Andalucia, Spain
March/April 2023
For this trip to Andalucia in southern Spain, we chose to fly from the UK to Malaga and then use trains to visit Ronda, Granada, Seville, Cadiz, Jerez de la Frontera, and Cordoba. We stayed in the town centres with easy walking access to all the major sights, and walked miles to discover the rich history of this region. To the modern visitor, traditional Spain conjures up bull fighting and flamenco. And while bull fighting no longer occurs there, the tradition of flamenco is still going strong. Most of the cities we visited had flamenco shows for tourists. We watched three shows (in Granada, Seville, and Cordoba) and by far the best was in Cordoba.
I thought I knew something about the history of Andalucia until I got there and realised I knew nothing! The Roman empire spread here and every city museum seemed to have its own collection of huge Roman sculptures and intricate mosaics. After all, any Roman of any standing would have their holiday home here. Indeed, Andalucia became one if its wealthiest and most civilised areas. In the late 4th century, the Romans were displaced by the Germanic Visigoths, making Toledo their capital. But that all fell apart and in 711 Andalucia was under Islamic rule, and it remained that way for nearly eight centuries until 1492.
In 750, the Umayyad dynasty of caliphs in Damascus was overthrown by the Abbasids, who shifted their capital to Baghdad. One of the Umayyads, Abd ar-Rahman, escaped and set himself up as an independent emir (prince) in Cordoba, bringing piece and wealth for the next 250 years. He also brought the aesthetics of horseshoe arches and palm trees!
Cordoba is best known for its Grand Mosque (the Mesquita) which opened in 785 under the rule of the Umayyad dynasty. The remarkable thing about Cordoba at this time was its religious freedoms. It was a time when one might accept to hold contradictory beliefs at the same time. So Muslims, Jews, and Christians all lived (mostly) in harmony; they spoke the same language (Arabic), they dressed the same, and they ate the same foods, only their Gods were different.
Cordoba became the place to be in Western Europe, a place where astronomy, medicine, mathematics, philosophy, history and botany flourished.
Cordoba was a city where the Muslim polymath Averroes (1126-1198) could study the Greek philosophers which he translated into Latin and Hebrew. His work was later condemned by the Catholic church. The relationship between religion and philosophy was something of major concern between the different religious communities in Al-Andalus.
In the late 11th century, the northern Christian states were starting to eye up Al-Andalus. When the Christians captured Toledo in 1085, Seville asked for help from the Almoravids who were a much stricter Muslim sect of Saharan Berbers. The Almoravids came, defeated Castilla's Alfonso VI, then decided to take Al-Andalus for themselves and persecute the Jews and Christians. As seemed the norm, the power of the Almoravids ultimately declined and in 1173 they were displaced by the Almohads, an even stricter sect who made Seville their capital. But by 1248, both Cordoba and Seville were under Christian control.
In the meantime in Granada, Mohammed ibn Yusuf ibn Nasr, the Nasrid emirate began holding out for nearly 250 years as the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula.
Finally, the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Fernando, launched the final crusade of the Reconquista against Granada in 1482. The Muslims were promised respect for their religion, culture and property, but that did not last long. They were banished along with the Jews who refused Christian baptism in the period of the Grand Inquisition. Spain was now for Christians only.
In 1492, Isabel and Fernando sponsor Christopher Columbus's journey to the West. He 'discovers' the Americas, and Al-Andalus is reborn with the wealth acquired from another continent.
And when you wander around the cities of Al-Andalus (Andalucia), this Catholic wealth is visible everywhere. Yet, the Christians inherently appreciated the beauty of Islamic mosques and palaces, and built their own gardens based on Moorish designs. One can't help but wonder if they ever regretted putting a cathedral right inside the stunning Grand Mosque of Cordoba?
