Cordoba…Progress and Civilization 

Sunday, 02 January 2011

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Written by Dr. Ragheb Elsergany

Aspects of Progress and Civilization in Cordoba

In the lines below we get to learn about some aspects of progress and civilization in Andalusia in general and Cordoba City in particular, to discover the Islamic contributions to the human history   

Cordoba Arcade

It was one of Cordoba City's most important landmarks located on the al-Wadi al-Kabir River. It was known as al-Jisr or the bridge and Qantarat ad-Dahr or ad-Dahr Arcade. It neared 400m in length, 40m in width and 30m in height!          

Ibn al-Wardi and al-Idrisi say, "It is the arcade that outdid other arcades in its construction and perfection"[1]  

It had 17 arches with 12m distance between one another and each single arch was 12m wide and 7m in breadth. It was 15m over the surface of the river.[2] 

Those dimensions belong to an arcade constructed in the early 2nd Hijri Century (101 AH), i.e. about 1400 years ago, by as-Samh Ibn Malik al Khawlani, the then Andalusia ruler appointed by the then Muslim Caliph Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz. This means it was built at a time when horses, mules and donkeys were the only available forms of transportation. And methods of building and construction were not as advanced as today. This simply makes the Cordoba Arcade one of the most outstanding landmarks and sources of proud in the Muslim civilization. 

The Great Mosque of Cordoba

Al-Jami al-Kabir or the Great Mosque of Cordoba is one of Cordoba's most unique landmarks and standing monuments. In Spanish it is called Mezquita – from the Arabic word masjid (mosque). It was Andalusia's most famous mosque (given the fact that it was converted into a Cathedral). It was one of the largest mosques in Europe! It was built by Abdul Rahman ad-Dakhil in (170AH – 786 AD) and later by his son Hisham I. Each new caliph made changes to the mosque's width and ornamentation, only to produce Cordoba City's most magnificent mosques and one of the largest mosques at the time.                 

Columns of Cordoba Jami

Describing the mosque, the author of Kitab ar-Rawd al Mi'tar (The Book of the Fragrant Garden) says: Located in Cordoba is the most famous mosque, one of the most magnificent mosques in the world in terms of its area, perfect execution, beautiful making and perfect construction, loved by Marwani caliphs, who kept making changes to it, thus increasing its beauty and perfection. It reached a level of absolute perfection so hard to describe. It became second to none among all other Muslim mosques in terms of ornamentation, length and width; 180 spans of the outstretched arms, half of its ceiling is full-ceiled and the other half is a court with no ceiling. The number of its arches is 24 and the number of its ceiling posts among the columns, the posts of its domes and the posts of its grandest dome is 1000. It has 113 chandeliers with the largest carrying 1000 lamps and the smallest 12. All its woodworks are made from the Tartushi pines[3]. Its ceiling has a unique variety of ornamentations and variegations where no two are similar, arranged perfectly and colored excellently in red, white, blue, green and dark blue, thus becoming a beautiful site for sore eyes. Each of its ceiling tiles is 33 spans and there are 15 spans between each two columns and each column has a marble apex and marble base.

The mosque's qiblah (direction to which Muslims turn in praying) is so masterful that no one can describe. Its perfection catches one's breath. It has gilded mosaics and crystal sent by the Great Qustantiniya's first man to Abdul Rahman an-Nasser Lidinellah. At both sides of the prayer niche there are four columns: Two in green, two colored like starlings. They are invaluable. At the top of the prayer niche there is a one large slab of marble molded and adorned artfully with gold, azure-blue and other beautiful colors. And on the prayer niche there is a wooden stockade containing multiple strange variegations and at the right side of the prayer niche there is the pulpit which has no counterpart on Earth made from ebony wood and boxwood and it is reported that: The pulpit took 7 years to make by 6 men, let alone other people serving them!   

At the left side of the prayer niche there is a house containing kits and washtubs made from gold and silver. Candles are always lit on the 27th night of the holy month Ramadan. At that store there is a copy of the Holy Quran which is so heavy that two men are needed to lift. That copy contains four pages from Othman Ibn Affan's copy of the Holy Quran which he wrote himself. It also contains a drop of Ibn Affan's blood. That copy of the Holy Quran is taken out every morning by a group of people working at the mosque. Its cover is unique engraved with strange variegations. There is a special chair on which that copy of the Holy Quran is put for the imam to recite half a hizb (a certain part of Quran) and then it is taken back.      

At the right side of the prayer niche and the pulpit there is a door leading to the palace between the two walls of the mosque in abutting arcade and on that arcade there are eight doors; four of them close at the side of the palace and the other four doors close at the side of the mosque. The mosque has 20 gates coated with copper and copper refulgence. On each gate there are two magnificent rings.   

At the northern side of the mosque there is the minaret with its extraordinary shape, perfect works. It is a hundred arms in the air; after eighty arms the stand of the muezzin (the prayer announcer) is installed. There are two stairways to the minaret: One at the western side and the other at the eastern. 

At the four rounded facets of this hermitage there are two rows of round-shaped arches and a four-closed gate house where two muezzins stay at night. Atop the hermitage which is above the house there are three golden apples and two silver apples and iridaceous leaves; the largest apple can contain 60 rotls of oil. A total of 60 men work at the mosque under one supervisor.[4]

Ibn al Wardi said almost the same in his Kharidat al-'Aja'ib wa Faridat al-Ghara'ib (The Pearl of Wonders and the Uniqueness of Things Strange) book: The mosque's yard was full of orange and pomegranate trees for hungry people and the city visitors to eat. What is regrettable and tear-jerking that great magnificent mosque was converted following the Andalusia collapse into a cathedral affiliated to the church but under the same name. Its high minaret was converted into a tower bearing church bells in order to occult its Islamic style. The mosque's strong walls still bear Quranic engravings that reflect abnormal artful genius. Nowadays, the mosque is one of the world's most famous historical attractions.         

3) University of Cordoba:

Worship was not the only practice at the Great Mosque of Cordoba. The mosque was also a great university – one of the world's most prestigious academies at the time and the largest academic center in Europe. It was the gateway through which Arabic sciences moved to European countries over many centuries. All types of knowledge were taught at the hands of greatest professors. It was the mecca of students from around the four corners of the globe, Muslims or non-Muslims. Teaching and enlightenment sessions and gatherings had been taking up as large space as half of the mosque. Sheikhs were well salaried in order to encourage them to devote themselves to lesson giving and compilation. Funds have been also dedicated for students, as well as rewards and aid for the needy. This at the end of the day markedly helped enrich the academic and scholarly life at the time and at that environment. And Cordoba worthily became the fountain of a large number of scholars and scientists in all areas of knowledge, including az-Zahrawi (325-404 AH- 936-1013 AD) who is the most inconic surgeon, physician and pharmacologist, Ibn Baja, Ibn Tufail, Muhammad al Ghafiqi (an ophthalmology founder), Ibn Abd al Bar, Ibn Rushd, al Idrisi, Abu Bakr Yahya Ibn Sa'adun Ibn Tammam al Azdi, al Qadhi al Qurtubi an-Nahawi, al Hafiz al Qurtubi, Abu Ja'far al Qurtubi and many others.         

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