Qurtuba
![Qurtuba](/content/images/size/w960/2022/09/cordoba-1546dng-full.jpg)
You grow in a land to which you are a stranger,
we are alike in our distance from home
May the rain clouds water you and nourish you in exile
Abd al-Rahman ibn Muyawia – the founder of Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) – was a gifted poet. He penned these verses when he planted a pomegranate tree that he had received as a gift from his native Syria. And thus began the transformation of Visigothic Córboda into Arabo-Islamic Qurtuba.
![](https://www.14stops.org/content/images/2022/09/cordoba-1245-full.jpg)
The first order of business was to establish a mosque. This was done at the site of a 6th century Byzantine Basilica. Built in the image of the Prophet's ﷺ mosque in Medina, the striking Mezquita became a potent symbol of Córdoba's political and religious status at the center of growing Islamic power in the West.
![](https://www.14stops.org/content/images/2022/09/cordoba-1730-full.jpg)
![](https://www.14stops.org/content/images/2022/09/cordoba-1740-full.jpg)
Let's talk about palm trees.
![](https://www.14stops.org/content/images/2022/09/cordoba-1366-full.jpg)
In his book "Kingdoms of Faith", Brian A. Catlos writes:
One of the most striking features of the mosque – the double arches that bridged the pillars – was probably inspired by surviving Roman aqueducts, like that of Segovia. The interior evoked a thicket of palm trees, resonating with the Arabs' desert origins