The inspiration for contemporary music, poetry and art, this historical Muslim centre of knowledge known as Al Andalus has much more to tell us. Images and words by Sya Taha.
History is usually told from the viewpoint of the victors. Today, tours of Spanish Andalusia speak of Muslim invasion and conquest, justifying the Spanish reconquista, or “re-conquest” in 1492. But the only Muslim tour guide in the Alhambra, Abu Bakr, will tell you the story from the Muslims’ point of view. He speaks wisftfully of Al Andalus, this once-glorious centre of knowledge of its time, that covers present day Granada, Cordoba, Seville and stretches up to Valencia.
It was a place where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together and shared scientific and artistic knowledge and experiences. It housed the biggest library then in Cordoba, containing 1,000 books on science, religion, philosophy, mathematics and poetry. This shifting and exchanging of knowledge between communities is perhaps best encapsulated in one of the captions on a diorama of a church in the Torreo Museum of Cordoba.
“Where a Christian priest exchanges with a Muslim imam the experience of the divine — the God which lives in us, which moves us and whom we are.”
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