Mosque of Córdoba

by

Susana Capilla

• LAST MODIFIED: 20 March 2025
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780190922467-0109

Introduction

In the twelfth century, the geographer al-Idrisi wrote that the Friday Mosque of Córdoba had no equal among the mosques of the Muslims, neither for its size nor for its beauty. For 450 years, the Mosque of Córdoba was the largest place of worship in al-Andalus and the most prestigious teaching center in the Islamic West. The construction of the congregational Mosque of Córdoba began around the year 784 by order of the first Umayyad emir of al-Andalus, ʿAbd al-Rahman I (r. 756–788). The independent emirs of al-Andalus sponsored the embellishment and expansion of the Great Mosque of the capital of al-Andalus over the ninth century, making it a venerated oratory linked to the Umayyad dynasty. It was during this period that royal mechanisms, such as the ruler’s private passageway (sabat) and the space reserved for him next to the mihrab (maqsurah), were introduced. Following the proclamation of ʿAbd al-Rahman III (b. 912–d. 961) as caliph in 929, the Mosque of Córdoba became the setting of caliphal ceremonies, such as the oath of allegiance to the heir to the throne that took place at the foot of the pulpit (minbar). The ornamental and epigraphic program, together with the architectural conception of the expansion of al-Hakam II (r. 961–976), translates into a visual language the political-religious ideology of the state. The architects of ʿAbd al-Rahman III and al-Hakam II recovered forms, such as golden glass mosaics, from existing Umayyad monuments, both Eastern and Andalusian, with the intention of appropriating the memory of the dynasty and putting forward the legitimacy and the political claims of the Cordoban Umayyads. Once the Umayyad dynasty and the caliphate disappeared (c. 1030), Córdoba lost the capital status of al-Andalus but its Friday Mosque retained its reputation until the arrival of the King of Castile Fernando III in 1236, and its conversion into Cathedral of Santa María. The admiration for the building lasted after the conquest as evidenced by the fact that both the Castilian kings and the Cordovan population actively contributed to its conservation and restoration during the following centuries. However, two Christian buildings were inserted into the prayer hall, the Gothic nave built at the end of the fifteenth century and the transept, during the sixteenth century, while the courtyard was renovated and the old minaret was enveloped in a bell tower. To assess its extraordinary patrimonial importance, it is necessary to remember that it is the oldest preserved monument of al-Andalus.

General Overview

In the last four decades, studies on al-Andalus have experienced a quantitative and qualitative growth. From the first approaches, still weighed down by prejudices toward Islamic art and culture in Gómez Moreno 1951, the study of the Mosque of Córdoba has benefited from a better knowledge of Islamic architecture in the Maghreb and the Mediterranean area in whose historical and artistic context the art of al-Andalus is inscribed (Ettinghausen, et al. 2001 The Friday Mosque in Córdoba cannot be understood without relating it to contemporary mosques in the Near East and North Africa surveyed by Lambert 1958 and Golvin 1979. Also essential are the Arabic written sources, collected by Sezgin, et al. 2008. The building also became a powerful architectural and symbolic reference point for the other mosques of al-Andalus, as described in Calvo Capilla 2014, and of the Maghreb. Its plan and proportions, studied by Fernández Puertas 2015, its domes and bichromatic arches, the layout of its facades, and its fortified appearance inspired architects throughout the region. The analysis of the building’s models and innovations began to be studied by the architect Torres Balbás in 1957. Some general books have provided a comprehensive and detailed overview of the building accessible to the general public as is the case with Nieto Cumplido 1998 and Souto Lasala 2009.

• Calvo Capilla, Susana. Las Mezquitas de al-Andalus. Almería, Spain: Fundación Ibn Tufayl, 2014.

  Comprehensive book on the mosques preserved in the Iberian Peninsula. Drawing on Arabic sources, it provides the social, religious, and historical context of the religious buildings of al-Andalus. Also offers a study of architectural features and a wide set of plans, sections, and photographs of the buildings.

• Ettinghausen, Richard, Oleg Grabar, and Marilyn Jenkins-Madina. Islamic Art and Architecture, 650–1250. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2001.

  Revised version of classic handbook by Richard Ettinghausen and Oleg Grabar, which first appeared in 1987. North Africa and Spain are covered in more detail in this revision, where the Great Mosque of Córdoba occupies a prominent place.

• Fernández Puertas, A. Mezquita de Córdoba: su estudio arqueológico en el siglo XX= The Mosque of Córdoba: Twentieth-Century Archaelogical Explorations. Granada, Spain: Universidad de Granada, 2015.

  This bilingual Spanish-English book examines and interprets some archaeological remains and architectural interventions in the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day.

• Golvin, Lucien. Essai sur l’architecture religieuse musulmane 4: L’art Hispano-musulman, Paris: Klincksieck, 1979.

  The four-volume work is a detailed examination of Islamic religious architecture. Golvin devoted the fourth volume of his work to what was then called “Hispano-Muslim art,” offering the first comprehensive study of Iberian mosques, establishing typologies, and analyzes in relation to Eastern and Maghrebi mosques.

• Gómez Moreno, Manuel. Ars Hispaniae III: Arte árabe español hasta los almohades. Arte mozárabe. Madrid: Plus Ultra, 1951.

  This volume of the encyclopedia of Spanish art contained one of the first catalogues of “Arab” works of art up to the twelfth century. The author, an excellent connoisseur of medieval Spanish art, included unpublished pieces and finds, which is why the volume remains today a good reference work, despite offering a biased view of Islamic culture, as its title indicates.

• Lambert, Elie. Art musulman et art chrétien dans la Péninsule Ibérique. Paris and Toulouse, France: Privat, 1958.

  The book brings together the author’s pioneering studies on what was then known as Hispano-Moorish art, especially on the Mosque of Córdoba and its stages of construction using Arabic texts.

• Nieto Cumplido, Manuel. La Catedral de Córdoba. Córdoba, Spain: Obra Social y Cultural de Cajasur, 1998.

  Provides an accessible description of the building, mosque and cathedral, until the twentieth century, with special attention to the transformations suffered by the building in Christian centuries. Its main contribution is the use of documents of the archive of the cathedral.

• Sezgin, Fuat, Carl Ehrig-Eggert, and E. Neubauer, eds. The Umayyad Mosque in Córdoba: Texts and Studies. Frankfurt: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, 2008.

  Useful selection of early academic studies on different parts of the mosque written between 1944 and 1966 in Spanish, French, and German.

• Souto Lasala, Juan Antonio. La Mezquita Aljama de Córdoba: de cómo Alandalús se hizo edificio. Zaragoza, Spain: Instituto de Estudios Islámicos y del Oriente Próximo, 2009.

  Brief, up-to-date synthesis of the history of the building and its architecture.

• Torres Balbás, Leopoldo. “Arte califal.” In España musulmana. Hasta la caída del califato de Córdoba (711–1031), Instituciones y Arte. Edited by E. Lévi-Provençal and L. Torres Balbás, 331–788. Historia de España dirigida por Ramón Menéndez Pidal V. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1957.

  First comprehensive scholarly and analytical description of the mosque, focusing on the architectural models of elements such as doors, ribbed domes, techniques, and materials, as well as the decorative repertoire. The author also used information from Arabic sources to determine the origin, meaning, and functions of certain parts of the mosque.