The Politics of Piety: Al-Manṣūr’s Extension to the Great Mosque of Cordoba

Abstract

In this year [381/991–2] al-Manṣūr began Hishām’s extension (al-ziyyādat al-hishāmiyya) to the Great Mosque of Cordoba. He extended it almost by half again of what had been made by earlier sovereigns. The works began on the first of Rajab of the year 381 [13 September 991] and the prayer could be made in Rajab of the year 384 [August–September 994]; they lasted, therefore, three years. On the works there laboured Berbers, noble knights from Galicia and Frankia, chained together with the workmen until it was concluded. Dhikr Bilād I:193–4 [II:182]