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 last extension under Al-Mansor

The last extension of the Great Mosque of Cordoba (987-988) was commis­sioned by aI-Mansur (Spanish: Almanzar), Caliph Hisham II's prime minister and regent. While the caliph, still a minor, lived as a virtual prisoner in his palace at Medina al-Zahra, aI-Mansur obtained his mother Subh's agreement to take over government duties. In this high office, as the caliph's representative, he was able to commission an extension of the Great Mosque. Because aI-Mansur was regent - not official ruler - he was not the equal of emirs and caliphs, and, had he extended the mosque southwards, his action might have been so interpreted. An added structural problem was that in the south the mosque terrain sloped down to the river. Earlier, al-Hakam II, during his mosque extension (962-966), had to shore up and level the mosque's substructure, making it structurally impossible to enlarge the mosque further southwards. Extending westwards was also impossible, since government and administrative palaces stood there; in the north stood the mosque courtyard, which had to be retained to accommodate believers. Consequently, plans were made to extend the mosque eastwards.

As always, aI-Mansur was very concerned that Mecca should lie in the right direc­tion - a geographical detail that previous architects had hardly heeded. Con­sidering the scientific expertise then available, especially in astronomy, geome­try, and mathematics, we can be virtually certain that the original building was not simply misaligned. We must therefore assume that Abed aI-Rahman I senti­mentally made the original building face his old homeland, Syria, and in par­ticular, Damascus. With his extension, however, aI-Mansur makes the Great Mosque face Mecca.

This last mosque extension was also the largest ever undertaken in Cordoba. Allegedly, by this means aI-Mansur wanted to justify to the people the vast amount of state finances he had expended. He had eight side aisles added, extending the mosque eastwards by about 50 meters (164 feet). The portals on the eastern facade of al-Hakam II's previous building were walled up and 11 large arch openings created, through which one could enter the mosque's new area. Because the rooms adjoining the mihrab were not continued, the aisles became longer by two bays, and thus reached the southern surrounding wall. The principle - in al-Hakam II's extension - of a line of transverse arches to accentuate the maqsura area was abandoned. However, the arcade structure that distinguishes Abed aI-Rahman II's part of the building from that of al-Hakam II did proceed.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba now had 19 aisles. The southern wall, identical with the Qibla wall, had increased to a length of 128.41 meters (421 feet). The prayer hall now had an area of 114.60 x 128.41 meters (376 x 421 feet), and the courtyard 60.42 x 128.41 meters (198 x 421 feet). Including the projecting mosque courtyard, the mosque now had a total area of 175.02 x 128.41 meters (574 x 421 feet), or 23,400 square meters (251,550 square feet). If one discounts later Christian insertions, AI-Mansur's extension gives the Great Mosque of Cordoba the appearance it has to this day.