Religion
Religion played a transcendental role in the configuration of the Islamic society, in general, and the Andalusi one, in particular. Specifically, the daily prayer conditioned in large part the ways of life of the community of believers, who found in the mosque their main place for praying and assembling. Sacred building par excellence, the mosque also fulfilled other functions that made it the element that better symbolized and represented the essence of Islam from the first moment. This space also acquired great importance in the organization of the different settlements and was used as a means of legitimizing the power.
Beyond the Great Mosque, and without taking into account the data from written and epigraphic sources, several secondary mosques of Madīnat Qurṭuba have been documented archaeologically. However, the information is quite unequal since some of them barely conserve a few vestiges. At times, the presence of minarets or structures oriented towards the southeast have been enough to interpret some of these buildings. In other cases, mosques were transformed into Christian temples, as it has been proved in the churches of San Lorenzo or San Juan de los Caballeros.
Within the city, one of the most significant secondary mosque was located on Rey Heredia street. The current building (ancient convent of Santa Clara) still preserves the first section of the minaret, the foundations of the whole construction, the courtyard and part of the walls of the prayer room, including the qibla. In the suburban sectors, the mosque excavated in Fontanar de Cábanos is specially remarkable since its total floor area could be documented, despite its advanced state of destruction. The building get inserted in the urban planning that flourished in the western suburb during the Umayyad Caliphate, surrounded by streets, dwellings and other structures.
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