquita-Catedral, which means the “mosque-cathedral.”
After Cordoba fell in the 13th century, it was consecrated as a cathedral,
and in fact, much reconstruction, as well as damage, was done to the original
structure at the time. Some say that when Spanish King Carlos V saw the
cathedral inside the mosque, he said: “Do you think I would have given
permission had I known that you were going to damage this unparalleled piece
of architecture? I kind find churches like this one everywhere, but a mosque
such as this may never be built again.”
Other
still-visible traces of the Muslim culture that used to be so predominant
across Andalusia are the fountains you can see everywhere. In the Jewish
Sephardim quarter of Cordoba, we see the statue of Jewish thinker Maimonides.
The
Madinat al-Zahra of Cordoba, or in Spanish, the Medina Azahara, was a city
formed by Abdurrahman III during the 10th century. This is the spot where the
main decisions in leading the Umayyad state were made. Despite its enormous
importance in the past, today there are really only traces left of the
Madinat al-Zahra. There used to be a local resident population of 100,000 in
this city, which was started in 936 and not completed until 1013.
Interestingly, history forgot about Madinat al-Zahra after the Muslims left,
until 1911, when images of it showed up on satellite photographs. Only 10
percent of the city has been uncovered so far, the other 90 percent is still
underground. Who knows what interesting further clues the remaining uncovered
parts of Madinat al-Zahra will give us to the extraordinary civilization that
once thrived in Andalusia.
[QUICK FACTS]
Capital:
Madrid
Official
language: Spanish
(Castilian)
Government: Parliamentary democracy
and constitutional monarchy
King:
Juan
Carlos I
Prime
Minister: José
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
Area:
504,782
square kilometers
Population:
40,491,052*
GDP
(PPP): $1,361
trillion**
Religions: Roman Catholic (94
percent), others (6 percent)
*
July 2008 estimate **2007 estimate
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