Great Mosque of Cordoba begun

In 785 Abd al-Rahman I, ruler of Muslim Spain (al-Andalus), begins a great congregational mosque in Cordoba. It stands on the site of the Visigothic church of St Vincent, which Muslims and Christians had shared until he bought the Christian share. The hall is a forest of columns, many reused from Roman and Visigothic buildings, topped by two tiers of arches in alternating red brick and white stone. The upper tier lifts the roof higher than the short columns could manage alone.¹²

Abd al-Rahman was the last survivor of the Umayyad family, which the Abbasids slaughtered in 750 after overthrowing the Caliphate in Damascus. He escaped to Iberia, which Muslim armies had taken in 711, and made himself emir of Cordoba in 756. A grand mosque announced that his new state was a lasting rival to the Abbasids in Baghdad, and its arches echo the Great Mosque of Damascus that his family had built.²

Later rulers kept enlarging it. Abd al-Rahman II extended the prayer hall in the 830s. After Abd al-Rahman III declared the Caliphate of Cordoba in 929, al-Hakam II added a richly decorated mihrab (the niche marking the direction of Mecca) around 965, with gold mosaics sent from Byzantium. Almanzor made the last large extension in 987. After King Ferdinand III of Castile took Cordoba in 1236 the building became a cathedral, and in the 1520s a Renaissance nave was cut into its middle. About 850 columns survive today, and the building is a UNESCO World Heritage site.¹²