La Banda Morisca is one of the music groups in our country with the greatest following in the genre of “world music,” and it is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

To commemorate it, the band has published the album “Gitana mora” (“Moorish Gypsy”), a project to bring back memories of the women of Al-Andalus and make visible the immaterial legacy which those women left behind.

Musicians:
JoseMari Cala, vocals (El Cuervo)
José Cabral, string instruments (Jerez de la Frontera)
Belén Lucena, violin (Jerez de la Frontera)
Antonio Torres, wind instruments (Jerez de la Frontera)
Jerónimo Melgar, electric bass (Ceuta)
David Ruiz, percussion (Seville)

The video will be posted on our social media channels on April 23 (Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter).
 

The history surrounding the historical figure of the man known to be the first Umayyad Emir of Al-Andalus, Abd al-Rahman “al-Dakhil,” is shrouded in myth and fantastic tales which present him as a paradigmatic figure. His opportune rise to power and his lineage were, in and of themselves, able to unite the Yemeni, the Quraysh and the Berbers under his command, because he was the son of an Amazigh woman and the only prince to survive the Abbasid revolution.

Daniel Valdivieso Ramos (Cordoba, 1983)
With a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, his is now professionally devoted to the field of historical documentation and publishing. After spending a time at the publishing firm El Páramo, he took over the Department of Documentation at Utopía Libros, being responsible for large projects involving the historical heritage of Cordoba, as well as adapting and coordinating a wide range of publications of an institutional nature, such as Lucio Anneo Séneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca, 2015), Iglesias Fernandinas de Córdoba (The Fernandine Churches of Cordoba, 2017), Guía de las Iglesias Fernandinas de Córdoba y sus barrios (Guide to the Fernandine Churches of Cordoba and Their Neighborhoods, 2018) and De la Ribera al Malecón (From the Shore to the ‘Malecón,’ 2019), this last book in conjunction with the Havana City Historian’s Office.
 

The domestic model of the “courtyard house” revolved around an inner courtyard inhabited by plants and filled with water-based items, forming the essential nerve center of indoor life in the cities of Al-Andalus. This housing arrangement was nothing new, but it was perfectly adapted to everyday Islamic life, providing a greater separation between the outside, understood to be a common area filled with risks and threats, and the indoor living space, considered the ultimate private stronghold for safety. This general concept has actually been quite widespread, with variations and nuances existing throughout history; when used, it has been extensively watered down in the West in recent decades. In a certain way, the current health care crisis has brought back to mind a feeling of insecurity coming from outside, one of domestic protectiveness which was commonplace in prior eras. For many generations now, however, this concept has been unknown to us in Europe, until 2020.

Rafael Blanco has a PhD in Archeology and is a professor in the Art History Department at the University of Cordoba. Throughout his scientific career, he has undertaken intensive study on the Islamic city and homes, specializing in the Cordoba of Al-Andalus, and the protection and dissemination of historical heritage. He has completed several scientific research stays in England, France and Germany, and has taken part in various research projects on the city of Cordoba, having recently directed the archeological study on the minaret tower of San Juan de los Caballeros. The results of his research have been written up in many different publications and at conferences both in Spain and abroad. He has also organized various congresses and event series, including “Urban Planning of Qurtuba,” “Landscapes of Power: Cordoba and the Umayyad estates (eighth to eleventh centuries” and “Great Capitals of the Medieval Islamic World: Past and present."

“Hanging over this Qurtuba home is the shadow of a doubt. The fate of a young woman is at stake. And friendship is put to the test.”

As part of the Nights of Ramadan 2020, you will get the opportunity to watch the story of “Three Girlfriends from Qurtuba,” a black and white video story in the style of a silent film intended for children. It was created by SextoMario for Casa Árabe.

This chat between three girlfriends from Qurtuba (the Arab name of Cordoba) in the eleventh century allows us to get a peek at various aspects of the role played by women in the culture of Al-Andalus, including the figure of the adiba, an enlightened wise woman who gave classes not only to women, but also to men. It shows the work performed by women in the world of medicine, as well as customs for marriage and even separating from one’s partner.

It is an entertaining yarn in which each character portrays a complementary image of Qurtuba society before the advent of Almohad religious fundamentalism.

In the month of May, we have another appointment for enjoyment with the tales from “The Arabian Nights,” and you won’t even need to leave your home to do so.

On this occasion, Héctor Urién will be using “magic” as the theme forming the common thread that plays the role of the famous “Open Sesame!” With his vivid voice, it will help him tell us some of the stories from The Arabian Nights related with that idea.

As you may be aware already, The Arabian Nights was not originally a set of tales meant for children, which is why we have always referred to these events as “oral storytelling for adults” in our programming. As an exception, bearing in mind that we all need to stay inside our homes with our families right now, Hector Urién has designed a special session for all audience this Saturday.

With a contemporary sensitivity, and using only his voice, presence and live discourse, Urién’s art as a storyteller takes us on a journey  from a Baghdad souk to the cave where a genie dwells, and from the islands of the Indian Ocean to the domains of the Serpent Queen.
 
Héctor Urién (Madrid, 1977) makes his living from telling stories. As a professional storyteller, he creates his artistic work  and stagecraft at theaters in Spain and Latin America. Drawn by his curiosity and and a deeply ingrained scientific streak, Urién has developed his own regular storytelling workshop in Madrid, where students and teacher discover the inner workings of stories and the mystery of oral storytelling together. As an on-stage storyteller, his most original and exciting project is related with “The Arabian Nights,” whose tales he normally tells one by one every Tuesday night at a small theater in downtown Madrid. A live narrator of short stories, he has taken part in several domestic and foreign festivals, as well as co-directing the annual festival “Ávila de cuento” (“Storybook Avila”). He had an essay published by the “Palabras del candil” publishing firm, as well: La narración fractal: arte y ciencia de la oralidad (Fractal storytelling: the art and science of oral tradition), in which he presents an innovative, surprising perspective on storytelling, backed by chaos theory and fractal geometry. And Alienta Editorial has published his book El arte de contar bien una historia. 101 estrategias para el storytelling (The Art of Telling a Story Well: 101 strategies for storytelling).

On this tour, you will get a closer look at a series of key female figures in the history of Cordoba (and more specifically, from the ninth  to the fifteenth centuries), and learn more about their social, cultural, political and economic contributions during the era of Al-Andalus. The goal is to highlight the important role played by women in different sectors of Cordoba society, talking about their life stories along with the inestimable legacy they left behind: “their steps towards equality.”

During the tour, we will visit several spaces related with the lives of these women, many of which are emblematic sites forming part of our city’s historical heritage. They are all women who stood out as exceptional individuals: Zayda, Shifá, Muryán, Subh, Lubna, Aisha and Wallada. And we will also learn more about several trades held exclusively by women, which were decisive in enriching the city of Cordoba in every realm of life: social, cultural, political and so on. These women performed work as copyists, secretaries, musicians, singers, poets, tailors and weavers, etc.