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Qurtuba’s Urban Planning. An Archaeological Approach
From January 17, 2013 until May 09, 2013
In the framework of the citizen program We are All Archaeology, Casa Árabe and the Sisyphus Research Group of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cordoba organize the speech season "Qurtuba’s Urban Planning. An Archaeological Approach."
This season is aimed to make the city’s Arab-Islamic archaeological patrimony closer to its population. The organizers are conscious of the importance of the citizens getting to know and understand what Archaeology represents, because only then they will respect, take care of and defend it.
Focused on the analysis of the different urban phases of the Islamic city of Qurtuba and its most characteristic buildings, this season is structured in five speeches and starts on Thursday January 24th 2013 with the lecture of archaeologist María Teresa Casal García “Emirate Qurtuba: the Beginnings of the Islamic City.”
All these Tribunes are to take place at Casa Árabe’s Auditorium in Cordoba (c/ Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9 –corner to c/ Velázquez Bosco to Plaza de la Agrupación de las Cofradías-) at 19.30. Free entrance.
You can se the videos of the conferences already held by clicking on the following link (in Spanish).
The first conference in the series took place on Thursday, January 24, and was given by archeologist María Teresa Casal García.
The period of the emirs constituted the beginning of a new era which was to completely change the fate of our city. As the capital of al-Andalus in its origins, Cordoba was to undergo great urban planning transformations which would culminate in the period of the caliphs. A true reflection of this was the construction of the first Islamic borough, known as the “Saqunda Borough,” the discovery of which has le to great advancement in knowledge about this stage of history.
María Teresa Casal
As an archeologist for the former agreement between the City’s Urban Planning Department and the University of Cordoba, Ms. Casal worked intensively on this city’s archeology throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century. During this time, she has taken part in numerous archeological interventions which have allowed her to delve further into her main two topics of research: Cordoba’s Islamic cemeteries and the Umayyad period of the emirs in Qurtuba. She has presented various conferences and has published different articles and monographic works on these topics.
Watch the VIDEO of this conference.
The second conference in the series, held on Thursday, February 14, was given by Juan F. Murillo Redondo.
The Cordoba in which the Muslims created the capital city of al-Andalus in 718 was a city of classical roots, the former capital of the Roman province of Baetica, after passing through the process of Christianization which took place from the fourth to seventh centuries. With the arrival of 'Abd al-Rahman I, new and transcendental urban development took place, and at the same time an unstoppable process of Islamification in every arena, including the urban topography subject to our analysis. As a result of these transformations, in the second half of the tenth century, the city would find itself with a completely different urban reality than that known up to the time. The “Cordoba of the Caliphs” had surpassed the scale of all contemporary European urban centers and most of those in the Islamic world, as well, constituting a megalopolis resembling the Abbasids’ Samarra and Bagdad and Fatimid Cairo.
Dr. Juan F. Murillo, Director of the Archeology Office of the Municipal Urban Planning Department of the City of Cordoba, is a researcher with an extensive scientific background and vast diachronic knowledge of Cordoba’s archeology, in which he has been playing an important role for the last two decades. He is the author of numerous monographic works and articles on the archeology of Cordoba, having covered the widest range of eras and themes. He has often shown a special interest in researching the Islamic period and, more specifically, one of the most important of this city’s eras, which has shown up with great momentum in the city’s recent archeological studies: the era of the Umayyad Caliphs.
Watch the VIDEO of this conference.
At this presentation on Thursday, March 7, the third in the series, Rafael Blanco explained how the interest in Islamic Cordoba traditionally tended to mean studying the time as of the early eleventh century, after the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate and its megalopolis, destroyed by civil war. Beyond these dates, it was considered to be a city in gradual decadence until the final Christian conquest in 1236. However, in recent years, archeology has made it possible to change our view of late Islamic Cordoba and has demonstrated the existence of further urban expansion in the twelfth century, but then under a new set of caliphs: the Almohads.
Rafael Blanco Guzmán
A member of the Sísifo Research Group in the Department of Archeology at the University of Cordoba and coordinator of the outreach project “We are all Archeology,” in recent years he has taken part in various archeological excavations and research projects on Cordoba, specifically studying the Islamic period. Along these lines, he has published several works which focus on the domestic architecture and urbanism of al-Andalus, having presented them at various national and international scientific congresses.
Watch the VIDEO of this conference.
Focused on the analysis of the different urban phases of the Islamic city of Qurtuba and its most characteristic buildings, this season is structured in five speeches and starts on Thursday January 24th 2013 with the lecture of archaeologist María Teresa Casal García “Emirate Qurtuba: the Beginnings of the Islamic City.”
| Thursday February 14th | Caliphate Qurtuba: the Umayyad Megalopolis in al-Andalus, by Juan F. Murillo Redondo |
| Thursday March 7th | Late Islamic Qurtuba: between the Fitna and the Christian Conquest, by Rafael Blanco Guzmán |
| Thursday April 4th | The Great Aljama Mosque of Cordoba, by Pedro Marfil Ruiz |
| Thursday May 9th | The Alcazar of Cordoba, by Alberto León Muñoz |
Conferences already held
You can se the videos of the conferences already held by clicking on the following link (in Spanish).
“Qurtuba of the Emirs: The Beginnings of the Islamic City”
The first conference in the series took place on Thursday, January 24, and was given by archeologist María Teresa Casal García.
The period of the emirs constituted the beginning of a new era which was to completely change the fate of our city. As the capital of al-Andalus in its origins, Cordoba was to undergo great urban planning transformations which would culminate in the period of the caliphs. A true reflection of this was the construction of the first Islamic borough, known as the “Saqunda Borough,” the discovery of which has le to great advancement in knowledge about this stage of history.
María Teresa Casal
As an archeologist for the former agreement between the City’s Urban Planning Department and the University of Cordoba, Ms. Casal worked intensively on this city’s archeology throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century. During this time, she has taken part in numerous archeological interventions which have allowed her to delve further into her main two topics of research: Cordoba’s Islamic cemeteries and the Umayyad period of the emirs in Qurtuba. She has presented various conferences and has published different articles and monographic works on these topics.
Watch the VIDEO of this conference.
Qurtuba of the Caliphs: The Umayyad Megalopolis of al-Andalus
The second conference in the series, held on Thursday, February 14, was given by Juan F. Murillo Redondo.
The Cordoba in which the Muslims created the capital city of al-Andalus in 718 was a city of classical roots, the former capital of the Roman province of Baetica, after passing through the process of Christianization which took place from the fourth to seventh centuries. With the arrival of 'Abd al-Rahman I, new and transcendental urban development took place, and at the same time an unstoppable process of Islamification in every arena, including the urban topography subject to our analysis. As a result of these transformations, in the second half of the tenth century, the city would find itself with a completely different urban reality than that known up to the time. The “Cordoba of the Caliphs” had surpassed the scale of all contemporary European urban centers and most of those in the Islamic world, as well, constituting a megalopolis resembling the Abbasids’ Samarra and Bagdad and Fatimid Cairo.
Dr. Juan F. Murillo, Director of the Archeology Office of the Municipal Urban Planning Department of the City of Cordoba, is a researcher with an extensive scientific background and vast diachronic knowledge of Cordoba’s archeology, in which he has been playing an important role for the last two decades. He is the author of numerous monographic works and articles on the archeology of Cordoba, having covered the widest range of eras and themes. He has often shown a special interest in researching the Islamic period and, more specifically, one of the most important of this city’s eras, which has shown up with great momentum in the city’s recent archeological studies: the era of the Umayyad Caliphs.
Watch the VIDEO of this conference.
Late Islamic Qurtuba: Between the Fitna and Christian Conquest
At this presentation on Thursday, March 7, the third in the series, Rafael Blanco explained how the interest in Islamic Cordoba traditionally tended to mean studying the time as of the early eleventh century, after the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate and its megalopolis, destroyed by civil war. Beyond these dates, it was considered to be a city in gradual decadence until the final Christian conquest in 1236. However, in recent years, archeology has made it possible to change our view of late Islamic Cordoba and has demonstrated the existence of further urban expansion in the twelfth century, but then under a new set of caliphs: the Almohads.
Rafael Blanco Guzmán
A member of the Sísifo Research Group in the Department of Archeology at the University of Cordoba and coordinator of the outreach project “We are all Archeology,” in recent years he has taken part in various archeological excavations and research projects on Cordoba, specifically studying the Islamic period. Along these lines, he has published several works which focus on the domestic architecture and urbanism of al-Andalus, having presented them at various national and international scientific congresses.
Watch the VIDEO of this conference.
