Córdoba (
????? or
????? in Arabic) (often
Cordova in English) is a
city in
Andalusia, southern
Spain, and the capital of the
province of Córdoba. Located at 37.88° North, 4.77° West, on the
Guadalquivir river, it was founded in
ancient Roman times as
Corduba by
Claudius Marcellus. Its population in 2008 was 325,453.
[1]Today a moderately-sized modern city, the old town contains many impressive architectural reminders of when Cordoba was the thriving capital of the Caliphate of Cordoba that governed almost all of the Iberian peninsula. It has been estimated that Cordoba, with up to 500,000 inhabitants in the tenth century, was the largest city in Western Europe and, perhaps, in the world.[2]
Cordoba was the capital of the Roman province of Hispania Ulterior Baetica. Great Roman philosophers like Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, orators like Seneca the Elder and poets like Lucan came from Roman Cordoba. Later, it occupied an important place in the Provincia Hispaniae of the Byzantine Empire (552-572) and during the Visigoth period.
It was captured in 711[3] by the Muslims, and Cordoba became capital during the Umayyad Caliphate, the period of its apogee, with a population supposedly ranging between 250,000 and 500,000 inhabitants. However, most scholars feel that these numbers are historically inflated. In the 10th century, Cordoba – called ????? (Qurtuba) in Arabic –was one of the most advanced cities in the world, as well as a great cultural, political and economic centre. The Cordoba Mosque dates back to this time. In 1236 it was captured by King Ferdinand III during the Spanish Reconquista.
