The Great Mosque of Cordoba extended and revised architectural review

When the Umayyad were supplanted by the Abbasids in 750 and the centre of Islam relocated from Damascus, Syria to Baghdad, Iraq, a Umayyad prince named Abed Al-Rahman I moved to Spain where Muslims were already established & founded a dynasty with Cordoba as its capital. The kingdom flourished, lasting for nearly 300 years (756-1031). In 929 a restored Umayyad caliphate was set up in Cordoba, in rivalry with the Abbasids in Baghdad: by any standard, Cordoba was the richest, most sophisticated city in Europe.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba's original construction under Abed Al-Rahman I - Part 1
The Great Mosque of Cordoba's original construction under Abed Al-Rahman I - Part 2
The first mosque extension under Abed Al-Rahman II
Building work on the Great Mosque of Cordoba by Abed AI-Rahman III
The extension under al-Hakam II
The last extension under Al-Mansor
The Great Mosque Of Cordoba's Pictures

The Great Mosque of Cordoba's original construction under Abed Al-Rahman I - Part 1

Cordoba's most magnificent structure, the Great Mosque, was commissioned in 785 by Emir Abed aI-Rahman I after he had chosen Cordoba as his kingdom's capital. It was built on the site occupied by the Christian church San Vicente, whose foundations were found in excavations during the 1930s. Work began on building the mosque around 785. Its position near the Guadalquivir, at the end of the (now restored) bridge, not only exploited existing traffic links, but also demonstrated its connections with the city's Visigothic heritage. Reports sug­gest that near the mosque, immediately abutting the San Vicente Church dis­trict, stood a Visigothic palace, which Abed aI-Rahman I made his residence. Thus, the spiritual and secular centers of the new emirate lay close together and were inseparably linked. Construction on the basic structure of the Great Mosque of Cordoba supposedly took a year (785-786). One reason was Abed al­Rahman's personal wish and ambition to make this mosque worthy of Cordoba, a metropolitan city. The other reason was that Roman and Visigothic remnants were used in the construction of the mosque.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba comprises a rectangular prayer hall, with a mosque courtyard in front. This courtyard is nearly as large as the prayer hall because originally believers also assembled for prayers in the courtyard - if the prayer hall were already full. Initially, the prayer hall in the original mosque building was designed with dimensions of about 79x42 meters (260x138 feet), and 11 aisles arranged perpendicular to the Qibla wall. The center aisle, leading to the prayer niche or mihrab, which indicates the direction of prayers to Mecca, is 7.85 meters (26 feet) wide. This is about three feet broader than the other aisles, which are only 6.86 meters (23 feet) across. Accentuating the center aisle also gives the central axis, oriented on the mihrab, greater emphasis, and therefore this type of mosque is called "directional." However, the center aisle is not only slightly broader but also higher than the other aisles - something particularly obvious when you look at the mosque from the nearby cathedral.

The al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, is built similarly to the Great Mosque of Cordoba. Begun in 715, the al-Aqsa is exactly 70 years older than the original Cordoba building. It also has a basilica-like structure with the central aisle markedly broader and leading axially to the mihrab. Abed al- Rahman might have encountered this or a similar form of mosque during his youth in the east. It is therefore not surprising that he adapted this pattern to distant Cordoba, espe­cially as his ambitions were predicated on his glorious East Umayyad ancestry. The prayer hall's size is due not merely to the mosque's importance as a spiritual center for the western Islamic empire, but also to the size of the city, with its massive population, necessitating a large prayer hall with many aisles.

The original building (dating from 785-786) did not include a minaret. Arabic sources state that calls to prayer were made from the tower of the nearby Visigothic palace, which was also used as a government palace. Originally, the mosque supposedly had four entrances, of which the Bab al- Wuzaara (Ministers' Gate) in the west facade has survived to this day almost unchanged. According to an inscription over the lintel, it dates back to 786. Through this gate - now called the Stephen Gate after the Chapel of St. Stephen which stands behind it - high-ranking officials would enter the mosque from the government palace located opposite.

Entering the Mezquita today, one is amazed to find that a cathedral exists within it. In 1523, the cathedral chapter of Cordoba commissioned the cathe­dral building when, after the reconquista, the cathedral had regained the mosque territory. Accordingly, 63 pillars were removed from the mosque, so that the cathedral could stand exactly in the mosque's center. It took over three centuries to build and decorate because construction work was often interrupted. Apparently, construction workers downed their tools as soon as building work began, refusing to wreak havoc on the mosque's fabric. Although this incident is not historically proven, it is often happily quoted in books, and it shows how strongly Cordobanian’s still identified with their city's Islamic roots, even in the 16th century. Apparently, workers, city council and cathedral chapter reached agreement only after Emperor Charles V, consulted as ultimate arbiter, had intervened.

He endorsed the cathedral's construction, so that it could be built with a clear conscience - on the emperor's authority, as it were. When the emperor later visited Cordoba he apparently said in consternation, on seeing the inserted cathedral: "Had I known what was here I would never have dared touch the old structure. You have destroyed something that was unique in the world and added something one can see anywhere!" These or similar thoughts may strike a visitor entering the cathedral today. One must remember, however, that the mosque might have survived precisely because a cathedral was built inside it. Any building frequented for worship would be maintained, whereas one left empty is exposed to decay - a fate which, after Jews and Muslims had been expelled from Spain in 1492, would undoubtedly have befallen the Great Mosque of Cordoba.