Alcázar of the Caliphs (Córdoba)

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The Alcázar of the Caliphs or Caliphal Alcázar, also known as the Umayyad Alcázar and the Andalusian Alcazar of Cordoba, was a fortress-palace (alcázar) located in Córdoba, in present-day Spain. It was the seat of the government of Al-Andalus and the residence of the emirs and caliphs of Córdoba from the 8th century until the 11th century and the residence of local Muslim governors from the 11th century until the Christian conquest in 1236. The site was composed of heterogeneous constructions ranging from the private residences of the rulers and their households to the government offices and administrative areas. Today, only minor remains of the palace have survived, including the Caliphal Baths which have been converted into a museum. The rest of the site is occupied by later structures including the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, the Episcopal Palace, the Seminary of San Pelagio, and the Campo Santos de los Mártires public square.

When the Visigoths fell to the Muslim conquest of Hispania in 711, marking the beginning of Al-Andalus, the governors appointed by the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus established themselves initially in Seville. In 717 the governor, al-Ḥurr, moved the capital of al-Andalus to Cordoba, the former Visigothic capital, and moved into the former palace of the Visigothic king, known in Arabic sources as the Balāt al-Lūdriq. The palace was located near the Roman bridge as well as near the first mosque of the city (which was a Christian basilica being shared with the Muslim community).

The Umayyads fell to the Abbasid Caliphate in 750 but the surviving member of the Umayyad Dynasty, Abd ar-Rahman I, fled to Córdoba and established an Umayyad Emirate over al-Andalus in 756. Abd ar-Rahman initially resided in several palace-villas on the outskirts of the city, most notably one called ar-Ruṣāfa. Ar-Ruṣāfa may have originally been a Roman villa or a Roman-Visigothic estate which was taken over and adapted by a Berber chieftain named Razin al-Burnusi who accompanied the original Muslim invasion by Tariq ibn Ziyad earlier that century. After a failed plot against him in 784, Abd ar-Rahman moved his residence definitively to the site of the palace in the city, which he transformed into the new Alcázar. A year later he also began construction of the Great Mosque next door. Abd ar-Rahman I and his successors (who eventually declared a new Caliphate) built and continuously developed the Alcázar into the official royal residence and seat of power in Al-Andalus. During this period the city flourished as a key political and cultural center, and the Alcázar was expanded into a very large and widely used area with baths, gardens, and the largest library in Western Europe. Abd ar-Rahman II was responsible for improving the water supply for both the city and the palace gardens. He may have also built the Albolafia and other norias (waterwheels) along the Guadalquivir River. (Although the Albolafia is also attributed by historians to either the 10th century or to the 12th century under the Almoravids.) The palace complex was also equipped with a bathhouse (hammam), known today as the Caliphal Baths (Baños Califales), which dates from the reign of al-Hakam II and was later expanded under the Almohads (12th to early 13th century). In the 10th century the official seat of government was moved to a new palace complex, Madinat al-Zahara, built by Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III outside the city. In spite of this move, the original Alcázar retained its importance. Abd-ar-Rahman III himself carried out many works here, building new water infrastructure as well as possibly the Dar al-Rawda or Garden House which, by its name, was probably located next to the Rawda cemetery and garden. Madinat al-Zahara was in turn ruined during the collapse of the caliphate in the early 11th century, causing the seat of power in Cordoba to return to the Alcázar, where local governors resided under later regimes. Following the Christian conquest of the city by Ferdinand III in 1236, one part of the Alcázar was donated to the bishop of Cordoba (today the Episcopal Palace) and converted into various structures, while a large part of it was transformed into the Alcazar of the Christian Kings, a royal residence of the Spanish monarchy. Few traces of the original Islamic-era palaces remains today.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.