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164-656: The Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba ( Spanish : Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba [meθˈkita kateˈðɾal de ˈkoɾðoβa] ), officially known by its ecclesiastical name of Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption (Spanish: Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción ), is the cathedral of the Diocese of Córdoba dedicated to the Assumption of Mary and located in the Spanish region of Andalusia . Due to its status as
328-524: A Syrian Christian such as Ephrem the Syrian . Following the declaration of Syria in 1936, the term "Syrian" came to designate citizens of that state, regardless of ethnicity. The adjective "Syriac" ( suryāni سُرْيَانِي ) has come into common use since as an ethnonym to avoid the ambiguity of "Syrian". Currently, the Arabic term Sūriya usually refers to the modern state of Syria, as opposed to
492-456: A hypostyle prayer hall to the south and an open courtyard ( sahn ) to the north. As the mosque was built on a sloping site, a large amount of fill would have been necessary to create a level ground on which to build. The outer walls were reinforced with large buttresses, which are still visible on the exterior today.The original mosque's most famous architectural innovation, which was preserved and repeated in all subsequent Muslim-era expansions,
656-466: A Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary ( Santa Maria ). The first mass was dedicated here on June 29 of that year. According to Jiménez de Rada , Ferdinand III also carried out the symbolic act of returning the former cathedral bells of Santiago de Compostela that were looted by Al-Mansur (and which had been turned into mosque lamps) back to Santiago de Compostela. Despite the conversion,
820-587: A Spanish-based creole language called Chavacano developed in the southern Philippines. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Spanish. The number of Chavacano-speakers was estimated at 1.2 million in 1996. The local languages of the Philippines also retain significant Spanish influence, with many words derived from Mexican Spanish , owing to the administration of the islands by Spain through New Spain until 1821, until direct governance from Madrid afterwards to 1898. Syria (region) Syria
984-557: A cathedral in 1236 when Córdoba was captured by the Christian forces of Castile during the Reconquista . The structure itself underwent only minor modifications until a major building project in the 16th century inserted a new Renaissance cathedral nave and transept into the center of the building. The former minaret, which had been converted to a bell tower , was also significantly remodelled around this time. Starting in
1148-638: A confirmation of the former church's existence. This theory has been opposed by Fernando Arce-Sainz, another archeologist, who states that none of the numerous archeological investigations in modern times have turned up remains of Christian iconography , a cemetery, or other evidence that would support the existence of a church. Art historian Rose Walker, in an overview of late antique and early medieval art in Spain, has likewise criticized Marfil's view as relying on personal interpretation. More recently, archeologists Alberto León and Raimundo Ortiz Urbano have affirmed
1312-603: A considerable number of words from Arabic , as well as a minor influence from the Germanic Gothic language through the period of Visigoth rule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed from Latin through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. The loanwords were taken from both Classical Latin and Renaissance Latin , the form of Latin in use at that time. According to
1476-435: A decade – died just two weeks before the finished choir was officially opened. In 1816 the original mihrab of the mosque was uncovered from behind the former altar of the old Chapel of San Pedro. Patricio Furriel was responsible for restoring the mihrab's Islamic mosaics, including the portions which had been lost. Further restoration works concentrating on the former mosque structure were carried out between 1879 and 1923 under
1640-710: A decline but remained an important cultural center. Under Almoravid rule , the artisan workshops of Cordoba were commissioned to design new richly-crafted minbars for the most important mosques of Morocco – most famously the Minbar of the Kutubiyya Mosque commissioned in 1137 – which were likely inspired by the model of al-Hakam II's minbar in the Great Mosque. In 1146 the Christian army of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile briefly occupied Cordoba. The archbishop of Toledo , Raymond de Sauvetât , accompanied by
1804-467: A dramatic change in the pronunciation of its sibilant consonants , known in Spanish as the reajuste de las sibilantes , which resulted in the distinctive velar [x] pronunciation of the letter ⟨j⟩ and—in a large part of Spain—the characteristic interdental [θ] ("th-sound") for the letter ⟨z⟩ (and for ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ ). See History of Spanish (Modern development of
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#17327730600291968-482: A first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos ( Ilustrados ). Despite a public education system set up by the colonial government, by the end of Spanish rule in 1898, only about 10% of the population had knowledge of Spanish, mostly those of Spanish descent or elite standing. Spanish continued to be official and used in Philippine literature and press during the early years of American administration after
2132-599: A former mosque , it is also known as the Mezquita (Spanish for 'mosque') and as the Great Mosque of Córdoba . According to traditional accounts a Visigothic church, the Catholic Christian Basilica of Vincent of Saragossa , originally stood on the site of the current Mosque-Cathedral, although this has been a matter of scholarly debate. The Great Mosque was constructed in 785 on
2296-511: A general period of decline and recurring sieges, the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min ordered that Cordoba be prepared to become his capital in al-Andalus. As part of this preparation, his two sons and governors, Abu Yaqub Yusuf and Abu Sa'id, ordered that the city and its monuments be restored. The architect Ahmad ibn Baso (who was later known for his work on the Great Mosque of Seville ) was responsible for carrying out this restoration program. It
2460-478: A long history in the territory of the current-day United States dating back to the 16th century. In the wake of the 1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty , hundreds of thousands of Spanish speakers became a minoritized community in the United States. The 20th century saw further massive growth of Spanish speakers in areas where they had been hitherto scarce. According to the 2020 census, over 60 million people of
2624-590: A misunderstanding of Roman milestones found in the area. According to traditional accounts, the present-day site of the Cathedral–Mosque of Córdoba was originally a Visigothic Christian church dedicated to Saint Vincent of Saragossa , which was divided and shared by Christians and Muslims after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania . As the Muslim community grew and this existing space became too small for prayer,
2788-581: A mosque, which goes back to the tenth-century historian Al-Razi , echoed similar narratives of the Islamic conquest of Syria , in particular the story of building the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus . For medieval Muslim historians, these parallels served to highlight a dynastic Umayyad conquest of Spain and appropriation of Visigothic Córdoba. Another tenth-century source mentions a church that stood at
2952-508: A primarily Hassaniya Arabic -speaking territory, Spanish was officially spoken as the language of the colonial administration during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Spanish is present in the partially-recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as its secondary official language, and in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf ( Algeria ), where the Spanish language is still taught as
3116-613: A province of the Roman Empire, following the conquest by Pompey . Roman Syria bordered Judea to the south, Anatolian Greek domains to the north, Phoenicia to the West, and was in constant struggle with Parthians to the East. In 135 AD, Syria-Palaestina became to incorporate the entire Levant and Western Mesopotamia. In 193, the province was divided into Syria proper ( Coele-Syria ) and Phoenice . Sometime between 330 and 350 (likely c. 341),
3280-617: A second language features characteristics involving the variability of the vowel system. While far from its heyday during the Spanish protectorate in Morocco , the Spanish language has some presence in northern Morocco , stemming for example from the availability of certain Spanish-language media. According to a 2012 survey by Morocco's Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (IRES), penetration of Spanish in Morocco reaches 4.6% of
3444-531: A second language, largely by Cuban educators. The number of Spanish speakers is unknown. Spanish is also an official language of the African Union . Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish administration in 1565 to a constitutional change in 1973. During Spanish colonization , it was the language of government, trade, and education, and was spoken as
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#17327730600293608-519: A series of Byzantine-Italian style frescoes by Alonso Martinez depicting saints and kings, but only one of these frescoes has been preserved to the present day and is now being kept at the Museum of Fine Arts in Cordoba. The most significant alteration of all, however, was the building of a Renaissance cathedral nave and transept – forming a new Capilla Mayor [ es ] – in the middle of
3772-410: A specialist on the history of the mosque–cathedral, although remains of multiple church-like buildings have been located on the territory of the mosque–cathedral complex, no clear archaeological evidence has been found of where either the church of St. Vincent or the first mosque were located on the site, and the latter may have been a newly constructed building. The evidence suggests that it may have been
3936-471: A strong storm (or earthquake) caused damage to the former minaret, which was being used as a bell tower , and it was decided to remodel and reinforce the tower. A design by Hernán Ruiz III (son of Hernán Ruiz II) was chosen, encasing the original minaret structure into a new Renaissance-style bell tower. Some of the upper sections of the minaret were demolished in the process. Construction began in 1593 but eventually stalled due to resources being spent instead on
4100-403: A surrounding gallery or portico (as seen today and as was common in the courtyards of other mosques). Many modern scholars affirm that the courtyard was provided with an enveloping gallery at this time and that its design involved an alternation between piers and columns (similar to its current appearance). Abd ar-Rahman III's son and successor, Al-Hakam II (r. 961–976), was a cultured man who
4264-466: A surviving inscription on a marble plaque that includes the name of Abd ar-Rahman III as well as the names of the master builder and the supervisor of works. The minaret was 47 meters high and had a square base measuring 8.5 meters per side. Scholar Jonathan Bloom suggests that Abd ar-Rahman III's construction of the minaret – along with his sponsoring of other minarets around the same time in Fez , Morocco –
4428-416: A theory for the etymology of Arabia Felix denoting Yemen, by translation of that sense. The Shaam region is sometimes defined as the area dominated by Damascus , long an important regional center. Ash-Sām on its own can refer to the city of Damascus. Continuing with the similar contrasting theme, Damascus was the commercial destination and representative of the region in the same way Sanaa held for
4592-416: Is cognate to the root word of satisfacer ("to satisfy"), and hecho ("made") is similarly cognate to the root word of satisfecho ("satisfied"). Compare the examples in the following table: Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, as shown in the examples in the following table: In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish underwent
4756-666: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe . Today, it is a global language with about 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain , and about 600 million when including second language speakers. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries , as well as one of the six official languages of
4920-713: Is a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia , broadly synonymous with the Levant . Other synonyms are Greater Syria or Syria-Palestine . The region boundaries have changed throughout history. However, in modern times, the term "Syria" alone is used to refer to the Syrian Arab Republic . The term is originally derived from Assyria , an ancient civilization centered in northern Mesopotamia , modern-day Iraq . During
5084-467: Is between the east and west is a qibla", which thus legitimized southern alignments. This practice may also have sought to emulate the orientation of the walls of the rectangular Kaaba building inside the Great Mosque of Mecca , based on another tradition which considered the different sides of the Kaaba as being associated with different parts of the Muslim world. In this tradition the northwest face of
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5248-486: Is claimed to have commented: "You have built what you or anyone else might have built anywhere; to do so you have destroyed something that was unique in the world." The architect Hernan Ruiz I was put in charge of the design of the new nave and transept. Before his death in 1547 he built the choir walls up to the windows and the gothic vaults on the south side. He also worked on the mosque building's eastern section (the extension added by Al-Mansur) by adding gothic vaulting to
5412-454: Is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as a native language , making it the second most spoken language by number of native speakers . An additional 75 million speak Spanish as a second or foreign language , making it the fourth most spoken language in the world overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi with a total number of 538 million speakers. Spanish is also
5576-761: Is heavily influenced by Venezuelan Spanish. In addition to sharing most of its borders with Spanish-speaking countries, the creation of Mercosur in the early 1990s induced a favorable situation for the promotion of Spanish language teaching in Brazil . In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President , making it mandatory for schools to offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil. In September 2016 this law
5740-410: Is not known exactly which buildings he restored, but it is almost certain that he restored the Great Mosque. It is likely that the mosque's minbar was also restored at this time, since it is known to have survived long afterwards up to the 16th century. In 1236 Córdoba was conquered by King Ferdinand III of Castile as part of the Reconquista . Upon the city's conquest the mosque was converted into
5904-732: Is related to Castile ( Castilla or archaically Castiella ), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name Castile , in turn, is usually assumed to be derived from castillo ('castle'). In the Middle Ages , the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to as Romance and later also as Lengua vulgar . Later in the period, it gained geographical specification as Romance castellano ( romanz castellano , romanz de Castiella ), lenguaje de Castiella , and ultimately simply as castellano (noun). Different etymologies have been suggested for
6068-844: Is spoken by very small communities in Angola due to Cuban influence from the Cold War and in South Sudan among South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned for their country's independence. Spanish is also spoken in the integral territories of Spain in Africa, namely the cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands , located in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 km (62 mi) off
6232-813: Is the de facto national language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state of New Mexico . The language has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Los Angeles , Miami , San Antonio , New York , San Francisco , Dallas , Tucson and Phoenix of the Arizona Sun Corridor , as well as more recently, Chicago , Las Vegas , Boston , Denver , Houston , Indianapolis , Philadelphia , Cleveland , Salt Lake City , Atlanta , Nashville , Orlando , Tampa , Raleigh and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration. Although Spanish has no official recognition in
6396-423: The qibla (the direction of prayer), which is theoretically the direction of Mecca . From Cordoba, Mecca is to the east-southeast, but the Great Mosque of Cordoba is instead oriented more towards the south. This orientation, which doesn't match that of modern mosques, reflects the pre-existing street alignment of Roman Cordoba. It is also due to historical differences in opinion about the appropriate direction of
6560-558: The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake . A French architect, Baltasar Dreveton, was charged with restoring and repairing the structure over a period of 8 years. In March 1748 construction on the choir stalls of the Capilla Mayor began, with the commission awarded to Pedro Duque Cornejo . It was initially funded with the help of a large bequest by Archdeacon José Díaz de Recalde in 1742. Work on the choir stalls finished in 1757, though Duque Cornejo – who had worked on it continuously for nearly
6724-685: The Armenian Apostolic Church . There are also Levantines or Franco-Levantines who adhere to Roman Catholicism . There are also Assyrians belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church . Other religious groups in the Levant include Jews , Samaritans , Yazidis and Druze . [REDACTED] Asia portal Herodotus uses Ancient Greek : Συρία to refer to
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6888-555: The Bilad al-Sham province of the medieval Arab caliphates , encompassing the Eastern Mediterranean (or Levant) and Western Mesopotamia. The Muslim conquest of the Levant in the seventh century gave rise to this province, which encompassed much of the region of Syria, and came to largely overlap with this concept. Other sources indicate that the term Greater Syria was coined during Ottoman rule , after 1516, to designate
7052-785: The Corinthian style but still differed slightly from classical models, thus hinting at the future evolution of architectural sculpture in al-Andalus. One probable example of these capitals is now preserved at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid and features an Arabic inscription in an archaic Kufic script that offers blessings on Abd ar-Rahman II. The expansion work may have been unfinished when Abd ar-Rahman II died in 852 and it appears to have been completed instead by his son and successor, Muhammad I (r. 852–886). Muhammad I carried out various other works on
7216-730: The Emirate of Transjordan . The Syrian-mandate states were gradually unified as the State of Syria and finally became the independent Syria in 1946. Throughout this period, Antoun Saadeh and his party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party , envisioned "Greater Syria" or "Natural Syria", based on the etymological connection between the name "Syria" and "Assyria" , as encompassing the Sinai Peninsula , Cyprus, modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait,
7380-424: The Emirate of Transjordan . The term Syria itself was applied to several mandate states under French rule and the contemporaneous but short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria . The Syrian-mandate states were gradually unified as the State of Syria and finally became the independent Syria in 1946. Throughout this period, pan-Syrian nationalists advocated for the creation of a Greater Syria. Several sources indicate that
7544-695: The Franco-Syrian War , in July 1920, in which French armies defeated the newly proclaimed kingdom and captured Damascus, aborting the Arab state. Thereafter, the French general Henri Gouraud , in breach of the conditions of the mandate, subdivided the French Mandate of Syria into six states. They were the states of Damascus (1920), Aleppo (1920), Alawite State (1920), Jabal Druze (1921),
7708-577: The Hellenistic period , the term Syria was applied to the entire Levant as Coele-Syria . Under Roman rule , the term was used to refer to the province of Syria , later divided into Syria Phoenicia and Coele Syria , and to the province of Syria Palaestina . Under the Byzantines, the provinces of Syria Prima and Syria Secunda emerged out of Coele Syria. After the Muslim conquest of the Levant ,
7872-440: The Muslim world . It is also one of Spain's major historic monuments and tourist attractions, as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. A claim that the site of the mosque-cathedral was once a Roman temple dedicated to Janus dates as far back as Pablo de Céspedes and is sometimes still repeated today. However, Robert Knapp , in his overview of Roman-era Córdoba, has dismissed this claim as speculation based on
8036-639: The Roman Empire , Syria and Assyria came to be used as distinct geographical terms. "Syria" in the Roman Empire period referred to "those parts of the Empire situated between Asia Minor and Egypt", i.e. the western Levant , while "Assyria" was part of the Persian Empire , and only very briefly came under Roman control (116–118 AD, marking the historical peak of Roman expansion ). In the Roman era,
8200-753: The Seleucid Empire , this term was also applied to The Levant , and henceforth the Greeks applied the term without distinction between the Assyrians of Mesopotamia and Arameans of the Levant. The oldest attestation of the name 'Syria' is from the 8th century BC in a bilingual inscription in Hieroglyphic Luwian and Phoenician . In this inscription, the Luwian word Sura/i was translated to Phoenician ʔšr " Assyria ." For Herodotus in
8364-630: The Southeastern Anatolia Region of southern Turkey. This late definition is equivalent to the region known in Classical Arabic by the name ash-Shām ( ٱلشَّام /ʔaʃ-ʃaːm/ ), which means the north [country] (from the root šʔm شَأْم "left, north"). After the Islamic conquest of Byzantine Syria in the seventh century, the name Syria fell out of primary use in the region itself, being superseded by
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#17327730600298528-452: The Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005. Spanish has historically had a significant presence on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba , Bonaire and Curaçao ( ABC Islands ) throughout the centuries and in present times. The majority of the populations of each island (especially Aruba) speaking Spanish at varying although often high degrees of fluency. The local language Papiamentu (Papiamento on Aruba)
8692-446: The Spanish–American War but was eventually replaced by English as the primary language of administration and education by the 1920s. Nevertheless, despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language of the Philippines upon independence in 1946, alongside English and Filipino , a standardized version of Tagalog . Spanish was briefly removed from official status in 1973 but reimplemented under
8856-423: The United Nations . Spanish is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese ; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English , Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani ( Hindi - Urdu ); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers is Mexico . Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance language group , in which
9020-406: The ancient Near East during the Bronze and Iron Ages . Others such as Bedouin Arabs inhabit the Syrian Desert and Naqab, and speak a dialect known as Bedouin Arabic that originated in Arabian Peninsula . Other minor ethnic groups in the Levant include Circassians , Chechens , Turks , Turkmens , Assyrians , Kurds , Nawars and Armenians . Islam became the predominant religion in
9184-417: The qibla in far western Islamic lands like al-Andalus and Morocco. In this early period, many Muslims in the region preferred a tradition that existed in the western Islamic world (the Maghreb and al-Andalus) according to which the qibla should be oriented towards the south instead of pointing towards the shortest distance to Mecca. This was based on a saying ( hadith ) of Muhammad which stated that "What
9348-436: The 10th century Abd ar-Rahman III (r. 912–961) declared a new Caliphate in al-Andalus and inaugurated the height of Andalusi power in the region. As part of his various construction projects, he reworked and enlarged the courtyard of the Great Mosque and built its first true minaret (a tower from which the call to prayer was issued) starting in 951–952. The new works, including the minaret, were completed in 958, as recorded by
9512-441: The 10th century), later expansions of the Great Mosque did not attempt to modify its original alignment. In 793 Abd ar-Rahman I's son and successor, Hisham I , added to the mosque a ṣawma'a , a shelter for the muezzin on top of the outer wall, as the mosque did not yet have a minaret (a feature which was not yet standard in early mosques). The mosque was significantly expanded by Abd ar-Rahman II (r. 822–852) sometime between
9676-424: The 13th century. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period spurred the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to the Americas. As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is Latin in origin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. Alongside English and French , it is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout
9840-400: The 13th century. These three areas appear to have been the most important focal points of Christian activity in the early cathedral. The minaret of the mosque was also converted directly into a bell tower for the cathedral, with only cosmetic alterations such as the placement of a cross at its summit. Notably, during the early period of the cathedral-mosque, the workers charged with maintaining
10004-426: The 16th century, when it was apparently seen by Ambrosio de Morales .) The cathedral's first altar was installed in 1236 under the large ribbed dome at the edge of Al-Hakam II's 10th-century extension of the mosque, becoming part of what is today called the Villaviciosa Chapel ( Capilla de Villaviciosa ) and the cathedral's first main chapel (the Antigua Capilla Mayor ). There is no indication that even this space
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#173277306002910168-430: The 19th century, modern restorations have in turn led to the recovery and study of some of the building's Islamic-era elements. Today, the building continues to serve as the city's cathedral and Mass is celebrated there daily. The mosque structure is an important monument in the history of Islamic architecture and was highly influential on the subsequent "Moorish" architecture of the western Mediterranean regions of
10332-404: The 2021–2022 school year alone. The local business process outsourcing industry has also helped boost the language's economic prospects. Today, while the actual number of proficient Spanish speakers is around 400,000, or under 0.5% of the population, a new generation of Spanish speakers in the Philippines has likewise emerged, though speaker estimates vary widely. Aside from standard Spanish,
10496-406: The 20th century, Spanish was introduced to Equatorial Guinea and the Western Sahara , and to areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City . For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language . Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it
10660-406: The 5th century BC, Syria extended as far north as the Halys (the modern Kızılırmak River ) and as far south as Arabia and Egypt. The name 'Syria' derives from the ancient Greek name for Assyrians, Greek : Σύριοι Syrioi , which the Greeks applied without distinction to various Near Eastern peoples living under the rule of Assyria . Modern scholarship confirms the Greek word traces back to
10824-416: The Arabic equivalent Bilād ash-Shām ("Northern Land'"), but survived in its original sense in Byzantine and Western European usage, and in Syriac Christian literature. In the 19th century, the name Syria was revived in its modern Arabic form to denote the whole of Bilad al-Sham, either as Suriyah or the modern form Suriyya , which eventually replaced the Arabic name of Bilad al-Sham. After World War I ,
10988-414: The Arabic name of Bilad al-Sham. After World War I , the boundaries of the region were last defined in modern times by the proclamation of and subsequent definition by French and British mandatory agreement. The area was passed to French and British Mandates following World War I and divided into Greater Lebanon , various states under Mandatory French rule , British-controlled Mandatory Palestine and
11152-401: The Castilians were eager to appropriate. In the late 15th century a more significant modification was carried out to the Villaviciosa Chapel, where a new nave in Gothic style was created by clearing some of the mosque arches on the east side of the chapel and adding Gothic arches and vaulting. The nave is dated to 1489 and its construction was overseen by Bishop Íñigo Manrique. It originally had
11316-401: The Christian martyrs Saints Faustus, Januarius, and Marcellus whom they deeply revered – as agreed upon in the sale terms. The historicity of this narrative has been challenged as archaeological evidence is scant and the narrative is not corroborated by contemporary accounts of the events following Abd al-Rahman I's initial arrival in al-Andalus. The narrative of the church being transformed into
11480-410: The Elder and Pomponius Mela , Syria covered the entire Fertile Crescent . In Late Antiquity , "Syria" meant a region located to the east of the Mediterranean Sea , west of the Euphrates River , north of the Arabian Desert and south of the Taurus Mountains , thereby including modern Syria , Lebanon , Jordan , Israel , Palestine , and parts of Southern Turkey, namely the Hatay Province and
11644-399: The Elder and Pomponius Mela , Syria covered the entire Fertile Crescent . In Late Antiquity , "Syria" meant a region located to the east of the Mediterranean Sea , west of the Euphrates River , north of the Arabian Desert , and south of the Taurus Mountains , thereby including modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the State of Palestine, and the Hatay Province and the western half of
11808-654: The Equatoguinean education system and is the primary language used in government and business. Whereas it is not the mother tongue of virtually any of its speakers, the vast majority of the population is proficient in Spanish. The Instituto Cervantes estimates that 87.7% of the population is fluent in Spanish. The proportion of proficient Spanish speakers in Equatorial Guinea exceeds the proportion of proficient speakers in other West and Central African nations of their respective colonial languages. Spanish
11972-705: The Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Proto-Basque , Iberian , Lusitanian , Celtiberian and Gallaecian . The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era , the most important influences on the Spanish lexicon came from neighboring Romance languages — Mozarabic ( Andalusi Romance ), Navarro-Aragonese , Leonese , Catalan/Valencian , Portuguese , Galician , Occitan , and later, French and Italian . Spanish also borrowed
12136-520: The Kaaba was associated with al-Andalus and, accordingly, the Great Mosque of Cordoba was oriented towards the southeast as if facing the Kaaba's northwestern façade, with its main axis parallel to the main axis of the Kaaba structure (which was oriented from southeast to northwest). Although later mosques in Al-Andalus did have more eastern-facing orientations (e.g. the Mosque of Madinat al-Zahra in
12300-540: The Old Spanish sibilants) for details. The Gramática de la lengua castellana , written in Salamanca in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija , was the first grammar written for a modern European language. According to a popular anecdote, when Nebrija presented it to Queen Isabella I , she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire. In his introduction to
12464-598: The Oranges by Félix Hernández between 1931 and 1936. More recent scholars have noted that modern restorations since the 19th century have partly focused on "re-islamicizing" (in architectural terms) parts of the Mosque-Cathedral. This took place in the context of wider conservation efforts in Spain, starting in the 19th century, towards studying and restoring Islamic-era structures. Spanish language Spanish ( español ) or Castilian ( castellano )
12628-545: The Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only español but also castellano (Castilian), the language from the Kingdom of Castile , contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician , Basque , Asturian , Catalan/Valencian , Aragonese , Occitan and other minor languages. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the official language of
12792-502: The U.S. population were of Hispanic or Hispanic American by origin. In turn, 41.8 million people in the United States aged five or older speak Spanish at home, or about 13% of the population. Spanish predominates in the unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico , where it is also an official language along with English. Spanish is by far the most common second language in the country, with over 50 million total speakers if non-native or second-language speakers are included. While English
12956-457: The administration of Ferdinand Marcos two months later. It remained an official language until the ratification of the present constitution in 1987, in which it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language. Additionally, the constitution, in its Article XIV, stipulates that the Government shall provide the people of the Philippines with a Spanish-language translation of
13120-427: The approximate area included in present-day Palestine , Syria, Jordan, Lebanon. The uncertainty in the definition of the extent of "Syria" is aggravated by the etymological confusion of the similar-sounding names Syria and Assyria . The question of the etymological identity of the two names remains open today. Regardless of etymology, both were thought of as interchangeable around the time of Herodotus. However, by
13284-455: The architect is not known. The craftsmen working on the project probably included local Iberians as well as people of Syrian origin. According to tradition and historical written sources, Abd ar-Rahman involved himself personally and heavily in the project, but the extent of his personal influence in the mosque's design is debated. The original mosque had a roughly square floor plan measuring 74 or 79 square meters per side, equally divided between
13448-650: The area of Jordan). Later Jund Qinnasrîn was created out of part of Jund Hims. The city of Damascus was the capital of the Islamic Caliphate, until the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate . In the later ages of the Ottoman times, it was divided into wilayahs or sub-provinces the borders of which and the choice of cities as seats of government within them varied over time. The vilayets or sub-provinces of Aleppo, Damascus, and Beirut, in addition to
13612-610: The autonomous Sanjak of Alexandretta (1921) (modern-day Hatay in Turkey), and Greater Lebanon (1920) which later became the modern country of Lebanon. The boundaries of the region have changed throughout history, and were last defined in modern times by the proclamation of the short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria and subsequent definition by French and British mandatory agreement. The area was passed to French and British Mandates following World War I and divided into Greater Lebanon , various Syrian-mandate states, Mandatory Palestine and
13776-482: The basilica was expanded little by little through piecemeal additions to the building. This sharing arrangement of the site lasted until 785, when the Christian half was purchased by Abd al-Rahman I, who then proceeded to demolish the church structure and build the grand mosque of Córdoba on its site. In return, Abd al-Rahman also allowed the Christians to rebuild other ruined churches – including churches dedicated to
13940-406: The building (which had suffered from disrepair in previous years) were local Muslims ( Mudéjars ). Some of them were kept on payroll by the church but many of them worked as part of their fulfilment of a "labor tax" on Muslim craftsmen (later extended to Muslims of all professions) which required them to work two days a year on the cathedral building. This tax was imposed by the crown and was unique to
14104-547: The building under Christian patrons is the Royal Chapel ( Capilla Real ), located directly behind the west wall of the Villaviciosa Chapel. It was begun at an uncertain date. While it is sometimes believed to have been started by Alfonso X , Heather Ecker has argued that documentary evidence proves it wasn't begun before the 14th century when Constance of Portugal , wife of Ferdinand IV, made an endowment for
14268-411: The capital of his independent emirate . Construction of the mosque began in 785–786 (169 AH ) and finished a year later in 786–787 (170 AH). This relatively short period of construction was aided by the reuse of existing Roman and Visigothic materials in the area, especially columns and capitals . Syrian ( Umayyad ), Visigothic , and Roman influences have been noted in the building's design, but
14432-558: The capitals produced for the hundreds of new columns have a simpler and less detailed design that may reflect the hurry in which they were produced.The new eastern wall of the mosque featured ten richly-decorated exterior portals similar to the ones on the mosque's western side, although these were heavily restored in the 20th century. Al-Mansur also famously looted the bells of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and reportedly ordered them to be melted down and turned into chandeliers for
14596-591: The central "nave" of the mosque was highlighted with an elaborate ribbed dome (now part of the Capilla da Villaviciosa ). More famously, a rectangular maqsura area around the mosque's new mihrab was distinguished by a set of unique interlacing multifoil arches . The rectangular area within this, in front of the mihrab, was covered by three more decorative ribbed domes . The domes and the new mihrab niche were finished in November or December 965. An inscription records
14760-497: The chapel. It was finished in 1371 by Enrique II , who moved the remains of his father Alfonso XI and grandfather Ferdinand IV here. (Their remains were later moved in 1736 to the Church of San Hipólito .) The Royal Chapel was constructed in a lavish Mudéjar style with a ribbed dome very similar to the neighbouring dome of the Villaviciosa Chapel and with surfaces covered in carved stucco decoration typical of Nasrid architecture at
14924-455: The city of Cordoba. It was probably instituted not only to make use of Mudéjar expertise but also to make up for the cathedral chapter's relative poverty, especially vis-à-vis the monumental task of repairing and maintaining such a large building. At the time, Mudéjar craftsmen and carpenters were especially valued across the region and even held monopolies in some Castilian cities such as Burgos . Other chapels were progressively created around
15088-521: The city's first mosque was destroyed to build Abd ar-Rahman I 's Great Mosque and that it had little relation to the latter's form. The Great Mosque was built in the context of the new Umayyad Emirate in Al-Andalus which Abd ar-Rahman I founded in 756. Abd ar-Rahman was a fugitive and one of the last remaining members of the Umayyad royal family which had previously ruled the first hereditary caliphate based in Damascus, Syria. This Umayyad Caliphate
15252-684: The classic hispanus or hispanicus took the suffix -one from Vulgar Latin , as happened with other words such as bretón (Breton) or sajón (Saxon). Like the other Romance languages , the Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin , which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War , beginning in 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages )—some distantly related to Latin as Indo-European languages , and some that are not related at all—were previously spoken in
15416-577: The cognate Greek : Ἀσσυρία , Assyria . The classical Arabic pronunciation of Syria is Sūriya (as opposed to the Modern Standard Arabic pronunciation Sūrya ). That name was not widely used among Muslims before about 1870, but it had been used by Christians earlier. According to the Syriac Orthodox Church , "Syrian" meant "Christian" in early Christianity . In English, "Syrian" historically meant
15580-500: The consonant written b (a bilabial with plosive and fricative allophones). In modern Spanish, there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v . Typical of Spanish (as also of neighboring Gascon extending as far north as the Gironde estuary , and found in a small area of Calabria ), attributed by some scholars to a Basque substratum was the mutation of Latin initial f into h- whenever it
15744-429: The construction of the new cathedral nave and transept happening at the same time. Hernán Ruiz III died in 1606 and was unable to see its completion. The construction resumed under architect Juan Sequero de Matilla in 1616 and the tower was finished in 1617. The new tower had imperfections, however, and required repairs only a few decades later in the mid-17th century. The cathedral hired architect Gaspar de la Peña to fix
15908-404: The country's constitution. In recent years changing attitudes among non-Spanish speaking Filipinos have helped spur a revival of the language, and starting in 2009 Spanish was reintroduced as part of the basic education curriculum in a number of public high schools, becoming the largest foreign language program offered by the public school system, with over 7,000 students studying the language in
16072-635: The creation of the first modern Arab state to come into existence, the Hashemite Arab Kingdom of Syria on 8 March 1920. The kingdom claimed the entire region of Syria whilst exercising control over only the inland region known as OETA East. This led to the acceleration of the declaration of the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon and British Mandate for Palestine at the 19–26 April 1920 San Remo conference , and subsequently
16236-476: The details of its construction and of its chronology are muddled by sometimes contradictory historical sources. Ibn 'Idhari, for example, implies that Al-Hakam had two minbars built in this period, with one of them possibly having been destroyed or replaced. Either way, whichever minbar survived and became associated with the mosque was celebrated by many writers for its craftsmanship. It was made out of precious woods like ebony , boxwood , and "scented" woods, and it
16400-456: The direction of Velázquez Bosco, who among other things dismantled the baroque elements that had been added to the Villaviciosa Chapel and uncovered the earlier structures there. During this period, in 1882, the cathedral and mosque structure was declared a National Monument . Further research work and archaeological excavations were carried out on the mosque structure and in the Courtyard of
16564-415: The early Christian history of the building saw only minor alterations being done to its structure, mostly limited to the creation of small chapels and the addition of new Christian tombs and furnishings. Even the mosque's minbar was apparently preserved in its original storage chamber, though it is unknown if it was used in any way during this time. (The minbar has since disappeared, but it still existed in
16728-421: The expansive mosque structure, starting in 1523. The project, initiated by Bishop Alonso de Manrique, was vigorously opposed by the city council of Cordoba. The cathedral chapter eventually won its case by petitioning Charles V , king of Castile and Aragon , who gave his permission for the project to proceed. When Charles V later saw the result of the construction he is reputed to have been displeased, however, and
16892-683: The following table: Spanish is marked by palatalization of the Latin double consonants ( geminates ) nn and ll (thus Latin annum > Spanish año , and Latin anellum > Spanish anillo ). The consonant written u or v in Latin and pronounced [w] in Classical Latin had probably " fortified " to a bilabial fricative /β/ in Vulgar Latin. In early Spanish (but not in Catalan or Portuguese) it merged with
17056-466: The former British colony of Belize (known until 1973 as British Honduras ) where English is the sole official language, according to the 2022 census, 54% of the total population are able to speak the language. Due to its proximity to Spanish-speaking countries and small existing native Spanish speaking minority, Trinidad and Tobago has implemented Spanish language teaching into its education system. The Trinidadian and Tobagonian government launched
17220-604: The grammar, dated 18 August 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire." From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Spanish-discovered America and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization of America . Miguel de Cervantes , author of Don Quixote , is such a well-known reference in the world that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes"). In
17384-491: The grounds of an episcopal complex rather than a particular church which were initially divided between Muslims and Christians. Pedro Marfil, an archeologist at the University of Cordoba , has argued for the existence of such a complex – including a Christian basilica – on this site by interpreting the existing archeological remains. D. Fairchild Ruggles , a scholar of Islamic art, considers previous archeological work to be
17548-484: The historical region of Syria. Greater Syria has been widely known as Ash-Shām . The term etymologically in Arabic means "the left-hand side" or "the north", as someone in the Hejaz facing east, oriented to the sunrise, will find the north to the left. This is contrasted with the name of Yemen ( اَلْيَمَن al-Yaman ), correspondingly meaning "the right-hand side" or "the south". The variation ش ء م ( š-ʾ-m ), of
17712-419: The hypothesis of a large episcopal complex by analyzing both old and new archeological findings at the site, while María de los Ángeles Utrero Agudo and Alejandro Villa del Castillo argue that evidence so far does not allow for the identification of former ecclesiastical structures on the site. Regardless of what structures may have existed on the site, however, it is almost certain that the building which housed
17876-588: The interior periphery of the building over the following centuries, many of them funerary chapels built through private patronage. The first precisely-dated chapel known to be built along the west wall is the Chapel of San Felipe and Santiago, in 1258. The Chapel of San Clemente was created in the southeast part of the mosque before 1262. A couple of early Christian features, such as an altar dedicated to San Blas (installed in 1252) and an altar of San Miguel (1255), disappeared in later centuries. The first major addition to
18040-419: The king, led a mass inside the mosque to " consecrate " the building. According to Muslim sources, before leaving the city the Christians plundered the mosque, carrying off its chandeliers, the gold and silver finial of the minaret, and parts of the rich minbar. As a result of both this pillage and the earlier pillage during the fitna , the mosque had lost almost all of its valuable furnishings. In 1162, after
18204-540: The language is also known as Castilian ( castellano ). The group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo , a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile , in
18368-549: The language's hegemony in an intensely centralising Spanish state were established from the 18th century onward. Other European territories in which it is also widely spoken include Gibraltar and Andorra . Spanish is also spoken by immigrant communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom , France , Italy , and Germany . Spanish is an official language of the European Union . Today,
18532-694: The majority of the Spanish speakers live in Hispanic America . Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either de facto or de jure —of Argentina , Bolivia (co-official with 36 indigenous languages), Chile , Colombia , Costa Rica , Cuba , Dominican Republic , Ecuador , El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras , Mexico (co-official with 63 indigenous languages), Nicaragua , Panama , Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní ), Peru (co-official with Quechua , Aymara , and "the other indigenous languages"), Puerto Rico (co-official with English), Uruguay , and Venezuela . Spanish language has
18696-499: The more typical ش م ل ( š-m-l ) , is also attested in Old South Arabian , 𐩦𐩱𐩣 ( s²ʾm ), with the same semantic development. The root of Shaam , ش ء م ( š-ʾ-m ) also has connotations of unluckiness, which is traditionally associated with the left-hand and with the colder north-winds. Again this is in contrast with Yemen, with felicity and success, and the positively-viewed warm-moist southerly wind;
18860-501: The mosque and is reported to have created a maqsura (a prayer space reserved for the ruler). In 855 he also restored the Bab al-Wuzara' gate (today's Puerta de San Esteban ). The decoration of this gate, which thus likely dates from this time, is often noted as an important prototype of later Moorish gateways. Muhammad's son, Al-Mundhir (r. 886–888), in turn added a treasury to the mosque. Al-Mundhir's son, Abdallah (r. 888–912), built
19024-478: The mosque naves in this area. His son, Hernan Ruiz II "the Younger" , took over the project after his death. He was responsible for building the transept walls to their full height as well as the buttresses upholding the structure. After him, the project was entrusted to architect Juan de Ochoa, who completed the project in a Mannerist style. The final element was the construction of the elliptical central dome of
19188-434: The mosque's first elevated passage, known as a sabat, which connected the mosque directly with the Umayyad palace across the street. This passage allowed the ruler thenceforth to enter the mosque privately, where he would remain unseen behind the screen of the maqsura , thus separating him from the general public during prayer. New versions of this bridge would later be rebuilt during the mosque's subsequent expansions. In
19352-528: The mosque, although none of these chandeliers have survived. After the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in Cordoba at the beginning of the 11th century, no further expansions to the mosque were carried out. Indeed, the collapse of authority had immediate negative consequences for the mosque, which was looted and damaged during the fitna (civil conflict) that followed the caliphate's fall (roughly between 1009 and 1030). Cordoba itself also suffered
19516-496: The name Syria itself is derived from Luwian term "Sura/i", and the derivative ancient Greek name: Σύριοι , Sýrioi , or Σύροι , Sýroi , both of which originally derived from Aššūrāyu ( Assyria ) in northern Mesopotamia , modern-day Iraq and greater Syria For Herodotus in the 5th century BC, Syria extended as far north as the Halys (the modern Kızılırmak River ) and as far south as Arabia and Egypt. For Pliny
19680-585: The name 'Syria' was applied to the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon , and the contemporaneous but short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria . Today, the largest metropolitan areas in the region are Amman , Tel Aviv , Damascus , Beirut , Aleppo and Gaza City . Several sources indicate that the name Syria itself is derived from Luwian term "Sura/i", and the derivative ancient Greek name: Σύριοι , Sýrioi , or Σύροι , Sýroi , both of which originally derived from Aššūrāyu ( Assyria ) in northern Mesopotamia , modern-day Iraq However, during
19844-723: The name Syria was applied to the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon and the contemporaneous but short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria . In the most common historical sense, 'Syria' refers to the entire northern Levant , including Alexandretta and the Ancient City of Antioch or in an extended sense the entire Levant as far south as Roman Egypt , including Mesopotamia . The area of "Greater Syria" (Arabic: سُوْرِيَّة ٱلْكُبْرَىٰ , Sūrīyah al-Kubrā ); also called "Natural Syria" (Arabic: سُوْرِيَّة ٱلطَّبِيْعِيَّة , Sūrīyah aṭ-Ṭabīʿīyah ) or "Northern Land" (Arabic: بِلَاد ٱلشَّام , Bilād ash-Shām ), extends roughly over
20008-673: The names of four of its craftsmen, who also worked at the Reception Hall ( Salon Rico ) of Madinat al-Zahra. Soon after this date both the middle dome of the maqsura and the wall surfaces around the mihrab were covered in rich Byzantine -influenced gold mosaics . According to traditional accounts like that of Ibn 'Idhari , Al-Hakam II had written to the Byzantine emperor (initially Nikephoros II Phokas ) in Constantinople requesting that he send him expert mosaicists for
20172-790: The northwest of the African mainland. The Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands traces its origins back to the Castilian conquest in the 15th century , and, in addition to a resemblance to Western Andalusian speech patterns, it also features strong influence from the Spanish varieties spoken in the Americas, which in turn have also been influenced historically by Canarian Spanish. The Spanish spoken in North Africa by native bilingual speakers of Arabic or Berber who also speak Spanish as
20336-475: The orders of Abd al-Rahman I , founder of the Islamic Emirate of Córdoba . It was expanded multiple times afterwards under Abd al-Rahman's successors up to the late 10th century. Among the most notable additions, Abd al-Rahman III added a minaret (finished in 958) and his son al-Hakam II added a richly-decorated new mihrab and maqsurah section (finished in 971). The mosque was converted to
20500-654: The other hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. However, from 1713 to 1923, it called the language castellano . The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (a language guide published by the Royal Spanish Academy) states that, although the Royal Spanish Academy prefers to use the term español in its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms— español and castellano —are regarded as synonymous and equally valid. The term castellano
20664-459: The palace directly across the street from here. The courtyard of the mosque was planted with trees as early as the 9th century, according to written sources cited by the 11th century jurist Ibn Sahl. Although the species of tree is not known, the fact that these were fruit trees is attested in Ibn Sahl, who was consulted as to whether such a garden was forbidden and, if not forbidden, whether it
20828-533: The population. Many northern Moroccans have rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, with Spanish being particularly significant in areas adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla. Spanish also has a presence in the education system of the country (through either selected education centers implementing Spain's education system, primarily located in the North, or the availability of Spanish as foreign language subject in secondary education). In Western Sahara , formerly Spanish Sahara ,
20992-498: The problems. He reinforced the tower and modified the initial design of the Puerta del Perdón ("Door of Forgiveness") which passed through the tower's base. In 1664 Gaspar added a new cupola to the top of the belfry onto which he raised a statue of Saint Raphael made by the sculptors Pedro de la Paz and Bernabé Gómez del Río. In 1727 the tower was damaged by another storm and in 1755 pieces of it (mainly decorative details) were damaged by
21156-519: The province of Euphratensis was created out of the territory of Syria Coele and the former realm of Commagene, with Hierapolis as its capital. After c. 415 Syria Coele was further subdivided into Syria I, with the capital remaining at Antioch , and Syria II or Salutaris, with capital at Apamea on the Orontes River . In 528, Justinian I carved out the small coastal province Theodorias out of territory from both provinces. The region
21320-424: The proximity of the riverbank, Al-Mansur had the mosque extended laterally towards the east, extending both the courtyard and the prayer hall by 47.76 meters and adding eight naves to the mosque. The new extension covered 8600 square meters and made the mosque the largest in the Muslim world outside of Abbasid Iraq . Once again, the same design of two-tiered arches was replicated in the new construction. However,
21484-700: The region after the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century. The majority of Levantine Muslims are Sunni with Alawite and Shia ( Twelver and Nizari Ismaili ) minorities. Alawites and Ismaili Shiites mainly inhabit Hatay and the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range , while Twelver Shiites are mainly concentrated in parts of Lebanon . Levantine Christian groups are plenty and include Greek Orthodox ( Antiochian Greek ), Syriac Orthodox , Eastern Catholic ( Syriac Catholic , Melkite and Maronite ), Roman Catholic ( Latin ), Nestorian , and Protestant . Armenians mostly belong to
21648-674: The region in 1150 and assigned the northern regions of Bilad al-Sham as the following: In the Levantine sea are two islands: Rhodes and Cyprus; and in Levantine lands: Antarsus, Laodice , Antioch , Mopsuhestia , Adana , Anazarbus , Tarsus , Circesium , Ḥamrtash, Antalya , al-Batira, al-Mira, Macri , Astroboli; and in the interior lands: Apamea , Salamiya , Qinnasrin , al-Castel, Aleppo , Resafa , Raqqa , Rafeqa, al-Jisr, Manbij , Mar'ash , Saruj , Ḥarran , Edessa , Al-Ḥadath , Samosata , Malatiya , Ḥusn Mansur, Zabatra, Jersoon, al-Leen, al-Bedandour, Cirra and Touleb. For Pliny
21812-550: The region itself, being superseded by the Arabic equivalent Shām , but survived in its original sense in Byzantine and Western European usage, and in Syriac Christian literature. In the 19th century the name Syria was revived in its modern Arabic form to denote the whole of Bilad al-Sham , either as Suriyah or the modern form Suriyya , which eventually replaced the Arabic name of Bilad al-Sham. After World War I ,
21976-511: The region's population was dominated by Sunni Muslims , it also contained sizable populations of Shi'ite , Alawite and Ismaili Muslims, Syriac Orthodox , Maronite , Greek Orthodox , Roman Catholics and Melkite Christians, Jews and Druze . The Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (OETA) was a British, French and Arab military administration over areas of the former Ottoman Empire between 1917 and 1920, during and following World War I . The wave of Arab nationalism evolved towards
22140-423: The site of the mosque without giving further details. An archaeological exhibit in the mosque–cathedral of Cordoba today displays fragments of a Late Roman or Visigothic building, emphasizing an originally Christian nature of the complex. The "stratigraphy" of the site is complicated and made more so by its impact on contemporary political debates about cultural identity in Spain. According to Susana Calvo Capilla,
22304-475: The south. Quran 106:2 alludes to this practice of caravans traveling to Syria in the summer to avoid the colder weather and to likewise sell commodities in Yemen in the winter. The largest religious group in the Levant are Muslims and the largest ethnic group are Arabs . Levantines predominantly speak Levantine Arabic , who derive their ancestry from the many ancient Semitic-speaking peoples who inhabited
22468-580: The stretch of land from the Halys river, including Cappadocia (The Histories, I.6) in today's Turkey to the Mount Casius (The Histories II.158), which Herodotus says is located just south of Lake Serbonis (The Histories III.5). According to Herodotus various remarks in different locations, he describes Syria to include the entire stretch of Phoenician coastal line as well as cities such Cadytis (Jerusalem) (The Histories III.159). In Greek usage, Syria and Assyria were used almost interchangeably, but in
22632-470: The task. The emperor consented and sent him a master craftsman along with about 1600 kg of mosaic tesserae as a gift. The mosaicist trained some of the caliph's own craftsmen, who eventually became skilled enough to do the work on their own. The work was finished by this team in late 970 or early 971. Al-Hakam II's work on the mosque also included the commissioning of a new minbar (pulpit) in 965, which took about 5 to 7 years to finish. Unfortunately,
22796-485: The term español (Spanish). According to the Royal Spanish Academy, español derives from the Occitan word espaignol and that, in turn, derives from the Vulgar Latin * hispaniolus ('of Hispania'). Hispania was the Roman name for the entire Iberian Peninsula . There are other hypotheses apart from the one suggested by the Royal Spanish Academy. Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal suggested that
22960-558: The term Syria is used to comprise the entire northern Levant and has an uncertain border to the northeast that Pliny the Elder describes as including, from west to east, the Kingdom of Commagene , Sophene , and Adiabene , "formerly known as Assyria". Various writers used the term to describe the entire Levant region during this period; the New Testament used the name in this sense on numerous occasions. In 64 BC, Syria became
23124-461: The term was superseded by the Arabic equivalent Shām, and under the Rashidun , Umayyad , Abbasid , and Fatimid caliphates , Bilad al-Sham was the name of a metropolitan province encompassing most of the region. In the 19th century, the name Syria was revived in its modem Arabic form to denote the whole of Bilad al-Sham, either as Suriyah or the modern form Suriyya , which eventually replaced
23288-444: The theories of Ramón Menéndez Pidal , local sociolects of Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish, in the north of Iberia, in an area centered in the city of Burgos , and this dialect was later brought to the city of Toledo , where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century. In this formative stage, Spanish developed a strongly differing variant from its close cousin, Leonese , and, according to some authors,
23452-640: The third most used language on the Internet , after English and Chinese. Spanish is the official language of Spain . Upon the emergence of the Castilian Crown as the dominant power in the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the Middle Ages, the Romance vernacular associated with this polity became increasingly used in instances of prestige and influence, and the distinction between "Castilian" and "Spanish" started to become blurred. Hard policies imposing
23616-573: The time of the Roman Empire , 'Syria' and 'Assyria' began to refer to two separate entities, Roman Syria and Roman Assyria . Killebrew and Steiner, treating the Levant as the Syrian region, gave the boundaries of the region as such: the Mediterranean Sea to the west, the Arabian Desert to the south, Mesopotamia to the east, and the Taurus Mountains of Anatolia to the north. The Muslim geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi visited
23780-556: The time. This prominent use of the Moorish-Mudéjar style for a royal funerary chapel (along with other examples like the Mudéjar Alcázar of Seville ) is interpreted by modern scholars as a desire by the Christian kings to appropriate the prestige of Moorish architecture in the Iberian Peninsula, just as the Mosque of Cordoba was itself a powerful symbol of the former Umayyad Caliphate's political and cultural power which
23944-459: The transept, built between 1599 and 1607. After the completion of Juan de Ochoa's work, Bishop Diego de Mardones initiated the construction of the main altarpiece and provided a significant donation himself for the project. The altarpiece was designed in a Mannerist style by Alonso Matías and construction began in 1618. Other artists who were involved in its execution included Sebastián Vidal, Pedro Freile de Guevara, and Antonio Palomino. In 1589
24108-649: The two special districts of Mount Lebanon and Jerusalem . Aleppo consisted of northern modern-day Syria plus parts of southern Turkey, Damascus covered southern Syria and modern-day Jordan, Beirut covered Lebanon and the Syrian coast from the port-city of Latakia southward to the Galilee , while Jerusalem consisted of the land south of the Galilee and west of the Jordan River and the Wadi Arabah . Although
24272-457: The western half of the Southeastern Anatolia Region . This late definition is equivalent to the region known in Classical Arabic by the name ash-Shām ( Arabic : ٱَلشَّام /ʔaʃ-ʃaːm/ , which means the north [country] (from the root šʔm Arabic : شَأْم "left, north")). After the Arab conquest of Byzantine Syria in the 7th century CE , the name Syria fell out of primary use in
24436-585: The whole of Spain, in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas (lit. "the other Spanish languages "). Article III reads as follows: El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. ... Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas... Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. ... The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities... The Royal Spanish Academy ( Real Academia Española ), on
24600-701: The world. Spanish is well represented in the humanities and social sciences . Spanish is also the third most used language on the internet by number of users after English and Chinese and the second most used language by number of websites after English. Spanish is used as an official language by many international organizations , including the United Nations , European Union , Organization of American States , Union of South American Nations , Community of Latin American and Caribbean States , African Union , among others. In Spain and some other parts of
24764-405: The years 833 and 848. This expansion preserved and repeated the original design while extending the prayer hall eight bays to the south (i.e. the length of eight arches). This made the prayer hall 64 metres long from front to back. During this expansion, the builders began to commission new marble capitals for the columns instead of just re-using ancient ones. These new capitals were imitations of
24928-447: Was inlaid with ivory and with other coloured woods such as red and yellow sandalwood . Modern scholars believe the minbar had wheels which allowed it to be rolled in and out of its storage chamber. The mosque's last significant expansion under Muslim rule was ordered by Al-Mansur (Almanzor) , the autocratic vizier of Caliph Hisham II , in 987–988. Rather than extending the mosque further south, which would have been impossible due to
25092-743: Was annexed to the Rashidun Caliphate after the Muslim victory over the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Yarmouk , and became known as the province of Bilad al-Sham . During the Umayyad Caliphate , the Shām was divided into five junds or military districts. They were Jund Dimashq (for the area of Damascus), Jund Ḥimṣ (for the area of Homs ), Jund Filasṭīn (for the area of Palestine ) and Jund al-Urdunn (for
25256-581: Was developed in the cities of Toledo , in the 13th to 16th centuries, and Madrid , from the 1570s. The development of the Spanish sound system from that of Vulgar Latin exhibits most of the changes that are typical of Western Romance languages , including lenition of intervocalic consonants (thus Latin vīta > Spanish vida ). The diphthongization of Latin stressed short e and o —which occurred in open syllables in French and Italian, but not at all in Catalan or Portuguese—is found in both open and closed syllables in Spanish, as shown in
25420-622: Was distinguished by a heavy Basque influence (see Iberian Romance languages ). This distinctive dialect spread to southern Spain with the advance of the Reconquista , and meanwhile gathered a sizable lexical influence from the Arabic of Al-Andalus , much of it indirectly, through the Romance Mozarabic dialects (some 4,000 Arabic -derived words, make up around 8% of the language today). The written standard for this new language
25584-713: Was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize. The h- , still preserved in spelling, is now silent in most varieties of the language, although in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects, it is still aspirated in some words. Because of borrowings from Latin and neighboring Romance languages, there are many f -/ h - doublets in modern Spanish: Fernando and Hernando (both Spanish for "Ferdinand"), ferrero and herrero (both Spanish for "smith"), fierro and hierro (both Spanish for "iron"), and fondo and hondo (both words pertaining to depth in Spanish, though fondo means "bottom", while hondo means "deep"); additionally, hacer ("to make")
25748-414: Was in the center of the north wall of the courtyard (aligned with the mihrab to the south), two more were in the west and east walls of the courtyard, and a fourth one was in the middle of the west wall of the prayer hall. The latter was known as Bab al-Wuzara' (the " Viziers ' Gate", today known as Puerta de San Esteban ) and was most likely the entrance used by the emir and state officials who worked in
25912-437: Was involved in his father's architectural projects. During his own reign, starting in 961, he further expanded the mosque's prayer hall. The hall was extended 45 meters to the south by adding 12 more bays (arches), again repeating the two-tiered arches of the original design. This expansion is responsible for some of the mosque's most significant architectural flourishes and innovations. At the beginning of al-Hakam's extension,
26076-432: Was its rows of two-tiered arches in the hypostyle hall. The mosque's original mihrab (niche in the far wall symbolizing the direction of prayer ) no longer exists today but its probable remains were found during archeological excavations between 1932 and 1936. The remains showed that the mihrab's upper part was covered with a shell-shaped hood similar to the later mihrab. The mosque originally had four entrances: one
26240-450: Was overthrown during the Abbasid Revolution in 750 and the ruling family were nearly all killed or executed in the process. Abd ar-Rahman survived by fleeing to North Africa and, after securing political and military support, took control of the Muslim administration in the Iberian Peninsula from its governor, Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri . Cordoba was already the capital of the Muslim province and Abd ar-Rahman continued to use it as
26404-399: Was partly intended as a visual symbol of his growing authority as caliph and may have also been aimed at defying the rival Fatimid Caliphate to the east, which eschewed such structures. Abd ar-Rahman III also reinforced the northern wall of the courtyard by adding another "façade" in front of the old one on the courtyard side. Historical accounts differ on whether the completed courtyard had
26568-436: Was permitted to eat from it. That the trees remained in the courtyard is demonstrated by two seals of the City of Cordoba, one in 1262 and the other in 1445, both of which show the mosque (which by then had been converted to a cathedral) within whose walls appear tall palm trees. This evidences makes the Cordoba mosque the earliest one where trees are known to have been planted in the courtyard. Mosques were normally aligned with
26732-462: Was revoked by Michel Temer after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff . In many border towns and villages along Paraguay and Uruguay, a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken. Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country located entirely in Africa, with the language introduced during the Spanish colonial period . Enshrined in the constitution as an official language (alongside French and Portuguese), Spanish features prominently in
26896-401: Was significantly modified in its structure at this time. The area of the mosque's mihrab and maqsura, along the south wall, was converted into the Chapel of San Pedro and was reportedly where the host was stored. What is today the 17th-century Chapel of the Conception ( Capilla de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción ), located on the west wall near the courtyard, was initially the baptistery in
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