The ‘Ornament of the World’: Córdoba and Islamic Spain in the early Middle Ages

In 711, armies loyal to the Umayyad caliphate of Damascus conquered the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo. So was born Islamic Spain, ruled until 1031 from the southern city of Córdoba, described in the tenth century as the ‘Ornament of the World’. This course investigates the significance of the conquest – and the subsequent reshaping of Spain’s political geography – for the inhabitants of, and newcomers to, the peninsula. We will focus our attention largely on Córdoba, brought to life for us in all its magnificence by poets, geographers and historians with a wide range of agendas and preoccupations.