144- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Who cared what people outside could see of your home
- usually a blank, brick wall – if you were shacked up
inside enjoying paradise on earth?The Moors’ time on
the peninsula is traditionally carved into three periods,
when their rule centred on Córdoba, Seville and then
Granada. An assessment of Islamic architecture in Spain
between the eighth and 15thcenturies can be divided
along roughly similar lines:
TheCaliphate of Córdobaset the early standard.
Inspired by the decorative delights of another, earlier
conquest, Damascus, the new Umayyad rulers of al-
Andalus commissioned geometrically-patternedazulejo
tile arrangements (figurative designs weren’t allowed
under Islamic law), latticed stonework, calligraphy and
ornate stucco.The Great Mosque or La Mezquita of
Córdoba was the lavish showpiece. Underway by
785, La Mezquita was extended 150 years later to
incorporate a riotously ornamented octagonal mihrab
(prayer niche). It was a fine addition to the mosque’s
jaw-dropping forest of arches, comprising almost 600
columns of granite, marble and jasper.TheAlmohadsrevitalised Moorish architecture in the
12 thcentury after the Caliphate fragmented.They
revisited the old design motifs – the tiles, arcades and
bricks – but did so with a greater refinement. Exteriors
and materials were increasingly austere, while the
decoration, when it came, was more delicate; brilliantly
revealed in polylobed arches of stone and stucco.
In Seville they left La Giralda, a domineering minaret
subtly patterned with arabesques of pale brick.La Mezquita’s
split personality
Locals of Córboda still
talk of La Mezquita,
even though the complex
of patios, arches and
columns in the former
al-Andalus capital hasn’t
been a mosque for 700
years; in fact it’s a
cathedral. Additions in
the 16thcentury hoped to
Catholicise the original:
the minaret was made
into a bell tower and
a wall partitioned the
mosque from the
courtyard, foiling the
original inspiring design
that segued a man-made
grove of columns into a
courtyard of orange
trees. Even King Carlos V
recognised that the
Renaissance nave he
wedged into the centre
of the mosque in the
early 16thcentury was
wholly incongruous.