Alhambra Palace in Andalusia

Metawh1

23 Jun, 2023

In the beginning, the term “Andalusian state” was launched on the Iberian Peninsula in the continent of Europe, and it is currently the country of Spain and Portugal, it was named vandal, in reference to the German tribes called the Vandals who first inhabited what is now southern Poland, They established vendal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century, and they lived in that region, and after the rule of the Muslims, the name changed to Andalusia instead of vendalus.

The indigenous peoples of "Andalusia" of the Catholic Canaanites - before the Islamic conquest - were subject to Gothic influence, and their population consisted of four contradictory, conflicting classes: the Goths, the colonial rulers, the class of Roman notables with feudal lords and clerics, the class of Jews, and the class of working people from the original inhabitants of the country.

Andalusia was a part of the empire of Vandals

Conquest of Andalusia

The idea of conquering Andalusia had begun with Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab after the conquest of Egypt by Amr ibn al-Aas, then Kairouan by Uqba ibn Nafeh, but the matter did not take place until al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik came during the era of the Umayyad state and conquered it, and the conquest of Andalusia had begun on three phases, the first was in the year ninety-one AH, and it continued until the year ninety-three Hijri.

• The first stage of the conquest was when Musa bin Naseer sent the commander Tarif bin Malik in order to explore the country and conquer the Green Island and that was the beginning, then the famous battle of Tariq bin Ziyad was in order to conquer Andalusia and he fought the famous battle of Wadi Lakka in the year ninety-two AH, and defeated Goths from the Spaniards who controlled the country.

Then the conqueror Musa bin Naseer came to complete the rest of the conquests with Tariq bin Ziyad for the rest of the cities of Andalusia, such as the city of Seville, Barcelona, Zaragoza and the rest of the cities.

Alhambra Palace

Location and importance

One of the pearls of Andalusia, it was built in a purely defensive spirit, from the outside, it was designed in the form of a fortress in order to scare the enemies, from the inside, they were inspired by the idea of building it from the gardens of bliss in the Holy Qur’an (ie Eden and Paradise), and because the heavens were described in the Holy Qur’an as rivers flowing be neath them, this necessitated the expansion of the palace, the abundance of streams and channels of water, and the spread of greenery throughout with the abundance of trees that fountains permeate and decorate it, and the abundance of channels.

The most important characteristic of the Alhambra Palace is that it contains the characteristics of Islamic architecture in all its parts, the use of delicate decorative elements in geometric arrangements such as carpet decorations, inscriptions of noble Quranic verses, verses of Arabic poetry, and aphorisms, surrounded by decorations of colored plaster that covers the walls, and colored faience tiles, geometric inscriptions covering the lower parts of the walls. And you find the Banu al-Ahmar slogan spread on its walls (There is no victor but God).

What is the reasons of naming Alhambra?

Alhambra Palace means in Arabic language the palace of the redness, so that it is necessary to know that the reasons of naming Alhambra.

For who built this palace The Nasrid dynasty banū Naṣr or banū al-Aḥmar (meaning in Arabi language the sons of the red), the name refers to the red soil that characterizes the hill on which it was built.
The construction was built at night on the lights of the torches, which were reflecting their lighting in red.
The use of red bricks in its construction.

Another explanation for the designation is that some of the castles adjacent to the Al-Hamra Palace were known since the end of the third century AH, corresponding to the ninth century AD, in the name of the red city.