The Tower was once the Minaret - Entrance to the Mosque is from the right of the picture
As you walk into the big courtyard with lush green groves/orchards ripe with oranges you admire the overall architecture of the whole building. The beauty is breath taking. After purchasing our tickets we decided to first visit the Mosque or as the locals call it Mezquita de Cordoba and tour the area later. November is comparatively a low season for international tourists. During my many travels one thing I have noticed is that local tourism has picked up significantly. The local tourists easily outnumbered the foreign tourists. People from European Union, or even Spanish speaking countries got a free pass or there was a nominal charge. We ended up paying 10 euro or about US $ 12.50 per person. It was worth it.
Groves of Orange Trees with Evergreens and Palm Trees add to the beauty
Old Photograph not by the author
Similarity to the Haram
The first thing I noticed was the similarity between the architecture of the Mosque of Cordoba built in 8th century and the Grand Mosque of Medina renovated in 1950's and 1974. In 707 before the Mosque of Cordoba was erected Ummayad caliph Alwalid Ibn-e Abd-al- Malik renovated the mosque in Medina.
Interior of The Prophets Mosque - not photographed by the author
Although the chandeliers have been changed in the Medina Mosque, I do recall green round chandeliers very similar to the chandeliers that are in the Masjid Cardoba. Of course a lot bigger version were in the Medina Mosque.
The Chandeliers lined up
O’ sacred place of
Cordoba, you exist because of Love
Love that’s wholly
eternal, which does not come and go
Sir Muhammad Iqbal visit to Cordoba
In 1933 just before 5 years of his death Allama Iqbal, who is admired as a prominent poet, philosopher, academician and a respected politician not only by Pakistanis but Indians and Iranians, traveled to Spain and visited the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, where he penned his famous poem titled "Masjid-e-Qurtuba". Under the title of the poem he has specified that the poem was written while on Spanish Land and Specially in Cordoba.
There is an old picture of Allama Iqbal praying at the Cordoba Mosque. Although I did not see any signs but the general understanding is that except for the Catholic morning service no other form of prayer is allowed. When you go do check the timings of the service to make the most of your time.
Allama Iqbal at the Mehrab
Mehrab
Allama Iqbal offering a prayer in Masjid-e-Qurtuba
You can see how railings have been added to convert sections
Old Painting of the Great Mosque
Just another one
Inside the Mosque in 2017
Another look
The roof and the Chandelier
You can see how the addition has been made and blended into the old architecture.
No visit is complete without a Selfie - a Tourist taking a selfie
Temple to Church to Mosque and then to Church
The site
has a complex history. Historian believe that at this very site there was
a Temple to the Roman God, Janus. The temple was converted into a Church
in 572 when Visigoths invaded and captured Cordoba.
On the
site of Visigoth ruins, the Mosque construction began in 785 AD, which was the
start of eight centuries of North African Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula.
By the 10th century, the Great Mosque had helped make Córdoba a hugely
influential hub of learning and the world’s second most important Muslim place
of worship, after Mecca. By 800AD Cordoba had a population of 200,000 that grew
to almost a million by 10th century designating Cordoba as a mega city. Current
population is about 350,000.
When Christians
re-conquered Córdoba, they built a cathedral, completed in 1236, in the heart
of the mosque. Since then, only Christian worship has been allowed inside the
monument, which draws 1.5 million visitors each year. In 2010, two Austrian
Muslims were arrested after an altercation with security guards who had stopped
them from praying in the monument.
It is
known that Prince Abd-al-Rahman of Ummayad, who took control of the Iberian
peninsula established Cordoba as the New Capital of the Islamic Dynasty. He
sponsored elaborate building program, promoted agriculture and brought fruits
from Damascus that were planted in Cordoba. To this day there are groves
of oranges in the courtyard of the Mosque.
Groves of Oranges in the Courtyard.
A Huge Mosque and a Catholic place of Worship
Mezquita -Cathedral
The expression of religious tolerance speaks from this monument that has been described by UNESCO as “an irreplaceable testimony of the Caliphate of Córdoba and the most emblematic monument of Islamic religious architecture.”
In an article "Islamic past of Cordoba's Mosque-Cathedral restored" Guy Hedgecoe writing for the "Irish Times writes "in recent years, the Catholic Church, which administers the Mosque-Cathedral, had removed references to its Islamic past in tourism literature and on the building’s website, drawing accusations that it was whitewashing the city’s Muslim history".
Two decades ago the monument was described as the “Mosque-Cathedral” in tourist brochures, a term that acknowledged its shared heritage. In 1998, the Catholic authorities changed that to the “Cathedral (former Mosque)” and then in 2010 it became simply “Córdoba Cathedral".
In 2016 local campaigners in Córdoba celebrated the end of a long-standing feud with the Catholic Church over the status of the city’s Mosque-Cathedral.
“This is an enormous victory, to have made such a stubborn institution as the Catholic Church change the intolerant stance it had taken for years,” Miguel Santiago, a local teacher who led the civic campaign for the name reversal, told The Irish Times. “You could say that the Mezquita-Cathedral is the city’s genetic code, it’s where our different cultures have been blended.”
A beacon of cultural harmony -extension of the Mosque into a Cathedral
He added: “At this moment in history, with so much international conflict, the Mezquita is a monument that shows that cultural hybrids are possible. It’s a beacon of harmony, unity, multiculturalism and religious tolerance.”
The Pillars that support the Mosque and the Cathedral
Extension into Cathedral Style
Overlooking the Pulpit
The Stain Glass Windows have been added
It was time to start exploring the outside - the long hallways are lined up with pillars, the cobbled stone courtyard provides an artistic look to the floor and the green lush orange trees with ripe oranges paint a picture that no digital medium can capture. The shades of trees and the pillars invite you take a breather, rest and simply enjoy the scenery.
Through the eyes of a digital medium still the original can only be experienced through ones own eyes
The big hallways around the beautiful courtyard invite you to walk the area where many rulers and historical personalities have walked.
The Pond in the Court Yard - most likely used for washing before the prayer.
There are many doors - however it was time for us to leave from one of them
In 2016 local campaigners in Córdoba celebrated the end of a long-standing feud with the Catholic Church over the status of the city’s Mosque-Cathedral.
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