Andalucia Spain’s Moorish Legacy
In our search for guest writers we were delighted to have attracted this correspondence
Letter from Andalucia
I have now lived in Andalucia, in that area know as La Axarquia (“The East” in ancient Arabic, meaning east from Malaga city), for nearly twelve years, and the Moorish legacy is as much evident in small, local details, as it is in the great cities of throughout Spain.
First, there are the place names: Alcaucin, Almayate, Benajarafe, Benalgalbon, to quote just four, whose prefixes of “Al-” and “Bena-” all indicate Arabic roots. Secondly, the design of the houses, especially town houses, with their tiled facades, crenelated chimneys and “rejas”, the ornamental but essentially functional bars on windows which were not, as insurers suppose, to keep burglars out, but to keep daughters in!
And third, and least noticed unless you own a “finca” – a smallholding – are the “asequias”, the irrigation channels which take their water from upstream rivers or springs and bring it, by carefully calculated gradients, many kilometres through olive and orange groves, thus bringing fertility to what would otherwise be a far less welcoming landscape.
These are the minutae of what the Moors left behind, and without them this would be a very different, and far less agreeable place in which to live.
Excellent letter, beautifully written. You managed to capture quite clearly the beauty of Andalucia, and crucially the Muslim heritage at it’s heart. I only might add that while Islam was a great creator especially in terms of architecture and culture, what Granada especially signified was tolerance, because until the Christian reconquest, Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in harmony there. That spirit is something that mankind dearly needs to recapture now.
