180 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINArchaeology has not and probably never could confirm such an
impression for such figures are hardly reliable, any more than that of
490 for the number of mosques in the city supposed to have been in
existence in the time of 'Abd aI-RaDman I. In fact, it is unlikely that
there was more than one mosque there in the late eighth century,
not least as it was the practice in early Islam for all Muslims in a
settlement to worship corporately. The gradual growth of the Great
Mosque is a better indicator of the size of the capital's Muslim popu-
lation. However, such literary fictions do give a vivid impression of
the romance of Umayyad Cordoba in the eyes of Muslim intellectuals
in the centuries after its fall.