%0 Journal Article
%T The Birth of a City of Learning and Culture in Muslim Spain: The Case of Granada
%A Cumhur Ersin Ad£¿g¨¹zel
%J -
%D 2019
%X This article examines the process of building the city of Granada by focusing on its centers of learning. The city was not referred to as a city in Muslim Spanish sources until the 5th/11th century, a period which started with the collapse of the Umayyad state and the emergence of Party Kings (Mul¨±k al-£¿aw¨¡£¿if). The political and social turmoil in Cordaba at the beginning of 5th/11th century led the Umayyad state in Spain into a period of decline and impacted the entirety of Muslim Spain. Granada grew into a city during this period. The city of Granada, which remained under Muslim rule the longest, was connected to Elvira from its first conquest until the 5th/11th century. Several sources mentioned its name but only as a small town. The process of building a city in Granada began when the Zirids, one of Berber tribes, moved from Elvira, where they had just settled, to the area and began to rule under their name in the 5th/11th century. Granada acquired the characteristics of a city in a short period of time, facilitated by the rule of the Zirids. In fact, the Zirids were among the emirates resisting the expansionist policies of the Abbadids, the most powerful emirate of the region. As a result of immigration from Elvira at the beginning of the 5th/11th century, Granada under Zirid rule increasingly attracted scholars and grew to be a center of learning, a fact facilitated by the social problems in Cordoba during the same period. The changing political and administrative status of Granada was reflected in the scholarly activities in the city. The most important result of the turmoil in Cordoba on the scholarly activities was the waning of Elvira¡¯s bright days and the flourishing of Granada. While no remarkable scholarly activity was recorded in Granada before the period of Party Kings, an active scholarly sphere developed under the Zirid rule. This change in both cities can be seen clearly in the biographical dictionaries on scholars living in Muslim Spain. While Elvira had active scholarly circles until the beginning of the 5th/11th century, it appeared less often in biographical dictionaries after that time. However, scholars from Elvira were still recorded ¡ª though at a diminishing rate ¡ª starting from the 5th/11th century until the middle of the 6th/12th century. Unlike the trend in Elvira, Granada, where scholarly activities were rarely recorded in biographical dictionaries until the 5th/11th century, began to appear in this genre as a hub of scholarly activity. The fact that many active scholars in Granada at the beginning of the 5th/11th century
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%U http://dergipark.org.tr/isad/issue/47006/571574