What they left
Palaces, scholars and thousands of words.
Buildings you can still walk through, thinkers Europe learned from, and the Arabic that lives on in everyday Spanish.
What they left
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8th century; cathedral from 1236
The Great Mosque of Córdoba
Córdoba’s Great Mosque was built in the 8th century and expanded over the next three centuries. A Christian cathedral was installed inside it in 1236, and a major Renaissance rebuild ran from 1523 to 1599. UNESCO listed it in 1984 and added the historic center in 1994.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Historic Centre of Cordoba”
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mid-10th century
Madinat al-Zahra, the caliphs’ city
Madinat al-Zahra was a city built in the mid-900s as the seat of the Caliphate of Córdoba. It was wrecked in the civil war of 1009 to 1010, lay forgotten until the early 1900s, and still is only about 10% excavated. UNESCO listed it in 2018.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Caliphate City of Medina Azahara”
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13th–14th centuries
The Alhambra and al-Andalus irrigation
UNESCO calls Granada’s Alhambra the only preserved palace city of the Islamic period and the best example of Nasrid art. It says the palaces were made possible by al-Andalus irrigation engineering, and that the Generalife’s garden and vegetable farms are one of the few medieval farming areas of their kind.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Alhambra, Generalife and Albayízín, Granada”
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Almohad era; cathedral founded 1403
The Giralda was a minaret
Seville Cathedral’s famous bell tower, the Giralda, started out as the minaret of the city’s Almohad mosque. The cathedral was founded in 1403 on the mosque’s site.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Seville”
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Arabic words in Spanish
After Latin, Arabic is the biggest source of Spanish vocabulary. The Alhambra’s official blog says about 8% of Spanish words come from Arabic: roughly 900 root words that, with related forms, may top 4,000. Its farming examples include acequia, aceite, azúcar, algodón, noria, and zanahoria.
Where sources differ: Counts depend on what’s counted. An Instituto Cervantes (Marrakech) event page says “más de 3.000” (more than 3,000) Spanish words come from Arabic; the Alhambra’s 4,000+ figure includes derived forms. The source page lists the farming words in Spanish only; if the site adds English meanings, check them against a dictionary.
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1126 to 1198
Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
The philosopher, doctor, and judge Ibn Rushd was born in Córdoba in 1126. Christian Europe knew him as Averroes, or simply “the Commentator” on Aristotle, and his influence there came to rival Aristotle’s own.
Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Ibn Rushd [Averroes]”
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1138
Maimonides was born in Córdoba
The Jewish philosopher Maimonides was born in Córdoba under Muslim rule. After the Almohads invaded in 1148 and gave non-Muslims the choice of conversion, exile, or death, his family left and eventually reached Fez, Morocco, in 1160.
Where sources differ: His birth year is often given as 1135. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says research now supports 1138.
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10th century; Latin translation 12th century
Al-Zahrawi and the road to Latin Europe
Al-Zahrawi (known in Latin as Albucasis) practiced medicine in Córdoba in the 900s and wrote a 30-book medical encyclopedia. Its illustrated surgery section was translated into Latin in Toledo by Gerard of Cremona and became influential in Europe.
Source: U.S. National Library of Medicine, Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts