Ornament of the World: Urban Change in Early Islamic Qurtuba

Abstract

The city of Córdoba looks back to a long-lasting history rooted in Antiquity, but it undoubtedly reached its heyday in the Umayyad period, when it became the thriving, splendorous capital of the Emirate and later Caliphate (756–1031). This article draws an outline of the profound changes that converted the Late Antique city into a densely populated Medieval Islamic conurbation.