A MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC CITY: CASE OF CORDOBA

Abstract

From Turkestan to Andalusia Spain, Medieval Islamic cities geographically occupied a wide area and thus, they had left their mark on the medieval era. Being one of these Islamic cities, Cordoba was seized by Arabs in 711 and the first urbanization activities began upon moving the government centre from Seville to Cordoba. Later on, as the capital city of Andalusia Umayyad Dynasty, Cordoba became one of the most crucial cities of Spain in terms of science, art and trade. In this study, stating the features of medieval Western and Islamic cities, initially, the geographic, politic, economic and philosophic bases that took part in the establishment of the cities will be discussed and a specific focus will be made upon Cordoba city. Afterwards, information about the history, city layout and construction, city government, the socio-economic construction, architectural and cultural formation of Cordoba will be presented. This study reveals that the European urbanization and its product Renaissance in medieval era cannot be considered apart from the administrative, socio-economic, cultural and architectural features of the Islamic cities within the context of Ibn Haldun’s thoughts.