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The changing caliph and an epoch of grandeur

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  Many things have changed in my lifetime.  Understanding of autism were dramatically different between when I started teaching and when it ended. Smugglers have turned from honest citizens fighting ’the man’ to proto-capitalism and Islam has happened. I am trying to think of the images of Islam that percolated through my childhood. Obviously the Crusaders were the good guys but the locals were not really baddies and could be Saladin like chivalrous opponents.   We did nothing but Christianity in RE.  Arabs were Arabs, very rich but not really Islamic. Then the Iranian Revolution happened. All the above may not represent the attempts of teachers and news readers to bring the wider world to my suburban teens but there you are. That Spain had an Islamic past was unknown.  This has changed. Of course people with views have had views.  The Term Reconquest does seem a bit of a stretch to cover 700 years of History, whereas pretending the History of Andalucia was...
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Torc about Roman Settlement

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  We are on the way to Cordoba. It is the 12th city of Spain - 3rd in Andalusia.  Today 325,000 people live there. We are going to go large on the pre-711 events today and enjoy the walk into the modern, industrial southern suburbs but first,a station. The Estacion de Valchillon is now only for cargo, it has no passengers to send anywhere.  Manuel left the note ‘Durum wheat and nile’ - which is confusing.  Ana notes it is a ‘ A hiking route begins which at this time of year allows you to see almond trees .’ Back to Cordoba.  The Neanderthals left traces of their presence. A settlement can be traced to the 8th century BC. The Carthaginians did there thing and the Romans took over in 206BC. Things really got going in 169BC when Consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus founded a newer settlement amidst the existing one.    Marcus Didius Falco turned up here in 73AD in Lindsey Davis turned up in ‘A Dying Light in Corduba.’  Should you wish to see some of the ...
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Never the swords of a thousand men when they are needed

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  Tomorrow we approach Cordoba. Today we don’t.  Today we sweep across wide open landscapes.  Maybe we need some great horde of horsemen are required to thunder down from one ridge to another.  Meanwhile. Five things. Until 31st December 1900 Spain used local time. Up till then Catalonia was truly in advance of Madrid - by minutes.  A Royal decree brought Greenwich Meantime to the whole of the Peninsular, Balearics, Ceuta and Melilla.  The Canary Islands kept their own time until 1st March 1922, when they moved an hour behind Madrid.  All this was a happy state until 1940 Franco wanted to cozy up to his bestie in Berlin and adopted Central European Time.   So it remains, even though in Summer Time Galicia is two and half hours behind solar time. In 1551 Domingo de Soto became the first person to state that a body in free fall accelerates uniformly.  Domingo was born in Segovia in 1494. He studied in the universities of Alcala and Paris and ob...
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Robins, husbands and a lot of grain

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We are approaching Guadalcazar - which is a bit of a surprise but there you go.  We are 158m above the sea and 28km from Cordoba. We are in the land of the Spanish Imperial Eagle, the Egyptian culture and rufous-tailed scrub robin. I’m rather taken with the idea of a scrub Robin.  Let us find out more. The rufous-tailed scrub robin is brown of hue and can be found from the Med to Pakistan, some migrate to Kenya and others get lost and end up in Northern Europe.  They like dry, open country with the odd shrub, in which they next and lay 3-5 eggs.  This is cereal country. 75% of cultivated land is given over to grains, 25% to olives.  The town got a grain silo during the Franco period - which, today, is used a municipal warehouse. The current population is around 1500.  It bumbled along around 700-900 mark till 1920.  It waxed mightily from 1930 [1414] to 1940 [2413], then went downwards to 2000 in 1970 and drifted down till 1970 and plummeted afterwards...
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Capes, fountains and a popular young man

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  It is a five things day.  We will pass the Fuente del Ladrillo.  Jose gives us the knowledge.  ‘ The Brick Fountain is a historic architectural feature notable for its unique traditional brick construction. This fountain represents a testament to the area's popular hydraulic architecture and is part of Fuente Palmera's cultural heritage. Its design reflects the importance of water to rural communities and the construction techniques of the time. It is an ideal place to learn how water supply needs were met in times past. A charming spot that deserves to be preserved and appreciated. ‘ Tariq-ibn Ziyad was the general who decided to bring irrigation and Islam to Spain in 711.  His origins are debated but he seems to have been a berber.  He appears to have been appointed governor of Tangier after its conquest in 710-11.  In April 711 the Muslim Army landed and finding the Visigoth Armies of no great shape, Tariq pushed on, overrunning all of Spain....
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