The ‘Ornament of the World’: Córdoba and Islamic Spain in the early Middle Ages

Aims

This course aims to:

• equip you with the skills and knowledge required to engage critically with the social, political and economic developments of Christian, Jewish and Islamic Iberia in the early Middle Ages
• help you to develop your skills and confidence in refining and presenting your ideas verbally and in writing
• develop your ability to make coherent and concise arguments which display deep engagement with source material

Course content

‘Who can relate such perils? Who can enumerate such grievous disasters?’ With these words the anonymous writer of the Latin Chronicle of 754 left us in no doubt that the destruction of the Visigothic kingdom in 711 at the hands of invading Arab-Berber armies was a tragic turn of events. But what do our sources allow us to say about the dominant polity in the peninsula after 711, the Umayyad emirate of Córdoba, which ruled over much of Spain and Portugal for several centuries? 

In this module, Latin and Arabic sources in translation will provide a vivid and intellectually exciting means of understanding the historical trajectory of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031. 

What sort of turning point, if any at all, did 711 represent for the inhabitants of early medieval Spain? The impact of this date will be analysed so as to draw on its significance ‘on the ground’ for the inhabitants of, and newcomers to, the peninsula; for those Christians and Muslims who later wrote about it; and for the historiographical tradition that has looked to make sense of these momentous events. 

Our focus will fall on Córdoba, brought to life for us in all its magnificence by poets, geographers and historians with a wide range of agendas and preoccupations. The aim is to provide an introduction to Islamic Iberia and the city of Córdoba via acquaintance with and discussion of the material that allows us to revisit this fascinating city. 

What to expect on this course

This course will be taught in five sessions, each of which will be built around a short lecture, followed by class discussion. After each lecture, I will introduce relevant source materials in English translation and provide orientation and guidance when needed but you – the learners! – are the principal protagonists of this course. That is to say, your readings of the source materials and your interpretations of the themes under discussion will take centre stage, creating an immersive and dynamic learning experience.

Course sessions

1. 711: The Birth of Islamic Iberia
   In 711, a momentous battle took place not far from Medina Sidonia in what is now southern Spain at which the Christian kingdom of the Visigoths, which had ruled the peninsula for two centuries, was destroyed by Arab-Berber forces, ostensibly fighting under the banner of the Umayyad Caliphate. In this session we will examine rival accounts of this event and explore its significance, both for those who lived through it, and those who have attempted to make sense of it in later centuries.

    

2. The Creation and Consolidation of al-Andalus
   In this class, we think about how a new Islamic polity (known as al-Andalus) took shape in southern Iberia in the eighth and ninth centuries, basing our discussion on a wonderful narrative account, written a few decades after the conquest, known as the Chronicle of 754. We will also investigate other written sources and look at some of the numerous and extraordinary material remains dated to the period.

    

3. The Monk, the Caliph, and the Diplomat: Cross-Confessional Politics at the Court of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III (r. 912-961)
   In 956, Otto the Great, king of the East Franks (and, from 962, Holy Roman Emperor), sent an embassy to the court of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III in Córdoba. The two greatest powers of 10th-century Europe had been engaged in hostile diplomatic relations for some time, and Otto’s embassy, led by the redoubtable monk John of Gorze, was sent with the express purpose of insulting the caliph. Disaster was narrowly averted thanks to the strategic interventions of the caliph’s leading diplomat, the Jewish scholar Hasdai ibn Shaprut, but what can we say about this incident and what does it tell us about diplomacy in 10th-century Islamic Iberia? This class will be built around a discussion of the single surviving account of this remarkable international incident. 

    

4. The City of Córdoba in the 10th Century: the Ornament of the World?
   The study of the caliphate in al-Andalus has generated a great deal of secondary literature in recent decades, most of it concerned with the intellectual brilliance and benevolent tolerance purported to characterise the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city of Córdoba. But to what extent is this picture true and on what kind of evidence is it based? In this session, we will look at the Great Mosque, the caliphal palace, and assorted contemporary or near-contemporary writings to reveal something of the true complexity of the city described by a contemporary as the ‘Ornament of the World’.

    

5. 1031: The Collapse of the Caliphate
   How and why did the Caliphate of Córdoba break up? What factors best explain its rapid fall from grace in the first third of the 11th century? These questions lie at the heart of this session, in which we will together plot a path through the fragmentary evidence and half-hidden clues on which historians must rely. This session will also have a more historiographical focus as we weigh up competing explanations, rounding out our investigation of Islamic Iberia in the early Middle Ages.

Learning outcomes

As a result of the course, you will gain a greater understanding of the subject and you should be able to:

• discuss the cultural, political and socio-economic development of Iberia from the eighth to the early eleventh centuries 
• develop confidence in the use of primary sources drawn from the written and the material register
• acquire skills of broad application derived from comparative analysis of the several polities and peoples which inhabited the Iberian Peninsula in the early Middle Ages

Required reading:

Collins, R, Caliphs and Kings, Spain 756-1031 (Wiley Blackwell, 2012)

Kennedy, H, Muslim Spain and Portugal. A Political History of al-Andalus (Routledge  1996) ia800306.us.archive.org/22/items/muslim-spain-and-portugal-a-political-history-of-al-andalus-by-hugh-kennedy/Muslim Spain and Portugal A Political History of al-Andalus by Hugh Kennedy.pdf

León-Muñoz, A, ‘The Alcázar of Córdoba: The Seat of Islamic Power in Al-Andalus’, Arts, 12 (5), 202 (2023) https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12050202

*Constable, O R, Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim and Jewish Sources (University of Philadelphia Press, 1997)

Smith C (editor), Christians and Moors in Spain: Vol. I, 711-.1150 (Aris & Philips, 1989)