Cordoba
If the role of Cordoba in the rise of Muslim science and civilization, and subsequently the rise of Western and modern civilization, was considered, it would fill a whole encyclopedia. Here only the briefest of outline is made. Situated in southern Spain (Andalusia), on the northern bank of the Guadalquivir River (al-wadi al-kabir, "the great river"), it is to this day the capital of the province of Cordoba. The capture of the city in 711 by Mughith al-Rumi, a former slave, at the head of an Arab and Berber Muslim army, began a new chapter in its history.[1] The lenient treatment accorded by the Muslims to the Christians is obvious in the fact that Christians served as administrators, financiers, physicians, artists, and master craftsmen, and were allowed to retain their churches, schools, and libraries.[2] The Mozarabic community (Christians under Muslim rule) had its own cadi (judge), presumably administering Visigothic law.[3] Cordova was eventually to suffer great turmoil due to political vagaries that will shake its prominence, but by the tenth century, according to Trend, it was `the most civilized city in Europe, the wonder and admiration of the world, a Vienna among Balkan states.'[4] For centuries, Cordoba used to be the jewel of Europe, which dazzled visitors from the North.[5] Visitors marveled at what seemed to them an extraordinary general prosperity; one could travel for ten miles by the light of street lamps, and along an uninterrupted series of buildings.[6] The city is said to have had then 200,000 houses, 600 mosques,[7] and 900 public baths.[8] Over the quiet Guadalquivir Arab engineers threw a great stone bridge of seventeen arches, each fifty spans in width. One of the earliest undertakings of Abd al-Rahman I was an aqueduct that brought to Cordova an abundance of fresh water for homes, gardens, fountains, and baths.[9] Caliphs' residences, as opposed to those of their counterparts in Europe, `were embosomed in woods, and had overhanging orange gardens, courts with cascades of water. [10] The city was famous for its pleasure gardens and promenades.[11] The city gradually evolved to include some of Islam's largest and most attractive sites such as Madinat al-Zahra as described by Scott: `From a royal villa, Medina al-Zahra insensibly expanded into a miniature city. Around the palace clustered the luxurious dwellings of the courtiers, the merchants, and the officers of the army. The avenues were lined with trees, whose foliage formed a continuous arch. Not a house could be seen that was not embosomed in gardens abounding with gushing water and rare exotics. Even the sides of the Sierra had been stripped of the sombre growth of the evergreens which had originally covered them, and, planted with fig and almond trees, appeared in all the beauty of luxuriant foliage and fragrant blossoms. Not far away, extensive plantations of the sweetest of flowers gave to the locality the name of Gebal al-Wardat, the Mountain of the Rose.'[12] And the royal palace of al-Zahra that rose three miles southwest of Cordova was lavishly designed and equipped; 1200 marble columns held it up, its hall of audience had ceiling and walls of marble and gold, eight doors inlaid with ebony, ivory, and precious stones and a basin of quicksilver whose undulating surface reflected the dancing rays of the sun.[13] For Muslim chroniclers, Cordoba was "the bride of al-Andalus," the Maghrebi historian al-Maqqari could write of this period: "in four things Cordoba surpasses the capitals of the world. Among them are the bridge over the river and the mosque. These are the first two; the third is Madinat al-Zahra'; but the greatest of all things is knowledge—and that is the fourth."[14] Cordova was, indeed, destined to remain during Islamic rule, the literary centre of the Middle Ages.[15] Cordova's mosque is one of the most famed buildings not just for the impressive architecture, but also and above all for its intellectual role. It was by far the largest university for centuries to come. In the ninth century, in the department of theology at this university, four thousand students were enrolled, and the total number in attendance at the University reached almost eleven thousand.[16] The Christian population of Cordoba itself, had as early as the ninth century adopted the Muslim way of living, and found delight in Arabic fiction, poetry and the study of Muslim philosophical and theological doctrines.[17] Under Abd al-Rahman III, Cordoba was also the center of a thriving Jewish culture epitomized by Hasdai ibn Shaprut, a physician and diplomat who serving the king and who attracted numerous Jewish scholars, poets, and philosophers to the city.[18] The city, indeed, opened to everyone access to its public libraries; seventy of them, during the time of Caliph Hakam II (ruled 961-976).[19] He was a prominent scholar who gathered scholars around him, and made the chief mosque of Cordoba a centre of study. He enriched his own personal library with the best books that a generous and lavish caliph could buy through book agents 'in all the book-markets of the Muslim world.'[20] His library collection was estimated at between 400,000 to 600,000 books.[21] The list of catalogues recording only the names of the authors and the titles of the books consisted of 44 volumes.[22] The library was open to all who cared to use it; poor students and scholars in pursuit of knowledge received financial aid from the caliph, and the learned caliph was himself the library's best student and scholar.'[23] According to the chronicler Ibn Sa'id, "Cordoba held more books than any other city of al-Andalus collections were regarded as symbols of status and social leadership." [24] Hillenbrand explains that the use of paper instead of vellum in Andalusia contributed to this astonishing disparity, as did the Islamic schools employing scores of female copyists; such schools were the medieval equivalent of publishing houses. Nor was this exceptional: The poet Ibn Hazm wrote "women taught me the Qur'an, they recited to me much poetry, they trained me in calligraphy."[25] Cordova remained during Islamic rule, the literary centre of the Middle Ages, `the school of polite manners, the home of science and arts; to be regarded with awe by every Moslem, with affectionate veneration by every scholar, and with mingled feelings of wonder and apprehension by the turbulent barbarians of Western Europe.'[26] Some Learned figures of Cordoba It will be too lengthy to dwell on the particular contributions made in the city of Cordoba; such achievements affected modern civilization in the widest spectrum as just seen. In terms of science, scholars thrived in the city, and literally discoveries were made in every science, from astronomy, to medicine, geography to surgery, philosophy to botany, and mathematics. It is needless here to dwell on all contributions such as those by Ibn Hazm, for instance. It is worth mentioning briefly Ibn al-Saffar, the mathematician astronomer, who flourished in the first half of the eleventh century. He wrote a treatise on the astrolabe and compiled astronomical tables. His treatise on the use of the astrolabe was translated into Latin by Plato of Tivoli and later it was translated into Hebrew by Prophatius.[27] Good mention must be made of the great geographer, al-Bakri, who was born in Saltes or Xuelva, who flourished in Cordova, and died very old in 1094.[28] He is the oldest Hispano-Muslim geographer whose works are extant; his main work was the "Book of the Roads and the Provinces" (Kitab al-masalik wal-mamalik), a geographical compilation (in the form of an itinerary) containing also historical and ethnographical information. He also wrote a dictionary of ancient geography, and a book on the principal plants and trees of Andalusia is ascribed to him, too.[29] Al-Bakri's main work is partly lost, but the parts dealing with Northern Africa, Egypt, and to some extent with Spain are extant.[30] The African part has been edited by Baron de Slane (Algiers, 1857; improved edition 1910) and translated by him in 1858 (Description de l'Afrique septentrionale). Fragments dealing with the Russians and Slavs have been edited in Russian by Kunik and Rosen (St. Petersburg, 1878).[31] The geographical dictionary has been edited by F. Wustenfeld.[32] Greater detail on Al-Bakri's works can be found scattered in a multiplicity of sources.[33] Al-Ghafiqi originated probably in Ghafiq near Cordova. He died in 1165. He wrote medical treatises, but his Kitab al-adwiya al- mufrada (on simples) is one of the best treatises, including plants from Spain and Africa; his description of plants the most precise ever made in Islam; he gave the names of each in Arabic, Latin, and Berber.[34] In al-Ghafiqi's work there is clearly a continuing adaptation of herbals by Muslim physicians as they found new plants not mentioned in either their classical Greek sources or in comparable botanical guides written in the Muslim East.[35] Al-Ghafiqi is very often quoted by the botanist Ibn Baitar (first half of the thirteenth century). Al-Ghafiqi's work also contains information on yellow amber and sal ammoniac.[36] Among his other works there is a treatise on eye-diseases, which M. Meyerhof prepared a French translation of a great part for the International ophthalmology congress scheduled to meet in Madrid n 1933.[37]  | | The Bridge of Cordoba |
Modern surgery owes about everything to possibly the greatest surgeon of history: Al-Zahrawi also known as Albucasis in Latin (B. 936. D. 1013). His book al-Tasrif, completed about 1000 CE was the outcome of fifty years of study and experience. In al-tasrif can be found chapters on medicine, pharmacology, and also on cookery and dietetics, medical chemistry, therapeutics etc. Al-Zahrawi's chapter on surgery from Kitab al-Tasrif is `particularly outstanding' due to the frequent illustration of instruments and `its pervading sense of personal experience.'[38] Most of the instruments were devised and made by al-Zahrawi himself, and their introduction and use was a major breakthrough at the time,[39] and had a lasting influence. His surgical techniques were also revolutionary, and Smith gives very good illustrations of them.[40] For calculus in the urethra, for instance, Al-Zahrawi introduced the technique of using a fine drill inserted through the urinary passage. In order not to frighten patients in his surgical operations, he invented a concealed knife to open abscesses. In the case of tonsillectomies, whilst he held the tongue by a tongue depressor, he removed the swollen tonsil holding it by a hook, and then removed it with a scissor like instrument with transverse blades which cut the gland, whilst holding it for removal from the throat. Al-Zahrawi also described how to connect sound teeth to those that were loose by gold or silver wire. In gynaecology, his work, along that of other Muslim surgeons was pioneering, including instructions on training midwives to perform unusual deliveries, ways of extracting dead foetuses, removing the afterbirth, the design and introduction of vaginal dilaters, the description of forceps, and the use of caesarean methods. The surgical part of Al-tasrif was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona, and various editions were published at Venice in 1497, at Basel in 1541 and Oxford in 1778, and for centuries, it remained the manual of surgery in all early medical universities such as Salerno and Montpellier, whilst the illustrations of his instruments laid the foundations for surgery in Europe.[41] It has been stated how the arts and crafts flourished in Cordoba; the city's 13,000 weavers, and its woolens, silks, and brocades being famous, and so too was its craftsmanship in embossed goat leather, memorialized in the English words "cordovan" and "cordwainer" [42] Gold and silver filigree, often inlaid in the manner of Damascus, was a specialty. Jewelry and ivory carving were widely exported and the process of manufacturing crystal was discovered here.[43]And this discovery owes to one of the greatest minds of the Middle Ages: Abbas Ibn Firnas (d.887). He was a Muslim of Berber origin with boundless imagination and inventive faculty. He was a poet, a mathematician, an astronomer and physicist at the Spanish Ummayad court under three successive rulers. He lent his skills to the glass making furnaces of Cordova, and made a representation of the sky in glass, which he was able at will to make clear or cloudy, with lightning and the noise of thunder at the press of a finger.'[44] He was, indeed, accustomed with the scientific properties of glass, and contributed to the early experiment with lenses and the idea of magnifying script by their use.[45] Ibn Firnas also invented spectacles, complex chronometers, and a flying machine.[46]He could decipher even the most incomprehensible hieroglyphics.[47] On one occasion, as Levi Provencal narrates: `When a merchant returned to Spain with Khalil's treatise on the Arab metrical system, nobody could make anything of these rules of prosody and scansion. Abbas had the manuscript brought to him, and betook himself with it to a corner of the palace, where he examined it and quickly grasping its meaning, proceeded to explain it to a dumbfounded audience.'[48] He built his patrons a mechanical clock and an armillary sphere (a combination of metal rings representing the sky and the movements of astral bodies).[49] And, he made some of the earliest attempts at flying by building artificial wings.[50] The prosperity and great scholarly role of Cordoba was to be partly eclipsed by Seville eventually, but Cordoba still remained a center of thriving Islamic civilization until it fell, and was lost by the Muslims in 1236. This fall followed precisely a pattern established elsewhere, where Muslim dissentions enabled Christian conquest, and the permanent banishment of Muslims. It was when the last Almohad caliph died in 1223, that Cordoba fell victim to party strife. Cordova, the once mighty capital of Muslim Spain, ridden with intrigues, and local conflict fell easily in 1236.[51] It was taken by Fernando III of Leon and Castile. Like Seville, years, later, a sudden opportunistic conquest for Fernando.[52] Many Castilian nobles and military families settled there and it became an episcopal see.[53] The city's prosperity declined, a new Alcazar was built by Alphonse XI of Castile in 1328, and many churches, too; the Great Mosque, itself, being turned into a church and building chapels within it.[54] This symbolized not just the end of Muslim civilization; it also symbolized the end of civilization in that city. Gradually the Muslim population was eradicated in the city and its surrounding. By the time the Muslims were exterminated in Spain in 1609-10,[55] Cordoba has already been lost to Islam for four centuries; it has lost its Islamic character, and its Muslim population. Bibliography -Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: Before Columbus: ExPloration and Colonisation from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic 1229-1492; Mac Millan, 1987. -F.B. Artz: The mind, The Mind of the Middle Ages; Third edition revised; The University of Chicago Press, 1980. -Chikh Bouamrane-Louis Gardet: Panorama de la Pensee Islamique, Sindbad; 1-3 Rue Feutrier; Paris 18 (1984). -T. Burckhardt: Moorish Culture in Spain, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1972. -A. Djebbar: Une Histoire de la Science Arabe; Le Seuil; Paris; 2001. -W. Durant: The Age of faith, Simon and Shuster, New York; 6th printing; 1950. -J.W. Draper: A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, 2 vols; George Bell and Son, London, 1875. -R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba; in The Dictionary of the Middle Ages; Joseph Strayer Editor in Chief; Charles Scribners' Sons; New York; 1980 fwd; vol 3; pp 599-600. -P.K.Hitti: History of the Arabs, MacMillan, London, 1970 ed. -P.F. Kennedy: The Muslim sources of Dante? in The Arab influence in Medieval Europe, edt D.A. Agius and R. Hitchcock, Ithaca press, 1994, pp. 63-82. -Al-Maqqari: Nafh al-Tib, ed. Muhammad M. Abd al-Hamid. 10 vols. Cairo, 1949, vol II. -M. Nakosteen: History of Islamic origins of Western education: 800-1350; University of Colorado Press; Boulder; Colorado; 1964. -J. Pedersen; The Arabic Book, (1928) translated by Geoffrey French; Princeton University Press; Princeton, New Jersey (1984). -J. Read: The Moors in Spain and Portugal; Faber and Faber, London, 1974. -S and N. Ronart: Concise encyclopaedia of Arabic civilisation; the Arab West; Amsterdam; 1966. -G. Sarton: Introduction to the History of Science; 3 vols; The Carnegie Institute of Washington; 1927-48; vol 1. -E Savage-Smith: Medicine, in Encyclopaedia of the History of Arabic Science, in 3 Vols; edt R. Rashed; Routledge, London and New York: 1996, pp. 902-62. -S.P. Scott: History of the Moorish Empire; in 3 vols; The Lippincot Company; Philadelphia; 1904; Vol 1. -J.B. Trend: Spain and Portugal, in The Legacy of Islam, edition T. Arnold and A. Guillaume, first edition, Oxford University Press, 1931, pp 1-39. -J. W. G. Wiet et al: History of mankind; Vol III:The Great Medieval Civilisations.Part Two: section two; Part three; Translated from the French. -R.De Zayas: Les Morisques et le racisme d'Etat; la Difference; Paris; 1992.
[1]R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba; in The Dictionary of the Middle Ages; Joseph Strayer Editor in Chief; Charles Scribners' Sons; New York; 1980 fwd; vol 3; pp 599-600. [2] R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba. [3] R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba. [4] J.B. Trend: Spain and Portugal, in The Legacy of Islam, edition T. Arnold and A. Guillaume, first edition, Oxford University Press, 1931, pp 1-39, at pge. 9. [5]T. Burckhardt: Moorish Culture in Spain, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1972. pp. 9-22. [6] J.W. Thompson: Economic and Social History; p. 549; in W. Durant: the Age of Faith; op cit; p. 302. [7]F.B. Artz: The mind, The Mind of the Middle Ages; Third edition revised; The University of Chicago Press, 1980. p.149. [8] J.B. Trend: Spain and Portugal, op cit, p. 9. [9] W. Durant: The Age of faith, Simon and Shuster, New York; 6th printing; 1950; p.302. [10] J.W. Draper: A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, 2 vols; George Bell and Son, London, 1875., vol II, pp 30-1. [11]W. Durant: The Age of faith, op cit; p.302. [12] S.P. Scott: History of the Moorish Empire; in 3 vols; The Lippincot Company; Philadelphia; 1904; Vol 1; p. 630: [13] W. Durant: The age of faith; op cit; p. 302. [14] R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba; op cit. [15] S.P. Scott: History of the Moorish Empire; op cit; p.271. [16] S.P. Scott: History, op cit, p. 467. [17] P.F. Kennedy: The Muslim sources of Dante? in The Arab influence in Medieval Europe, edt D.A. Agius and R. Hitchcock, Ithaca press, 1994, pp. 63-82, at ppp 71-2. [18] R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba; op cit. [19] J.B. Trend: Spain and Portugal, op cit, p. 9. [20] M. Nakosteen: History of Islamic origins of Western education: 800-1350; University of Colorado Press; Boulder; Colorado; 1964. pp. 68-9. [21] J. Pedersen; The Arabic Book, (1928) translated by Geoffrey French; Princeton University Press; Princeton, New Jersey (1984), p. 120. [22] Al-Maqqari: Nafh al-Tib, ed. Muhammad M. Abd al-Hamid. 10 vols. Cairo, 1949, vol II, p 180. [23] M. Nakosteen: History; op cit; pp. 68-9. [24] R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba; op cit. [25] R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba. [26] S.P. Scott: History; op cit; p.271. [27] G. Sarton: Introduction to the History of Science; 3 vols; The Carnegie Institute of Washington; 1927-48; vol 1; p. 716. [28] G. Sarton: History; op cit; vol 1; p. 768. [29] G. Sarton: History; op cit; vol 1; p. 768. [30] G. Sarton: History; op cit; vol 1; p. 768. [31] G. Sarton: History; op cit; vol 1; p. 768. [32] 2 vols., G6ttingen and Paris, 1876-77. [33] Baron de Slane's Introduction (1857). F. Wustenfeld: Die Wohnsitze und Wanderungen der arabischen Stamme (Abhdl. d. Ges. d. Wiss. zu Gottingen, vol. 14, 84 p., Gottingen, 1869). L. Leclerc: Medecine arabe (vol. 1, 553, 1876). Francissek Piekosidski: Al Bekri o Polakach (Nowsze wydawnictwa akademii umiejetnosci, wydzialow filolog i histor. filozof., vol. 39, 283-295, Cracow, 1900). A. Cour: Encyclopaedia of Islam (vol. 1; 606, 1911). [34] G. Sarton: Introduction; op cit; vol 2; p. 424. [35] J. Scarborough: Herbals; in Dictionary of Middle Ages; op cit; vol 6; p. 179. [36] G. Sarton: Introduction; op cit; vol 2; p. 424. [37] Sarton 2; p. 424. [38] E Savage-Smith: Medicine, in Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, in 3 Vols; edt R. Rashed; Routledge, London and New York: 1996, pp. 902-62, at p. 943. [39] Chikh Bouamrane-Louis Gardet: Panorama de la Pensee Islamique, Sindbad; 1-3 Rue Feutrier; Paris 18 (1984), p. 232. [40] E.S. Smith, Medicine, op cit, pp. 945-8. [41] P.K.Hitti: History of the Arabs, MacMillan, London, 1970 ed. p. 577. [42] R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba; op cit. [43] R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba. [44] Levi Provencal, in J. W. G. Wiet et al: History of mankind; Vol III:The Great Medieval Civilisations.Part Two: section two; Part three; Translated from the French.; at p.336. [45] A. Djebbar: Une Histoire de la Science Arabe; Le Seuil; Paris; 2001; 272-4. [46] W. Durant: The Age of faith, op cit; p 298. [47] L. Provencal in J. W. G. Wiet et al: History of mankind; Vol III:The Great Medieval Civilisations.Part Two: section two; Part three; Translated from the French..p.455. [48] L. Provencal in G. Wiet et al: The Great; op cit.p.455. [49] Concise encyclopaedia of Arabic civilisation; the Arab West; edt by S and N. Ronart; Amsterdam; 1966; p. 142. [50] A. Djebbar: Une Histoire de la Science Arabe; Le Seuil; Paris; 2001; op cit; p. 274; S and N. Ronart edtn: A Concise Encyclopaedia; op. cit; at p. 142. [51] For details, see J. Read: The Moors in Spain and Portugal; Faber and Faber, London, 1974. [52] Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: Before Columbus: ExPloration and Colonisation from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic 1229-1492; Mac Millan, 1987; p.52. [53] R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba; op cit. [54] R. Hillenbrand: Cordoba;. [55] R.De Zayas: Les Morisques et le racisme d'Etat; la Difference; Paris; 1992.
by: FSTC Limited, Fri 12 November, 2004
 
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