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A recently leaked report by the bishop of Córdoba to redesign Córdoba’s Mosque-Cathedral reveals that the spectre of Islam is still haunting Spain, despite its official 1236 exodus.
In the report, Bishop Demetrio Fernández laments “cultural reductionism” that “eclipse(s) the brilliant Visigoth, Roman, and Christian past” of the Andalusian city. Then, he underlines that the necessity to “redesign the entire space derives from the finding that Córdoba is marked with a very powerful cultural label, that of a Muslim city.”
Discussions over the conversion of such masterpieces are normal and unavoidable, as illustrated by the well-known case of Aya Sofya. However, it is not far-fetched to read the bishop’s statement as Islamophobic due to its specific context.
This context builds on a record of similar proclamations by the bishop and concurrent actions of the Church, which manages the site.
More significantly, it coincides with and contributes to the rise of Islamophobia in Spain.
The controversy over the status of Córdoba’s Mosque-Cathedral is not new. Though archaeologically unconfirmed, the mosque was built in 785 on the site of a Visigothic church by the Umayyads.
With architectural expansions parallel to the increasing importance of Córdoba as the capital of Al-Andalus, it also became one of the intellectual centres of the world, in addition to serving as a mosque. When Córdoba fell to the Castilians in 1236, it was converted into a church. However, until 1523, when the cathedral construction began, it underwent only cosmetic changes, preserving the Islamic heritage of the building.
The permission for construction in 1523 was granted by King Charles V after a dispute. For this reason, the city council objected to the Church’s previous construction attempts. King Charles V also anecdotally regretted his decision later, maintaining that the cathedral’s addition destroyed something unique. Nevertheless, in conformity with his recent Islamophobic remarks, bishop Fernández “eclipsed” these 450 years of Muslim history in 2017 and argued that, “In reality, the Umayyads, the caliphs, had neither their own architects nor created a new art.”
The bishop dismissed Muslim contribution to Córdoba as solely financial investment, claiming there was no Islamic art, only Byzantine. His attitude was in line with the gradual erasure of Muslimness from the site by the Catholic Church.
In 2009, it was revealed that authorities intentionally concealed the Church’s 2006 purchase of the site for €30, granting it rights over everything from restoration investments to tourism revenues.
Following the transaction, one of the initiatives of the Church was to diminish the Islamic heritage from historical records, the tourist posters and tickets present the site as only of Catholic heritage.
For instance, it produced a new tourist brochure where the monument’ history in the introduction starts with 1236 and the Islamic heritage was reduced only to a sidebar, “The Muslim Intervention”. But, on the other hand, the 1981 brochure introduced the building as “the foremost monument of the Islamic West” by praising it as a great example of “the Hispano-Muslim style”.
This Islamophobic transformation of the Mosque-Cathedral into a mere cathedral hit the headlines in November 2014 when for a couple of weeks the word “mosque” disappeared suspiciously from Google Maps. To visit the site, tourists had to search for “the cathedral of Córdoba” in the maps, as the “mosque” was erased, although the official name was the “Mosque-Cathedral”.
The Church denied having any part. However, an online petition for the restoration of the name accused the Church of the disappearance and pointed to the conspicuous absence of the word “mosque” on the official website “catedraldeCórdoba.es” (now it is mezquita-catedraldeCórdoba.es) run by the Church.
The bishop’s statements and the Church’s sinister actions epitomise Islamophobia, which is also on the rise in Spain. Instead of emphasising the Christian heritage as a “part” of a long history shared with Muslims, they prefer to make Muslims enemies. The bishop openly states that Córdoba’s cultural label as “a Muslim city” means to “eclipse the brilliant Visigoth, Roman, and Christian past”.
In other words, Islam and Christianity cannot coexist. Therefore, they should eliminate Islam to protect Christianity and Christian heritage.
The erasure of Islam from history is a suitable tactic for this Islamophobic endeavour. Erasing Muslims from the history of the land will make their current status on that land more precarious and facilitate the denial of their rights and agency. For, a people without history will not have a source to cultivate agency, and a people without agency will not have the power to exist.
(Photo credit: Pixabay/Monika Wojnowska/CC)
