Andalusian Architecture
Image by aziz.alula via Instagram
Since the early days of Arabs in Al Andalus, people were filled with a longing for the Arabian east. Abdalrahman I was yearning for Damascus, he built palaces and mosques similar to the Umayyad architecture in the Levant, making it the typical architecture in Al Andalus. His idea for the Mosque of Cordoba was to build arches that resembled his grandfather’s (the Caliph Hisham in Damascus) palm trees. His sister sent him one from their grandfather’s palace, and he planted it in his palace in Cordoba. Poems were written about that palm tree; the first one in Al Andalus. To an Arab, no plant is as pure or as sacred as a palm tree. Centuries later, Muhammad V, built Arryad Al Saed (meaning happy Riad, shown in post) in Alhambra, now known as The Court of Lions. Expressing-in those clusters of columns and arches- his origin, as Abdalrahman I once did 600 years before him.