The Mezquita of Córdoba began as a mosque in the eighth century and is now a cathedral, with both histories visible in one building.
Accounts say the first mosque was begun around 785 by Abd al-Rahman the First, the Umayyad ruler who had made Córdoba the capital of al-Andalus. Later rulers enlarged it several times. Its best-known feature is the forest of double-tiered arches in red brick and white stone, carried on hundreds of columns, many of them reused from earlier Roman and Visigothic buildings.
The mihrab area added under al-Hakam the Second in the later tenth century is among the richest rooms of the building, with gold mosaic and a domed ribbed vault.
After Córdoba passed to the Kingdom of Castile in 1236, the building was consecrated as a cathedral. In the 1520s a large Renaissance nave was built inside it, a decision reported to have been regretted even by the king who approved it.
A claim that the site of the mosque-cathedral was once a Roman temple dedicated to Janus dates as far back as Pablo de Céspedes and is sometimes still repeated today. However, Robert Knapp, in his 1983 study of Roman-era Córdoba, dismissed this claim as speculation based on a misunderstanding of Roman milestones found in the area.
Visigothic church
According to traditional accounts, the present-day site of the Cathedral–Mosque of Córdoba was originally a Visigothic Christian church dedicated to Saint Vincent of Saragossa, which was divided and shared by Christians and Muslims after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. As the Muslim community grew and this existing space became too small for prayer, the basilica was expanded little by little through piecemeal additions to the building. This sharing arrangement of the site lasted until 785, when the Christian half was purchased by Abd al-Rahman I, for a hundred thousand dinars. He then demolished the church structure and built the new mosque on its site. In return, Abd al-Rahman also allowed the Christians to build or rebuild some churches outside the city walls. These included churches dedicated to the Christian martyrs Saints Faustus, Januarius, and Marcellus whom they deeply revered.
The historicity of this narrative has been challenged as archaeological evidence is scant and the narrative is not corroborated by contemporary accounts of the events following Abd al-Rahman I's initial arrival in al-Andalus. The narrative of the church being transformed into a mosque, which goes back to the tenth-century historian Al-Razi, echoed similar narratives of the Islamic conquest of Syria, in particular the story of building the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. For medieval Muslim historians, these parallels served to highlight a dynastic Umayyad conquest of Spain and appropriation of Visigothic Córdoba. Another tenth-century source mentions a church that stood at the site of the mosque without giving further details. An archaeological exhibit in the mosque–cathedral of Cordoba today displays fragments of a Late Roman or Visigothic building, emphasizing an originally Christian nature of the complex. The "stratigraphy" of the site is complicated and made more so by the impact of contemporary political debates about cultural identity in Spain.
Construction of the mosque
The Great Mosque was built in the context of the new Umayyad Emirate in Al-Andalus which Abd ar-Rahman I founded in 756. Abd ar-Rahman was a fugitive and one of the last remaining members of the Umayyad royal family which had previously ruled the first hereditary caliphate based in Damascus, Syria. This Umayyad Caliphate was overthrown during the Abbasid Revolution in 750 and the ruling family were nearly all killed or executed in the process. Abd ar-Rahman survived by fleeing to North Africa and, after securing political and military support, took control of the Muslim administration in the Iberian Peninsula from its governor, Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri. Cordoba was already the capital of the Muslim province and Abd ar-Rahman continued to use it as the capital of his independent emirate.
Construction of the mosque began in 785–786 (169 AH) and finished a year later in 786–787 (170 AH). This relatively short period of construction was aided by the reuse of existing Roman and Visigothic materials in the area, especially columns and capitals. Syrian (Umayyad), Visigothic, and Roman influences have been noted in the building's design, but the architect is not known. The craftsmen working on the project probably included local Iberians as well as people of Syrian origin. According to tradition and historical written sources, Abd ar-Rahman involved himself personally and heavily in the project, but the extent of his personal influence in the mosque's design is debated.
Architecture and design
The Great Mosque of Córdoba held a place of importance amongst the Islamic community of al-Andalus for centuries. In Córdoba, the Umayyad capital, the Mosque was seen as the heart and central focus of the city. To the people of al-Andalus "the beauty of the mosque was so dazzling that it defied any description."
After all of its historical expansions, the mosque-cathedral covers an area of 590 by 425 feet (180 m × 130 m). The building's original floor plan follows the overall form of some of the earliest mosques built from the very beginning of Islam. Some of its features had precedents in the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, which was an important model built before it. It had a rectangular prayer hall with aisles arranged perpendicular to the qibla, the direction towards which Muslims pray. It has thick outer walls with a somewhat fortress-like appearance. To the north is a spacious courtyard (the former sahn), surrounded by an arcaded gallery, with gates on the north, west, and east sides, and fountains that replace the former mosque fountains used for ablutions. A bridge or elevated passage (the sabat) once existed on the west side of the mosque which connected the prayer hall directly with the Caliph's palace across the street. Al-Razi, an Arab writer, speaks of the valuable wine-coloured marble, obtained from the mountains of the district, which was much used in embellishing the naves of the mosque.
The Christian-era additions (after 1236) included many small chapels throughout the building and various relatively cosmetic changes. The most substantial and visible additions are the cruciform nave and transept of the Capilla Mayor (the main chapel where Mass is held today) which were begun in the 16th century and inserted into the middle of the former mosque's prayer hall, as well as the remodelling of the former minaret into a Renaissance-style bell tower.
The hypostyle hall
The mosque-cathedral's hypostyle hall dates from the original mosque construction and originally served as its main prayer space for Muslims. The main hall of the mosque was used for a variety of purposes. It served as a central prayer hall for personal devotion, for the five daily Muslim prayers and the special Friday prayers accompanied by a sermon. It also would have served as a hall for teaching and for Sharia law cases during the rule of Abd al-Rahman I and his successors.
The hall was large and flat, with timber ceilings held up by rows of two-tiered arches resting on columns. The two-tiered arches consist of a lower tier of horseshoe arches and an upper tier of semi-circular arches.These rows of arches divided the original building into 11 aisles or "naves" running from north to south, later increased to 19 by Al-Mansur's expansion, while in turn forming perpendicular aisles running east–west between the columns. The nave that leads to the mihrab – which was originally the central nave of the mosque until Al-Mansur's lateral expansion of the building altered its symmetry – is slightly wider than the other naves, demonstrating a subtle hierarchy in the mosque's floor plan.
More to know
2000s Muslim campaigns
Muslims across Spain have lobbied the Catholic Church to allow them to pray in the complex, with the Islamic Council of Spain lodging a formal request with the Vatican. However, Spanish church authorities and the Vatican have opposed this move. Muslim prayer has not been always banned outright and there are some cases of token concessions in the past, including Saddam Hussein's prayer at the Mihrab in December 1974.
Ownership dispute
The building was formally registered for the first time by the Córdoba's Cathedral Cabildo in 2006 on the basis of the article 206 of the Ley Hipotecaria from 1946 (whose constitutionality has been questioned). The diocese never presented a formal title of ownership nor did provide a judicial sentence sanctioning the usurpation on the basis of a long-lasting occupation, with the sole legal argument being that of the building's "consecration" after 1236, as a cross-shaped symbol of ash was reportedly drawn on the floor at the time. Defenders of the ecclesial ownership argue on the basis of continuous and peaceful occupation of the building by the Church whereas defenders of the public ownership argue that the mosque-cathedral never ceased to be a State's property, initially belonging to the Crown of Castile (and henceforth the Spanish State). Advocates of ecclesiastical ownership reject the later argument, pointing to historical evidence that King Ferdinand III of Castile donated the cathedral to the Church in 1236.
PSOE's Isabel Ambrosio, Mayor of Córdoba from 2015 to 2019, defended a model of public and shared management. In July 2019, the subsequent mayor of Córdoba, José María Bellido, closed down a commission investigating ownership rights, saying it should be reserved for Catholic worship. He noted, "There are no administrative tasks arising from this commission and I've no intention of reactivating it."
Legacy
By leaving the mosque to coexist with the cathedral, the building is a physical repository of power struggles in Spain. Additionally, it is a showcase of architectural hybridity, representing ideological intersections between Christianity and Islam.
The History, Architecture and later sections are adapted from the Wikipedia article “Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article. Text has been shortened.
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