How many years Spain was under the Moors. History of Spain: from the caveman to the expulsion of the Moors

At the beginning of the 8th century Moors and Berbers, under the leadership of the Arabs, invaded and in a short time captured almost the entire peninsula. In the middle of the VIII century. as part of the Arab caliphate, whose capital was in, the Emirate of Cordoba was created, in the tenth century. became an independent caliphate. Its architecture is close to the architecture of the Maghreb, but also absorbed the architectural experience of Byzantium. One of the most significant works of this architecture is the Grand Mosque in Cordoba, built in the 10th century. Despite the fact that in the XIII century. inside the Cordoba mosque, the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary was built, and the minaret was turned into a bell tower, the entire interior of the mosque was preserved. It left about 900 columns made of marble, jasper, agate, a fountain for ablutions and a courtyard planted with orange trees.

(Andalusia), located in the bend of the Guadalquivir River, during its heyday in the X-XI centuries. competed with its magnificence with Constantinople, Damascus and Baghdad. Then the population of Cordoba was greater than in any other city in Europe, and the number of mosques, palaces, baths and public buildings was measured in the hundreds. Unfortunately, the complex of the emir's palaces, decorated with 40 thousand columns, did not survive, but entire blocks of the snow-white buildings of the Muslim city survived.

(Andalusia) - the former capital of the latest and longest existing Mauritanian state in southern Spain. It was created in the 13th century. and survived until 1492, i.e. year of discovery of America. Muslims during this period developed trade, science, arts, it was an era of prosperity, the "golden age" of Granada. At this time, the architectural gems of Granada were created - the palace-fortress, the summer palace of the Generalife, the oldest quarter of the city of Albazin. The Albacin district is a labyrinth of narrow streets surrounded by snow-white facades of houses and walls of courtyards, behind which flower beds and orchards are hidden. The country residence of the emirs of the Generalife was created in the middle of the 13th century. on a hill next to the Alhambra. Graceful pavilions with cascading pools, courtyards with orange trees, rose gardens and hedges - all this bears little resemblance to the palaces of European monarchs of that time.

(“al-hamra”, i.e. “red”, according to the color of the walls of red sandstone) - the residence of the Emir of Granada. This is the best preserved Alcazaba of the 9th century. Rising on a hill above the city, the Alhambra impresses with its proportions from afar, and from the inside - with the splendor of its interior decoration, reminiscent of the scenery for "Tales of 1001 Nights". One openwork hall follows another, with even more exquisite arabesques, with even more carved columns, with even more whimsically decorated vaults. The Hall of Two Sisters is striking, the ceiling of which resembles a honeycomb pattern. In the Alhambra, the Lion Court is most famous, surrounded by galleries with light openwork arcades, with a fountain in the center, the bowl of which is supported by marble statues of lions (end of the 14th century).

Similar to the Alhambra, surrounded by luxurious gardens, was built in the tenth century. in the city of Zaragoza (Aragon). Despite a noticeable rebuilding at the end of the 15th century, this is the largest monument of the Moorish style in the north of the country.

The Moorish heritage can be seen in various parts of Spain, with the exception of the far north of the country, which never submitted to the Arab conquerors. - former palaces-fortresses of rulers, preserved in many Spanish cities: (Andalusia), Segovia (Castile-Leon), Toledo (Castile-La Mancha), etc.

In the city (Extremadura) you can see the fortress walls built by the Moors with arches and 30 clock towers, the most famous of which is called Torre del Bujaco.

It belongs to the monument of the Arab era near the city of Elche (Valenciana). There are about 200 thousand palm trees here. The Palmeral oasis was created in the 10th century. Arabs thanks to a very complex irrigation system. There is no other such example of Arab farming in Europe. Many buildings of the Arab era have also been preserved in the town: the Altamira Palace, a defensive tower, etc.

In the section on the question Who are the Moors And what time did they live? given by the author Larisa the best answer is Moors, the population of ancient Mauritania, a mixed tribe of Berbers and Arabs; in Spain, the name of those who invaded at the beginning of the 8th century. Arabs from Mauritania, as well as natives converted to Islam, who formed an independent Muslim state in Spain in 755. See Spain. By the end of the XV century. finally defeated by King Ferdinand the Catholic and partly moved to Africa. The M. who remained after the conquest of Granada and converted to Christianity are known under the name of the Moriscos; 1609 expelled from Spain. Wed Dozy (1874).
Source: Small Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron

Answer from M_acht[guru]
Moors were called Muslims who lived on the Iberian Peninsula and in Africa (modern Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Morocco). Muslims ended up there after the disciples of the prophet Mohammed decided to conquer the whole world and got from Saudi Arabia through North Africa to modern France. There they were defeated by the heavy cavalry of the Frankish king Charles Martel (Karl - Hammer). After that, the gradual reconquest by Europeans of Spain and Portugal (reconquista) began.
Thus, the Moors still live (only they are called differently) and many of them also want to conquer the whole world.

Answer from Protwa[guru]
They are black moors and strangle blondes who are unfaithful to them!

Answer from YagupoP[guru]
(Latin Mauri, from Greek maurós - dark), 1) in ancient times the name given by the Romans to the indigenous population of Mauretania. 2) In the Middle Ages in Western Europe, the name of the Muslim population of the Iberian Peninsula and the western part of North Africa (mainly townspeople), who spoke local dialects of Arabic.
M. is called part of the population of modern Mauritania.

Surprising and full of vicissitudes of the fate of human settlements. Once (in the X-XI centuries) Cordoba - the center of the only Muslim caliphate in Europe - was probably the largest city in the world, with a population of half a million compared to the current three hundred thousand. While the rest of the continent was ruled mostly by uncouth tyrants, and the people were in superstition and ignorance, the sciences and arts flourished here, there was street lighting, public baths worked (men washed in the morning, women in the evening). Cutlery and glassware were used. Astronomers and doctors, philosophers and musicians, historians and simply wise men flocked to the court of the caliphs. And of course, three faiths peacefully coexisted here - Islamic, Jewish and Christian, as well as many ethnic groups, among which the Slavs "Sakalibs" converted to Mohammedanism are mentioned. This is always the case in enlightened societies.

However, as the Arabic proverb says, "everything that has reached its limit begins to wane."

Flashback 1. Romans and Visigoths

In some way, Cordoba became the capital even under its founders - the Romans. More precisely, when in the III century BC. e. Roman praetor Mark Claudius Marcellus reached the middle reaches of the full-flowing river Betis ("in our opinion" - Guadalquivir), where he was going to lay the next city of the republican province of Hispania Ulterior, he already found there a large village with a mixed population. On the fertile plains lived - and alternately, and at the same time - the Iberian Celts, Levantines, Greeks, Carthaginians and other "legitimate children of the Mediterranean."

Without encountering much resistance, the Romans laid their classic highways "cardo" (from north to south) and "decumanos" (from west to east) in the neighborhood, which, intersecting, formed a forum area - a city turned out. The aliens, contrary to their custom, did not invent a name for it, but left the former, Iberian - Korduba. Claudius Marcellus could hardly have imagined that the small colonial fortification would soon become the prosperous capital of the entire province with the corresponding privileges and even the right to mint its own coin. However, this happened - and continued until the 5th century, when the Germanic tribe of the Visigoths, taking advantage of the decrepitude of the Roman Empire, poured into its western regions in full force.

The Visigoths did not immediately destroy the Roman Korduba. Moreover, at first they, on the contrary, actively saved its Latin-speaking inhabitants from the raids of even wilder Vandals and Suebi. For more than a hundred years, the Germans did not interfere with the Roman-Spanish patricians to live peacefully in their villas. And the reason for the strife, which nevertheless led the former provincial capital to complete ruin, was, oddly enough, the mass conversion of its inhabitants to Catholicism. The conquerors themselves professed Arianism, the Christian heresy condemned at the First Council of Nicaea - and personally by Bishop Ossius of Kordub, who presided there. The population of the city, loyal to the Roman popes, rebelled when the Gothic king Agila, around 550, set up a stable in the basilica of the city's patron saint, St. Aciscles. The uprising was even successful, however, it involved the unfortunate Cordubians in a sluggish war. There was no time left to take care of a small homeland, private and public buildings fell into decay, and the partly Germanized city plunged into a dull slumber in the backyards of history until 711 - the year of the great Arab invasion, which brought grief to the country, and glory to it.

Andalusian frying pan

The hotel where we stayed is located on the street of the famous Claudius Marcellus. The city hall is also located there, to which, like its natural continuation, the colonnade of the old Roman temple of Augustus Caesar adjoins. Corinthian columns soar in a regular rectangle into, alas, not the blue sky, although, in fact, Cordoba "officially" bears the title of "Andalusian frying pan" - the hottest point in Spain. It has the most sunny days in a year, and all three summer months the temperature stays above +40. But it seems that the whole miserable cloudy days, allotted for a year, fell to our lot. The photographer is saddened - the whitish dome overhead does not allow you to beautifully photograph the snow-white ruins.

By the way, about the white color - it traditionally dominates in urban development. All Spaniards know that Seville is “yellow-brown”, Granada is “gold”, and Cordoba is limestone. Municipal services strictly monitor that the "branded" lining does not lose its brightness - on the street we now and then come across teams of painters.

Firstly, lime disinfects, - one of them said, seeing our interest, - secondly, it reflects the sun - it is always less hot in such houses. Comfortable!

A casual acquaintance - as it turned out, the foreman - immediately showed the talkativeness characteristic of most Andalusians, and when he learned that we were preparing a report, he volunteered to accompany us around the old city.

Our unexpected companion is Diego Romero, and he knows a lot about the city. While talking, we wind through old Cordoba, where you instantly forget about the geometric-rational Roman forms. The paths here are so narrow that semicircular recesses are hollowed out in the walls of some of them - for wheel axles. In addition, all these streets and lanes are tangled up in a maze, and many end in a dead end, which is strategically beneficial when defending from any enemy (and in addition, it creates an additional shadow). In general, despite the advantages of lime, the Cordovans had to come up with a lot of tricks to save themselves from the heat: on the windows, instead of blinds, there are dense mats made of esparto (a kind of feather grass) - they are moistened with water at night, thereby refreshing the room. In some places, the opposing houses at the level of the second floor are connected by balconies - this way the living space increases at the same time, and pedestrians are protected from the scorching rays.

...Perhaps the narrowest of all the narrow lanes of Cordoba is named after the Fig Tree (Calleja de Higuera). Like many others, it makes some very sharp turns before breaking off into a dead end and becoming a patio, the famous "patio" for several neighboring families. A huge fig tree really grows here and a fountain makes noise.

Listen to the water singing, - Diego whispers romantically, deliberately even taking me back, around the corner. - The most "correct" thing is when you don't see it, but just listen to it... The Arabs loved water, it is a symbol of life for them. From the Arabs it was customary - in every patio there is a fountain.
- By the way, are there a lot of Arabs in Cordoba now?
- No, not much... But there is. This is where my friend lives. He has three or four wives.
- And it is recognized by the Spanish legislation?!
- Actually, no. But he has four wives, and he lives with them.

Flashback 2. Arabs

The viceroy of the southern lands of the Visigothic kingdom and Count of Ceuta, Don Julian, hated his overlord Rodrigo - apparently because he, to put it mildly, treated his daughter badly (he took possession of her by deceit). He acted as an intermediary in the negotiations between the Kordub opponents of the king and the emir of the entire Maghreb, Musa ibn Nusiyar. The Arab was called to help against the tyrant.

Musa asked permission from the Damascus caliph al-Walid, who did not approve of the venture: "Beware of exposing Muslims to the dangers of a sea of ​​violent storms."

However, the temptation to seize the treasury of the Germans overcame. The disobedient decided to act at his own peril and risk.

In the spring of 711, detachments of Berbers and regular Emir units under the command of the commander Tarik bin Ziyad crossed the narrow strait separating Africa from Iberia. On July 19 of the same year, in the battle on the Guadalete River, Rodrigo's troops were completely defeated. For more than four years, the warriors of the prophet occupied the entire territory of the former kingdom of the Visigoths. Already in 716, this vast territory with a temporary capital in Seville became known as al-Andalus - this naming appears on a coin then minted in the south of the peninsula (this word reminds us of the Vandal people, half-forgotten already by the 8th century - they really did for some time lived here before "moving" to North Africa).

The Andalusian emir al-Hurr, appointed from Damascus, moved the center of the newly minted emirate from Seville to Cordoba. The “infancy years” of al-Andalus passed in some strife, but soon (746) the already completely independent Umayyads, represented by Abdarrahman I, established order, and the country embarked on the path of creation ...

... and we - straight to the paradoxical sign, crudely painted on the ancient facade: "Arab Baths of the Holy Virgin Mary." Now these are the only “Moorish” baths in the city, and, according to Diego, there is a very beautiful patio (“No, no, I don’t wash here, God forbid! But I paint ...”).

But during the caliphate, there were up to nine hundred such terms in Kuruba (Cordoba), not to mention 600 or 3,000 (according to various sources) mosques, 200 public libraries and more than 80,000 trading shops. They bred in large areas, which, in turn, in Muslim Cordoba, there were at least 21 - according to the number of regions. And in almost every one modestly hid a small Christian temple for the "Mozarabs" (who did not want to convert to Islam) ...

The Arabic division into districts ("arrabali" - the term is fixed in modern Spanish) still structures the internal life of Cordoba: it is both the minimum and the main urban and social unit. Kordovets to the question "Can you tell me where it is ..." gives out the name of the arrabal, and most often does not know the name of the street. You ask, for example, where the Museum of Tauromachia (that is, bullfighting) is located, and he answered - in the Jewish Quarter. Here you go.

It's good that we have Diego, for whom the whole city is like his own apartment. To the left - Medina, the former district of the Arab nobility, straight ahead - Axarkia, where the "muladi" (newly converted Muslims) settled, to the left - Khuderia, the "place" for the Jews. By the way, there is always a hustle and bustle here: shopkeepers sell souvenirs, gypsies offer sprigs of rosemary, a street musician plucks the strings of a detuned guitar, trying to portray something Sephardic - although the Jews have been expelled from Spain for 500 years ... And in the center:
- Our very, very main attraction, the Grand Mosque, the center of three quarters. I also covered it with lime, - on a monotonous note, Diego completed his excursion and hurried to the unattended team of fifteen painters. And we have somewhere to eat.

...Lunch time has long passed, and only the oxtail was left for food in the bar. Very tasty food - stewed oxtail with potatoes, we even ordered a double portion. The contented owner of a tiny eatery, who simultaneously acts as a cook and a waiter, but nevertheless eager to chatter, showed between times remarkable knowledge of archeology and said that his institution was very ancient. Excavations were carried out in it, and the columns that adorn it are ancient Roman. XV century!

Hardly restraining a smile (a deadly insult!), caused by this awkward dating, I thought: such a free treatment of the Cordovans with their history is quite natural. The peoples who settled on the banks of the Guadalquivir, and with them their beliefs, customs and words, were transformed into a multi-layered cultural myth in which real time and space, as usual, are completely unimportant. So "Roman columns of the XV century" is normal. It should not be surprising that the devout, like all Iberians, the inhabitants of Cordoba, without a shadow of embarrassment, call their cathedral "La Mesquita" - a mosque.

"Godchildren" Archangel Raphael

However, wouldn't it be better to postpone the acquaintance with the mosque-cathedral until tomorrow and go to a rehearsal, where my old Cordoba friend Eloisa invited us? In the evenings, she (by the way, the mother of eight children) goes to sing in the church choir "La Fuensanta". And of course, he is well versed in all the nuances of the religious life of Cordoba: from the first patrons, St. Acisklas and St. Victoria to the present day. True, according to her, the people revere two other saints more: Fuensanta (Virgin Mary of the Holy Spring) and Archangel Raphael. It is his statue that adorns the high columns that we meet throughout the city - in those places where he performed this or that miracle. In his honor, local boys are still most often called Raphaels. Behavior of Andalusian teenagers, inveterate football players and hooligans, however, bear little resemblance to saints. And the choir, although it operates at the church, mainly includes secular folk songs in the repertoire. It turns out like an amateur, but, as they say, with a soul. The first number is the old anthem of the city, accompanied by Eloisa's sonorous castanets: "Cordoba, the crucible of our nation and the torch that lit up the whole world..." Nations. “By the way, after all, what, how many “elements” it is made up of,” I reflect absently, falling asleep already at night, in a hotel room. I dream of columns.

Crescent or cross?

The next morning, the columns (they are following me) materialize - this time in the amount of eight hundred and fifty. All of them are located in the giant prayer hall of the Cordoba mosque, the second largest in the world. That is, of course, the cathedral, I beg your pardon. For Christian worship, it has been used since the 13th century, when Muslims were simply forbidden to pray here, without changing anything in architecture, and even now, after the building was slightly but repeatedly redrawn for the convenience of the liturgy, it least of all resembles a Catholic church. Outside, this new destination is evidenced only by the baroque bell tower of the late 17th century, crowned with a statue of the inevitable archangel Raphael - and even then, its walls hide a hexagonal minaret inside. Inside, it is misleading that the church, built into a huge mosque, occupies only a small part of the entire space.

In this mysterious place, even tourists do not interfere with imagining how, at the call of the muezzin, the Moors filled the gloomy naves, gathering for Friday prayers. The caliph was the last to appear - he got to a special place intended for him, maksura, through a separate passage directly from the palace. Then the imam began to read from the Koran, and it was heard even in the courtyard - thanks to a cunning acoustic trick invented by the Greeks - the dome of the mihrab is made in the shape of a shell. It serves as a powerful resonator. "Even in the yard" I say because it's no joke: together with it, the prayer house occupies more than two hectares (22,400 m2). Now, by the way, you can’t even shout to the outer gate with a microphone, but this is because the wide arches through which people got inside after bathing have long been walled up. And once the rows of columns simply continued with rows of trees - but not orange ones, planted in the 16th century and giving the courtyard its current name "Orange" (Patio delos Naranjos), but others.

Flashback 3. Europe's first palm trees

The first of the famous Cordoba emirs, Abdarrahman I, was nicknamed "ad-Dakhil" - "The Stranger", which is not surprising, because he took refuge in al-Andalus from the persecution of the Abbasid dynasty, who overthrew the Damascus Umayyads in 750. The new overlords methodically slaughtered the entire family of their predecessors - only Abdarrahman managed to escape. And so, having enlisted the military support of the Muslims of the peninsula, he declared it an independent state with its capital in Cordoba. But the alien monarch really missed his native Syria and planted the courtyard of the Cordoba mosque he built with outlandish plants from across the sea. This is how the first palm trees appeared in Europe.

Where Umayyad planned to build the main prayer house of the city, the Visigothic basilica of St. Vincent already stood before. In 785, the emir bought (mind you, did not take away) this church from the Germans along with the land and, using the old foundation, which, by the way, is well preserved to this day (three "layers" of cults are obtained), in the same year he built a mosque according to all the rules of Islam . Or rather, almost everything. The only deviation was imposed just by the foundation used: the Gothic basilica, of course, was not oriented with an altar to Mecca, that is, to the southeast of Cordoba. So the mosque turned out to be slightly "to the right".

I have already become accustomed to this dense space and, in addition to the columns, I notice many other details related to the Christian period: Gothic vaults over the chapels, the red and yellow pattern of horseshoe-shaped Arabic arches painted over with biblical scenes, tombstones typical of Catholic churches in the stone floor (Muslims in mosques do not bury). Finally, the "built-in" cathedral itself - the Ascension of Our Lady. It seems to be pocket-sized, although if it stood alone, it would be an imposing structure. Inside, too, everything is as it should be: a cross-domed structure, an altar, wooden choir seats with carved scenes from the Bible. There are no walls...

It is difficult to call this curious interior harmonious, but another attempt at architectural symbiosis - a small chapel against the "entrance" to the church - seems to me personally more successful. Encarna, our guide, meanwhile rumbles in his ear: "Royal chapel. The first Christian building in the center of the prayer hall of the mosque. Built by Alphonse X, son of Ferdinand the Saint, in 1260. Made in the Mudéjar style." Here is a favorite familiar word that has always made me laugh. At first, Muslims living in Christian territory were called so - from the Arabic "muadzhan", that is, "tamed". And since it was they who worked on the large Catholic construction - there were no other masters in the newly conquered lands - the term "creeped" in a metonymic way to the architectural style - unique, with bright elements of Moorish decor on a clear Spanish "ideological platform". Mudéjar is so peculiar that you can guess it at first sight in Toledo, in Zaragoza, in Madrid, in Cordoba. Here, too, the walls are lined from the floor with patterned ceramic tiles, from the middle to the ceiling - a carved floral ornament.

Flashback 4. No Cordoba without a mosque

The knights of the triumphant Reconquista - the soldiers of Ferdinand III the Saint - rushed to Cordoba in 1236. The then ruler, Prince Abu Hassan, handed over the keys to the city to the king with little or no resistance in exchange for an agreement to save the lives of all citizens. The Moors gathered their chattels and wandered away from the city, which for half a millennium had become the only homeland for their families. The place for the Castilian colonists was vacated almost instantly.

Ferdinand turned out to be not only a pious person, but also a great connoisseur of beauty - the forms of the Islamic temple made such an impression on him that he abandoned the idea of ​​destroying it (and many, after all, loudly demanded this). The king ordered to arrange only a small chapel in the side aisle.

The spell of the mosque worked flawlessly on Christians for three hundred years, but at the end of the 15th century, Bishop Iñigo Manrique decided to finally put an end to the disgrace - a huge "pillar of Islam" in the city center! And he planned to transform the mosque into a cathedral. The Cordovans, led by their magistrates, oddly enough, stood up as one to defend the building - they were used to it. No Cordoba without a mosque! The dispute came to a standstill, the case was referred to Emperor Charles V. He had never been to the city, he had not seen the mosque, and, marveling at the empty argument, gave the go-ahead for the transformation. But in 1526, chance brought him here, and, seeing the consequences of his decision, the monarch regretted it belatedly: "You built what could be built anywhere, and destroyed what was the only one in the world." True, he exaggerated: the cathedral fit into the mosque almost imperceptibly.

Around the crescent and the cross

If you leave the mosque to the river, then several millennia of Cordoba history will appear at once.

Almost from the walls of the southern facade, an arched bridge is thrown across the Guadalquivir, known by the simple name "Roman". Indeed, the first building in this place was built in the 1st century BC. e. under the personal direction of Julius Caesar. Then, of course, it was rebuilt by both the Arabs and the Spaniards, but the bearing supports remained intact.

Surprisingly, until 1953, the Roman bridge remained the only one in the city, and its ancient structures steadfastly withstood car traffic, which was banned two years ago. The triumphal arch of the 16th century took the place of the ancient city gates, immediately behind which the bridge begins, and on the opposite bank it is “meeted” by the massive tower-fortress Calahorra (which in Arabic means “strengthening”). This Mudéjar-style crenellated structure, miraculously preserved in the whirlwinds of wars and revolutions, was erected in the 14th century on the “remains” of the Moorish rampart by Enrique II, and by doing so he tried to protect himself not from the Moors, but from his own half-brother, Pedro the Cruel.

The length of the Roman bridge clearly shows how much wider the river used to be. The Guadalquivir of our days does not need 16 spans at all - it has long and strongly become shallow, "dismantled" by peasants for watering groves and vineyards upstream. Even the mill wheel of the so-called Albulafia right there, in Cordoba, hangs high above the water. By the way, the Arabs used water mills of this type not only for grain, but also as a lift for water - even with them there was little of it on the scorched plains of Spain. To do this, a special chain with scoops was attached to the blades. So, the outbuilding of a certain Albulafia (this Latinized Arabic name gives a good idea of ​​what kind of mixed dialect the Cordovans of the Middle Ages used) was located directly under the walls of the Caliph's palace and supplied moisture for his gardens. It also worked after the expulsion of the Muslims, but already "for" the bishop. It was only in the 15th century that the famous Queen Isabella, the same one who swore not to take off or wash her white shirt until the last Arab was driven out of Iberia, ordered the wheel to be stopped, unable to withstand its incessant creaking at night. The warrior suffered from a migraine. However, her request can be understood. The creak of the emblematic mill, the image of which adorns the modern coat of arms of Cordoba, seemed so unbearably loud to the inhabitants of the Alcazar because it was located much closer to the river than the former dwelling of the caliphs. Alcazar still closes the panorama of the central part of the city "to the right", when viewed from the river. Built in 1328 on the site where the Roman river customs and the residence of Caesar once stood, it hosted a dozen generations of Spanish monarchs within its walls - when they came to Cordoba, they always stopped only here. And here, one might say, the key event of national history took place, which determined its entire development for centuries (approximately as in our country - the overthrow of the Yoke). In 1486, in the Alcazar, a migrant from Lisbon and a Genoese by birth, a certain Cristoforo Colombo (in Castilian - Cristobal Colon) presented Ferdinand and Isabella with a project of his journey (there is a corresponding monument to this scene). Later, the "office" of the Holy Inquisition was located in the royal castle, then a prison, now - an archaeological museum. From the residence of the caliph with the famous gardens, there was no trace left. Only the name of the quarter "Old Alcazar" has been preserved. True, only maps of the city and old-timers remember him. To the broad masses of the population, it is better known as San Basilio - that is the name of its central street, especially famous for its patios.

Introspection 1. Patio

A town-planning detail typical for the whole of Spain - the patio - dates back to the Roman atriums. The Arabs only added to the rectangular internal space without a roof their "saguan", a kind of dark "canopy", designed to set the incoming person in a "family" mood. Cordoba patios enjoy a special and well-deserved fame in Spain: history has developed in such a way that their decoration has become a matter of honor for the townspeople. In the second week of May, an open competition has been held here since 1918: idle tourists, excited neighbors, just curious, and most importantly, an impartial commission of the "Society of Friends of Cordoba Patios" - the highest legislative body of the "yard" movement - bypass one after another courtyards throughout the city . And there - a riot of flowers and aromas, the sound of water or the calmness of a mossy well, hundreds of flower pots on the walls. The winner receives not only a commemorative plaque, but also a solid award - for further maintaining the status of the patio of a high culture of life.

... It's raining lightly. The locals rejoice in it like children: every year the problem of droughts becomes more and more urgent. In search of shelter, we simply dive through the open door of house number 50 on San Basilio Street and find ourselves in a real Cordoba patio, where we become witnesses of a scene that is somewhat inconsistent with weather conditions and our ideas about gardening. A very strong grandfather from a very long green hose waters the plants hanging on the walls in pots. Not in the least surprised by our intrusion, he anticipates all the bewildered and approving exclamations with which we are ready to burst. “Here I have 600 containers, and a fine rain will not pour, it will only wet the leaves. I know. I have been taking care of this patio for 16 years, but how old do you think I am? believe."

While he walks, we timidly examine the miracle garden. Now I understand why the hose is so long: the pots cover all four walls of the patio at full height. A long stick with a ring is attached to the irrigation device - if you thread a hose into it, you can reach the very top. The old man returns with yellowed paper: Manuel Sanchez Colmenero, born December 29, 1913 ...

Don Manuel, 93, lives next door, just behind the wall. The very same house number 50, where thirteen families huddled, was settled a few years ago - it needed major repairs, "after all, the Arabs were still building." (Here, as it should be in Cordoba, the old man falls into mythology: "under the Arabs" one of the outbuildings of the Old Alcazar stood here.) After the reconstruction, the building was given to craftsmen for workshops, and the official headquarters of the "Society of Friends" settled in the patio.

Meanwhile, the day was drawing to a close, and I wanted to see another important symbol of Cordoba at dusk. If the mosque-cathedral is visible in the city from everywhere, then the synagogue in the bowels of the Jewish Quarter, on the Jewish street, too, will have to be looked for. It is completely invisible from the outside: tourists often pass by ten times until someone "tune" their attention. However, little has been preserved inside either (and there was little: according to the canon, a Jewish prayer house should look ascetic) - only fragments of carved plaster panels with Hebrew inscriptions, made, you guessed it, in the Mudéjar style. This means that Arab craftsmen built the house by order of the wealthy (and under Christians) Jewish community...

Introspection 2. Synagogue

Dozens of synagogues in Cordoba during the caliphate were destroyed after its collapse: the ignorant Berbers who flooded the peninsula did not tolerate other images of God than their own. Jews waited with hope for the arrival of Christians - not even because they hoped for their greater tolerance. They just knew that they could be very useful to them. And so it happened - the Castilian kings borrowed money from Jewish moneylenders and used their knowledge of Arab customs to successfully fight them. The new rulers were at first so merciful to the sons of Abraham that they allowed them to build a new spacious synagogue in the center of the city.

However, the words of the Torah and the Prophets did not sound in it for too long - the architect Itzhak Moheb completed his creation in 1315 (one of the surviving inscriptions testifies to this), and in 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella "changed their mind" and issued a decree notorious in history : all who do not wish to accept Christianity are expelled from Spain forever.

Architectural evidence of former Jewishness was also exterminated. Only three medieval synagogues have survived throughout the country: two in Toledo and one in Córdoba. This, as in the case of the mosque, we owe to "layering": at first it was adapted for a church at the city madhouse adjoining it. Then it was given to the shoemakers' guilds, who dedicated the Jewish prayer house to their shoemaker patrons: Saints Crispin and Crispinian. On the western wall, among the inscriptions in Hebrew, we can distinguish a faded Catholic cross ...

"It will snow for you"

In the morning we drive to Medina al-Zahra, which in translation (from Arabic, of course) is a flourishing city. "City" is, of course, a strong word. Ruins of the city. Or rather, a suburb of modern Cordoba. Or rather, the most extensive (according to statistics!) Of the ever built state residences.

According to legend, Abdarrahman III built this country palace for his beloved wife, the beautiful al-Zahra, whom he "took" from Granada. "For you it will snow in the mountains, my love, the power of my love will make it go," he promised the beautiful girl. And indeed, he planted the slopes of al-Arus with almond trees. Their white trunks from a distance resemble the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada, which she left.

According to another version, the construction of Medina was conceived by Abdarrahman immediately after he proclaimed himself caliph in 929. In addition to the fact that now in Friday prayers all the faithful were supposed to mention his name, nothing has changed - in fact, the Emirate of Cordoba has long been politically independent from Baghdad or Damascus. However, ambitious plans for a North African campaign against the Fatimids hostile to the Umayyads were already born in it and a worthy residence was needed to meet future ambassadors, accommodate numerous services of the new expanded state and demonstrate the power of al-Andalus to the whole world.

They built Medina with the world on a thread. In the literal sense: stones were mined in the Pyrenean quarries, mosaics and utensils were delivered from Byzantium, columns - marble, ivory, ebony - from Carthage, Thrace, Rome ... According to the patient estimates of contemporaries, the city had more than four thousand columns and one and a half thousand doors. In one day of work, 6,000 stone slabs of various sizes were put into action, which were brought on four hundred camels and a thousand mules. The pinnacle of the Arab engineering genius was the 15-kilometer water pipe that supplied water to the palace from mountain springs ...

In general, Medina al-Zahra turned out to be too beautiful for longevity - she did not stand a whole hundred years. In 1010, during the civil war that put an end to the caliphate, it was plundered and ruined by the same Berbers. Barbarians, to be sure. Now all around is rubble. Here is something like a stone cabinet with a lid. Turns out the toilet is from the 950s. Water was constantly supplied to it through ceramic pipes. Muslims have always been sensitive to hygiene issues.

However, Medina is still slowly being rebuilt into a grandiose restoration laboratory. On the territory of 112 hectares, scientists are painstakingly, stone by stone, digging, guessing, restoring. A tenth part has just been restored - there is not enough original material, it has spread throughout the country for a thousand years. You have to create thousands of parts-copies, and this is a matter of decades.

What should be a torero. Epilogue

... A Córdoba taxi driver bravo salutes us, putting his hand to his bare head, and taxis straight to the Almodovar gate. We get off here - at the monument to the well-known philosopher, Nero's mentor, Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, who was born in this city in 4 BC. e. It is clear that until 1965, when the sculptor Amadeo Ruiz de Olmos sculpted his statue, he did not live. I had to use as a sitter the character Paco El Rubio (that is, Paco the Red), popular in the area, very similar to the ancient thinker, as he was depicted on the busts. The monument was ordered and paid for by the famous bullfighter, the favorite of the city and all of Andalusia, El Cordoves (simply Cordovets), who, apparently, was close to the ideas of stoicism. Or maybe he just wanted to emphasize in this way the connection between the ancient Roman games with wild animals (venatii), which Seneca approved of, opposing gladiatorial ones, and the tradition of Spanish bullfighting.

Introspection 3. From gladiators to bullfighting

Archaeologists believe that in the Roman Cordub there were more circuses and arenas for various fights between people and animals and people with people than in Rome itself. Subsequently, such amusements were a novelty for the new Muslims, but they also gladly arranged competitions with the participation of wild Spanish bulls - a breed that was also unknown to them before. And the Christians… According to legend, even the son of Ferdinand and Isabella Prince Juan was engaged in throwing a spear at the long-suffering Iberian artiodactyl – right in the courtyard of the Alcazar.

The arena for professional bullfighting appeared here one of the first in Spain, in 1779. The land of Cordoba gave birth to many brave bullfighters, the memory of them is alive in the heart of every city dweller (and I am not afraid to use this pathetic cliché, since it accurately reflects the state of affairs).

The Spaniards even like the superstitions of the bullfighters. For example, this: before the fight, if you enter the arena in Cordoba, you need to go to the church of Santa Marina, where the famous bullfighting master Manolete was baptized, go past the monument to him, and in no case turn left all the way to the Arena, which is the third largest in the country and can accommodate 17,000 spectators.

I dreamed of a romantic meeting with a bullfighter almost since childhood.

Rafael, nicknamed Chikilin, judging by the stories, "will suit" me. True, he is already "retired", but he left the profession young. However, although bullfighting is a sport, it is more like chess. Age has nothing to do with it. El Cordoves - the legend of the Spanish tauromachia - still beats bulls, and he will soon be 70 ...

…A tall and stately young man in a blue suit and a bright orange tie crossed the hotel lobby with a quick step. It was somehow impossible to imagine him trampling on the carcass of a bull. “Torero must be long,” he said, looking down at me, “otherwise, at the most important moment, he will not be able to jump high enough to thrust his sword in the right place and at the right angle ... Well, of course, a lot depends on the coverage of the arena ... By the way, if you want, we can go to the square. See how it works."

The bullfighting area is covered with special sand - albero. Its brown-yellow color has long become "national" in Andalusia. The houses in Cordoba are white, the decorative elements of the facades are certainly albero ... You can enter through several gates, each of which has a specific purpose: spectators enter here, bulls go there, ambulances leave from here, and heroes come out with victory. In front of the "Gate of Honor" there are busts of five caliphs from the bullfight (one of them - lifetime). And in this case, this is not a metaphor, but a title that has taken root with the light hand of one newspaper columnist. The glorious "quintet" of Cordoba masters of tauromachia are Lagartijo, Gerrita, Machaquito, Manolete (died "in the line of duty") and El Cordoves.

Introspection 4. Caliphs of our days

The greatest honor for a Cordoba bullfighter (and not a Cordoba bullfighter can even dream of such a thing) is to be ranked among the "caliphate of tauromachia", which from "spontaneous-folk" has become quite official. The last, fifth ceremony of awarding this unique title was held in 2002 at the City Hall in the presence of representatives of two hundred interested organizations and associations. 66-year-old Manuel Benitez Perez "El Cordoves" accepted the high title "from the hands" of doña Rosa Aguilar, the head of the city municipality, by the way, the same activist who achieved the formation of the department of taurology at the local university.

Since the 2005/06 academic year, this department has been working to the great joy of "those who want to comprehensively study an interesting cultural phenomenon" (quote from the press). Part of the classes takes place directly at the Arena, which, of course, is called the "Khalifa".

Rafael El Chikilin (The Kid) uncovers a real estoque sword brought for demonstration and depicts in detail the last, most difficult and dangerous moment of bullfighting for a bullfighter. The one in which his growth plays an important role. The bullfighter stands directly in front of the bull and, trying to avoid direct contact with the horns, in a jump must plunge the sword between the third and fourth vertebrae of the animal. Chikilin strikes a pose, enters the role and, swaying slightly on his toes, looks with unseeing, "serpentine" eyes at the double-edged tip of the sword, ringing with tension. I am horrified to see how this tip almost touches the vertebrae of the photographer, who, inspired by the transformation of a man into a fighter, is trying to capture him - just from the position where an angry beast is in "combat conditions". I am against such victims of art and I am afraid of edged weapons, so I try to distract "my dream come true" with questions:
- Isn't it scary when the horns are right in front of you?
- People of my profession are afraid only of shame. This is not forgiven by bullfighting or Cordoba.

Chikilin says all this quite simply, without a visible pose; his words exude some ancient masculine recklessness.

And then, finally, for the first time in our entire stay in Cordoba, the sun peeps through the clouds, and the yellow sand of Albero for a minute becomes deceptively golden, like a beach. Or, if you like, as if blood had been shed on him.

The Moors conquered Spain in just three years. And almost no one noticed! Just three years later, in a country where 8 million people lived, instead of 80 thousand Goths, 20 thousand Moors turned out to be in power, who instead of Spain began to call the country Andalus. Most of the Hispano-Romans left this "incident" unnoticed. There were not many battles. Most of the peninsula was conquered by Tariq ibn Ziyad, but in the summer of 712 the emir of the Maghreb, Musa ibn Nusayr, arrived here with troops, worried that his subordinate would not seize the whole country alone. Almost unopposed, the Moors marched all over the peninsula. They were accompanied by the troops of Oppas and Sisbert, brothers of the late King Vitica. The garrisons of the cities fled, and where they remained in place, the townspeople, and above all the Jews, who had suffered greatly under the last Gothic kings, met the Moors as liberators.

The large city of Cordoba in October 711 took a small detachment of Arabs sent by Tariq. Cordova was defended by the old general Pelista, who fought under Guadaleta. According to legend, only 400 veterans fought for him, against 700 Arabs. The traitorous shepherd showed the Arabs how to climb over the wall: one of the warriors climbed onto it along a palm tree and, unwinding the turban, lifted the rest as if on a rope. Inside the city, the defenders could not hold out - they took refuge in the church and sat there until the Arabs found a source from which water came to them. This source began in the mountains, and when the Arabs filled it up, the defenders of Cordoba had no choice but to surrender.

The capital of Gothia - Toledo could be defended for as long as you like, as it was located in a very advantageous place, in the center of the Castile Highlands. But his garrison fled, and the inhabitants preferred not to resist, but to pray in the church for their salvation. The children of King Vitica, who rebelled against King Roderich, concluded an agreement with Tarik: they renounced the throne, and in return received life and lands in the vicinity of Seville, Cordoba and Toledo. Three princes agreed to these conditions (the fourth, the heir of Agil's father, died in one of the first skirmishes with the Moors). When the Goths were convinced that the Moors had not deceived the princes, they rushed to surrender in droves. Count Theodemir, the one who first encountered the Moors, also surrendered. The region which he ruled and which the Moors left to him is still called Tudmir.

Only the northern mountainous regions did not submit. All those who did not want to submit to the Moors fled there. By September 713 the conquest of the peninsula was almost over. Musa ibn Nusair solemnly entered the former capital of the Goths, Toledo, declared Spain the property of the caliph and sent a message to Damascus: “Here the sky in its transparency and beauty resembles the sky of Syria, even Yemen is not higher in mildness of the climate; With its richness of colors and subtlety of aromas, this country evokes lush India. She competes with Egypt in the fertility of her land, with China in the variety and beauty of her minerals. The caliph gladly took possession of the new country. An emir was appointed to Cordoba, and the whole country began to be called Andalus, and later the Emirate of Cordoba.

The Visigoths themselves destroyed their state. In 710, strife between the kings and the aristocracy led to the fact that King Vitisya, fighting with his fellow tribesmen, turned to the Muslim tribes of North Africa for help. The ruler of Tangier, Tariq ibn Seid, crossed Gibraltar with a 12,000-strong Berber army, helped Vitisier defeat the enemies, but after the victory he did not go back. After the Visigothic king Roderick was killed in the battle of Seguela in September 713, the entire southern part of the peninsula and the Visigothic capital of Toledo were in the hands of the Moors. Thus was born Mauritanian Spain, which became the richest and most prosperous state of medieval Europe.

Unlike Russia, which for several centuries found itself under the rule of nomadic Horde tribes, Spain got the conquerors, whose refined civilization significantly exceeded the Visigothic one. Arab-Moorish rule was not a yoke for Spain, but a boon. It lasted eight centuries, from 711 to 1492. and did not go beyond the Iberian Peninsula - in 732 the Arab army was defeated by Charles Martell in the battle of Poitiers.

In the narrow sense of the word moors”(or Berbers) are called the North African tribes who converted to Islam, and the word “Arabs” is usually used to refer to the inhabitants of Western Asia. However, often these names are transferred to all Islamic tribes - both African and Asian Muslims came to Spain. The Arab state was called Al-Andalus (hence the name of the province of Andalusia), its capital was in Cordoba. The Arabs did not seek to convert all the inhabitants of the conquered territories to Islam; not only mosques, but also Christian churches and synagogues operated in their state (Christians and Jews paid higher taxes to the treasury).

In the 8th-10th centuries. Cordoba was the largest, most comfortable and cultural city in Europe. Here they translated and commented on Greek texts collected during the Arab campaign in the Middle East: thanks to the Arabs, Europe learned about Aristotle, Euclid, Hippocrates, Ptolemy and Plato. Arabic poetry flourished. The number of inhabitants of Cordoba exceeded 300 thousand, more than 600 mosques, 700 public baths and a public library (750 thousand volumes) were built for them. The streets of Cordoba were paved, running water. The finest fabrics, embossed leather and colored ceramics were exported to all European countries. Toledo and Cordoba were major centers for the production of weapons, in the 9th century. glass and clocks were made here. The Arabs introduced the Spaniards to sugar, oranges, watermelons, taught to irrigate the land (in Andalusia and Valencia, the irrigation canals dug by them are still used). Cordova was the scientific capital of Europe, excellent doctors worked here (according to some reports, the Arabs used anesthesia, removed cataracts and even drilled a skull). Spanish Arabs taught European merchants to use Arabic numbers; algebra and astronomy developed here. The influence that the Arab civilization had on the entire culture of the Iberian Peninsula is also evidenced by the Spanish language, thousands of words of which have retained Arabic roots.