Stopping along the way to Madrid

The view of the "Old City" from across the Rio Guadalquivir in Cordoba

As we made our way to Madrid, the final destination of our two week tour, we stopped for a quick visit to Cordoba where we didn’t find “Surprising Affordability” or “Soft Corinthian leather,” but Ricardo Montalbán jokes aside we did find another beautiful old world village with a wonderful history. (But no one was driving a Chrysler.)

Earlier on our trip one of our local guides, Joaquin Perez, pointed out that in today’s world we often confuse words like Arab, Muslim, and Moors using them interchangeably. This happens a lot when looking into the heritage of many of the southern spanish communities like Granada, Cordoba or Seville. True the Moors were muslim, but they did not come from the Arabian peninsula so they really are not Arabs. They migrated from across the straight of Gibraltar, North Africa specifically, in the country we know today as Morocco. The point in all of this is to say their “brand” of Islam is different than the middle east, which is to say while they were in control of the Iberian peninsula, Christians did in fact live side by side with the Moors. But to be Christian you had to pay more in taxes. The tables were reversed when the Christians defeated the Moors in 1492, meaning Muslims could live in places like Alhambra, or in cities like Seville and Cordoba if they paid more in taxes until much later during the Spanish Inquisition which called on everyone to convert. The point the guide was making, there is a history in Spain of Muslims and Christians coexisting despite some of the modern rhetoric from pressure groups which like to rewrite history for their own purposes.

As for our visit to Cordoba, 1000 years ago it was the most important city in Spain and perhaps all of Europe. Because of the Moorish influence, the townspeople were very well educated. While the literacy rate among European Christians was perhaps less than 10%, 90% of the muslims living in Cordoba could read and write. It is said Cordoba is where the first University was established although I believe folks in Greece would quibble. The point is because the social climate of Cordoba was pro-education, we have them to thank for keeping many of the scrolls from Greek philosophers which were later translated into Latin and taught when the rest of Europe came out of the Dark Ages.

As you might expect the cathedral in Cordoba is beautiful, and unlike Seville, the architects did not tear down the muslim mosque, choosing to build on the structure instead. And as I said the brand of Islam which was preached here though from the Koran, was different than the middle east. While muslim believers are supposed to pray to Mecca, the direction of the mosque is towards Morocco. There are a number of theories of why this happened from it being a mistake, which is usually dismissed because these were educated people, but because Morocco is where they came from, and the Imam at the time when the mosque was built wanted to honor their heritage.