Qurtuba: capital of Al-Andalus

Qurtuba is the name by which the Islamic world knew Córdoba for centuries. Under this name, between the 8th and 11th centuries, the city became one of the great capitals of the world: head of the Western Umayyad Emirate and, later, of the Caliphate of Córdoba.

It all began in 756, when Abd al-Rahman I, the last surviving Umayyad prince after his family's massacre in Damascus, crossed the Mediterranean and founded an independent emirate in al-Andalus. From then on, Córdoba ceased to be a provincial Roman town and became a refined court open to Eastern knowledge.

Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together in its streets. Physicians, astronomers, philosophers, poets, jurists and musicians made Qurtuba a cultural laboratory. Arabic, Latin and Romance were spoken here, Aristotle was translated and the oud was refined. Medicine, agronomy, mathematics and mysticism travelled from Córdoba to all of Europe.

Water was the soul of the city: channels, cisterns, public baths and patios cooled homes and mosques. That culture of water and greenery still lives today in the Patios, the Caliphal Baths and modern hammams.