Architectural harmony
Cordoba Mosque-Cathedral in Spain is a symbol of religious tolerance & a place of solitude
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Contrary to the present-day conundrums over mosque-temple origins and conversions in India, an 8th century mosque-cathedral in the southern tip of Spain stands tall as a symbol of religious tolerance and multiculturalism.
Known locally as Mezquita-Cathedral, the Cordoba Mosque-Cathedral is one of the oldest structures from the era of a Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian peninsula, al-Andalus. It was a great centre of scholarship, learning and cultural exchange between the Islamic and Christian worlds in the medieval times. Cordoba is a five-hour train ride south of Barcelona and draws visitors from all over the world to see its unique fusion architecture and the ambience of Muslims, Jews and Christians inhabiting the ancient land with tolerance.
The Cordoba mosque was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage property in 1984 with the inscription — “It is an emblematic monument of Islamic religious architecture, unique artistic achievement and a testing ground for building techniques, bearing witness to the presence of Islam in Western Europe.”
Travel tips
- Cordoba is well connected by fast-speed trains from Madrid and Barcelona, taking 4-5 hours.
- It is connected by air through Seville, from where it is barely a 1-hour road journey.
- There are plenty of hotels of all tariff ranges.
- As a UNESCO heritage city, it offers many types of cuisines and food preferences.
- It’s a small compact city eminently walkable, or get a panoramic tour on Hop-on-Hop-off bus.
- Do carry a Spanish-English dictionary or a phone app for translation.
The original mosque was built by the Umayyad ruler Abd al-Rahman I, conceptualised from an existing Roman-Visigoth basilica. With extensions in the 9th and 10th centuries, its size doubled, ultimately making it one of the largest sacred buildings in the Islamic world then. The ground plan of the completed building forms a vast rectangle measuring 590 by 425 feet. Abd al-Rahman I, as a member of the Umayyad dynasty and grandson of Caliph Hisham of Damascus, managed to escape from the Abbasids and reach the Iberian peninsula. After his conquest of the city in 756, he declared Cordoba an independent emirate, and became the first emir of al-Andalus.
With an increasing Muslim population, the demand for a large worship place arose, leading to the building of the mosque. Moreover, it was an opportunity to showcase the power of the emirate of Cordoba.
The structure, unlike the typical mosque forms of domes and minarets in the rest of the world, is very unique. One enters the precincts through a huge gateway into a large sun-bathed court, dotted with orange trees laid out in a geometrical pattern for easy irrigation. Although initially it was a space for ritualistic Islamic cleansing before entering a mosque, its subsequent change to a Christian cathedral turned it into an orchard called ‘The Court of Oranges’.
From this light-filled open space, one enters the mosque interiors, which are dimly lit, with an endless sprawl of columns with unusual arches, reminiscent of an Arabic forest of palm trees. Some 850 pillars divide this interior into 19 north-to-south and 29 east-to-west aisles.
The arches by themselves are very unusual. The horse-shoe arches are made out of alternate layers of voussoirs of red bricks with white stones. These are further superimposed by another set of semi-circular arches in similar design. What necessitated this unique arrangement and technical ingenuity? To take advantage of the existing building material, many ruins of original Roman monuments like basilicas, aqueducts, bridges, etc, were mined and modified for making columns and arches in the mosque.
As the hall grew into an enormous hypostyle space, to ensure adequate height, second columns supported on the capitals of the lower ones were superimposed. Upon this second tier, wooden rafters formed the roof, topped from the exterior by gabled roofs. To get more light into the vast spread of the dimly-lit hall, numerous lattice work screens encased in arches were introduced on the external facades.
The mihrab or the prayer niche of the mosque, surrounded by an architecturally-defined maqsura (an area reserved for the emir or caliph during prayer), was defined by an elaborate screen of intersecting horseshoe and interlaced polylobed arches; a feature which influenced subsequent development of Moorish architectural style. A small octagonal recessed roofed is carved in the form of a scalloped shell above and has walls inlaid with Byzantine-style mosaics and gold. These mosaics extend along the voussoirs of the horseshoe arch of the mihrab with geometric and vegetal designs, and also with inscriptions from the holy Koran.
This was also a golden era of the Jewish culture of religious tolerance in Cordoba, as the rulers encouraged multiculturalism with enhanced trade and manufacturing of artefacts. Its library was considered the second largest after Damascus and Baghdad in the medieval ages. Historian William Dalrymple writes in ‘The Golden Road’ that the Cordoba library held numerous ancient Indian treatises on mathematics, astronomy and medicine, translated from Sanskrit into Arabic, in its collections.
With the reconquest of al-Andalus in the 12th century by the Christian king of Spain, it was decided to convert the mosque into a cathedral. Though the consecration was mostly symbolic, changes like adding small chapels was undertaken — it did end the Muslim prayers from being held. The real architectural transformation happened in the 16th century with the building of a Renaissance cathedral nave and transept — in the middle of the large mosque. The roof over the aisle below was raised into a Gothic form, complete with buttresses to shore up the additional load. A ribbed vault was built to top the altar and nave below. Ornate and rich interiors with a central high altar and a cruciform choir were added.
Although Muslims at that time accepted the transformation of their great mosque into a Christian worship place, there have been rumblings beneath the apparent calm lately. Numerous petitions have been sent by Cordoba Muslim organisations to the Vatican for allowing them limited prayers — with no call whatsoever for appropriation of the cathedral. The calm holds and the sheer magnificence and ingenuity of its architecture transcends all controversies.
— The writer is former principal of Chandigarh College of Architecture
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