198 Córdoba
Further reading:Alexander Badawy, Coptic Art and
Archaeology: The Art of the Christian Egyptians from the
Late Antique to the Middle Ages(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT
Press, 1978); John Beckwith, Coptic Sculpture, 300–1300
(London: A. Tiranti, 1963); Christian Cannuyer, Coptic
Egypt: The Christians on the Nile(New York: Harry N.
Abrams, 2001); Otto Friedrich August Meinardus, Chris-
tian Egypt, Ancient and Modern,2d ed. (Cairo: American
University in Cairo Press, 1977); Mark Smith, “Coptic
Literature, 337–425” in The Cambridge Ancient History,
Vol. 13, The Late Empire, A.D. 337–42, eds. Averil
Cameron and Peter Garnsey (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998), 722–735.
Córdoba(Cordova, al-Qurtuba al-Wadi) Córdoba
was an important Christian and Muslim city in southern
Spain in AL-ANDALUS. It was home to Bishop Hosios (ca.
256–357/358), one of the most influential and orthodox
members of the emperor CONSTANTINEI’s court. Attacks
on the city by the Visigoths were begun in 550, prompt-
ing the emperor JUSTINIANI to send an army to protect
the city. Córdoba, nonetheless, fell to the VISIGOTHSin
572 and was later conquered by the Arabs in 711, when
they overran the Visigothic kingdom of TOLEDO.
MUSLIM CÓRDOBA AND THE RECONQUESTFrom 756 to 1031 it was capital of the UMAYYAD
Caliphate of Córdoba and became one of the largest cities
in the world. In the early Middle Ages it was a major
place of interaction among Christians, Muslims, and
Jews. One of the best preserved and most interesting
architecturally medieval MOSQUES, La Mezquita, begun in
768 in the Islamic world, has survived as a Christian
church there. The city fell into decline in the 11th cen-
tury under the ALMORAVIDS. It was retaken and repopu-
lated by the Christians under Ferdinand III the Saint (r.
1217–52) in 1236. By the 15th century its population was
perhaps as high as 70,000, making it still one of the
largest cities in Europe. The Spanish Inquisition was later
established there in 1482 to investigate whether the reli-
gious beliefs of the population were truly Christian.
See alsoABDAL-RAHMANI; ABDAL-RAHMANIII; AL-
MADINAT AL-ZIHIRA;MOZARABS.
Further reading:John Edwards, Christian Córdoba:
The City and Its Region in the Late Middle Ages(Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982); Godfrey
Goodwin, Islamic Spain(San Francisco: Chronicle Books,
1990); Philip K. Hitti, “Cordova: The European Capital,”
in Capital Cities of Arab Islam(Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1973), 135–163; Peter C. Scales, The
Fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba: Berbers and Andalusis in
Conflict(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994).
coronation ritual and ideology SeeKINGS AND KING-
SHIP, RITUALS OF.
Corpus iuris canonici(Collection or body of canon
law) SeeLAW, CANON AND ECCLESIASTICAL.Corpus iuris civilis(collection or body of civil law,
Code of Justanian) The Corpus iuris civiliswas a col-
lective legislative work compiled under JUSTINIANI. It
consisted of the Codex (Codex justinianus),the Digest
(Digestor Pandectae), the Institutes (Institutiones), and
the Novels (Novellae constitutiones,“new laws”). The
work was begun by a commission of 10 legal experts
assembled in 528 and headed by one the best legal
minds of the era, TRIBONIAN. Working quickly, they
issued in 529 the Codex justinianus,a collection of 4,562
imperial edicts from Hadrian to Justinian I that replaced
the older Codex gregorianus, Codex hermogenianus,and
Codex theodosianus.This was revised, with additional
work by Tribonian, and reissued in 534. The Digest, a
harmonizing compendium and distillization of legal
opinions by famous Roman jurists, was issued in 533, as
were the Institutes, a handbook and primer to assist
scholars and students to navigate through the Codex
and Digest. The Novels, the last part of Justinian I’s col-
lection to appear, consisted of imperial edicts issued
after 534 and ultimately down to the end of Justinian’s
reign in 565. Unlike previous legal works that were
written in Latin, the Novelswere issued in Greek, the
daily language of most of the Eastern or Byzantine
Empire. The Corpus iuris civilispreserved Roman law
and provided the basis for the reemergence of that law
in jurisprudence in the 12th and 13th centuries.
See alsoBARTOLO DASASSOFERRATO;IRNERIUS.
Further reading:S. P. Scott, trans., The Civil Law, 17
vols. (Cincinnati: The Central Trust Company, 1932);
Alan Watson, trans., The Digest of Justinian, 2 vols.
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985);Interior of the Great Mosque of Córdoba, begun 786(Werner
Forman / Art Resource)