How Islamic Architecture in Spain Changed from the Seventh Century to the Mid-sixteenth Century

Spain has the most formidable castles in the world. Spain has more than 1000 Spanish castles recorded through history. The castles were built for various reasons. However, the primary reason was to stop the Arabs when they invaded Spain in 711. The Spanish built so many of them in fact. These castles were mostly concentrated in the northern part which was where the Arabs advanced when they attacked. And when the Spanish military moved to reconquer the peninsula towards the south, they built additional strongholds to prevent the Arabs from reclaiming Spain. These castles were known as Castilla.

Another important Islamic site is situated in Cordoba, southern Spain, along the banks of Guadalquivir river (the Great River). Cordoba served as the capital of the Caliphate of Cordoba. Cordoba houses the famous Great Mosque or Gran Mezquita, the largest mosque in the Western World. The interior of the mosque consisted of a mirhab, a niche that separates the qibla wall from the others. The mirhab was intentionally positioned facing Mecca for the faithful who prayed in that direction.

In its Golden Age, Islam’s influence reached all the way to Spain, Anatolia, West Africa, and India, among other regions. While these regions were all, in a way, united under a common religion, each of them both altered and were altered by Islam in their own unique ways. Although there were similarities that existed with the spread of Islam to each of those places, many more differences prevailed. Differences and similarities existed in the forms of the role of migration, role of trade, role of cultural exchange, methods of conversion to Islam, and the unique cultural developments in each region.

In addition to the structure's architectural composition, elaborate Quranic inscriptions further elaborate this message of religious superiority. Carole Hillenbrand alludes to such:

The expansion showed new types of secure exchange and banking for the multiple merchants along Eurasia. For example, Abbasid merchants learned to journey in groups, as singles were prey to threatening pirates and weather. The Al-Andalus, or Islamic- Spain prosperity, showed the effects of distant communication, as Umayyad directors increased diets and trade under the new 10-mile capital at Cordoba. Also, Islamic economic members invented the “sakk,’’ a systematic word for “check’’ that granted merchants the right to trade credits with other businesses. Overall, distant connections inspired new economic structures for the massive Islam.

Muslim conquests lasted from 622 AD to 750 AD, and would continue to move forward until the 18th century. These expansions of religion and politics were led by dynasties of Caliphs , beginning with the prophet Muhammad and then the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs. Islam spread from Mecca to Medina and furthered into central Asia, North Africa, Spain, and parts of the old Byzantine and Persian empires. Despite this, there is a large misunderstanding about the spread of Islam during this period of time and why the expansion of the Catholic Church after the Dark Ages instead takes precedence in Western Europe. The halt of the expansion of Islamic rule in Europe can be linked back to the Battle of Tours back in 733 AD. This battle was meant to be the Islamic Empires first expansion into Europe nearing the end of the period called the Dark Ages in European history. This resulted in the expansion of the early modern Catholic Church in Europe during the Renaissance and the misunderstanding of Islamic politics.

The Pantheon is an iconic part of architecture, particularly in the mediterranean. Constructed in Imperial Rome, the Pantheon was an incredible piece that forever influenced the basics of architecture. A similar piece, contemporary to the Pantheon, would be the Dome of the Rock. Found in Jerusalem, the Umayyad caliph built the shrine in the seventh century to serve a function as an Islamic shrine. Being the oldest extant Islamic monument known to man, the Dome of the Rock is sacred to both the Muslim and jewish religions.While being in completely different cultures, the Pantheon and the Dome of the Rock share numerous similarities varying from their functionality to the characteristic style of the domes.

the most historical mosques, Hagia Sophia and the Dome of the Rock, are built for different

They established the first primary schools for children and universities for continuing education. They opened their public and private libraries to the public internationally. Muslims built great libraries and learning centers in places such as Baghdad, Cordoba, and Cairo. Mosques were used as a meeting place where people could gather around a learned scholar, attend his lectures, read books with him/her, and gain knowledge. Libraries developed early in the Islamic world as a result of the commitment to literacy on the part of early Muslims. Collections of texts were attached to mosques, madrasahs (schools), and bayt al-hikma (research institutions). The Muslims were the forerunners of European universities, having established hundreds of colleges in advance of

Architecture comes with many significant meanings, including religious significance. The Pantheon, built from 118 to 125 CE in Rome, Italy, was a temple made to worship the Roman gods and goddesses. This temple is one of the most important buildings both in history and architecture, influencing many other monuments with its form, such as The Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock, built from 687 to 692 CE, was the first great Islamic building. Located in Jerusalem, it is a shrine still very significant to many religions, such as Judaism and Christianity, today. Though not resembling each other in appearance, these buildings are extremely similar, in terms of religious meaning. The Pantheon and the Dome of the Rock, through their own distinctive form and similar location backgrounds, illuminate religion as the most important factor in each society, as these monuments symbolize a sense of unification throughout the city.

The two Islamic structures are the Dome of the rock and alhambra. It is likely that both structures were built for the same purpose. The Dome of the Rock has no distinct known purpose that modern investigators have discovered but it was likely to have been built with the purpose of impressing the region with the power and the emergence of Islamic control. alhambra was built as a palace complex to house the leaders of Granada and into likely establish the dynasty of the Nasrid. Although built to show the historic power of the time, these buildings continue to represent the emergence and development of the Islamic culture through representation of powerand aesthetic beauty.

Before construction of the Alhambra, land control shifted. In 550 BC the Carthaginians conquered the area and named Elybirge. Early Iberian settlements inhabited the waterfront area by the Darro River and expanded. In the 6th century the Visigoths took control until the Moors took control in the 8th century. The area would continue to change ownership within coming centuries, from the Carthaginians to the Romans to the Visigoths, until Moorish civilizations would found the city we now know as Granada. By the year 711 BC, the Muslim Empire began to overtake most of Spain. The city of Granada was under control of the Moors. The city was the center of the expanding Moorish Empire in southern

The Great Mosque of Cordoba is a fascinating architectural site: a place of worship that once was Christian, then became a Muslim, and now again a Christian. His name is taken from the Moorish period, when Spanish Muslims did it. Its official name is today the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, since it is once again controlled by the Roman Catholic Church.

The Cathedral of Córdoba is officially called The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, but it was originally built by the Islamic Moors to be a place of worship for muslims. Historians believe that before the mosque was built, there was a temple to the Roman God Janus on the same site. That temple was then converted into a church by the Visigoths before they were conquered by the Moors. It was split in 2 and used as both a church and a mosque until it was torn down and replaced with the Mosque of Cordoba. In the year 784 AD, construction for the mosque started under the emir Abd Ar-Rahman 1. It took well over 2 centuries to finish, and even after it did it went through many changes. A new minaret was added, and some design changes were made including a more decorative mihrab (signals the direction of Kaaba, a place that is very holy to muslims), and a courtyard for orange trees was placed inside it. It reached its current size in the year 987 when construction was completed.

Doris Behrens-Abouseif argues the façade located at Al Aqmar Mosque, financed by Al-Ma'mun Al-Bata'ih in 1125 and one of the most important mosques of Medieval Cairo, is the most significant element at the mosque. The author says that the façade was demonstrated to depict Fatimid art and history, and that it has two important characteristics; it is the earliest façade with lavish decorations that still exists today, it somehow follows the alignment of the street, and its interior faces Mecca.