“The Sacred and Profane in Islamic Cordoba”

Abstract

This paper investigates the sacred and profane in Cordoba in the ninth and tenth centuries to develop a perspective on Muslim communal identity in al-Andalus.

It is an inquiry into how the definition of the sacred and profane in an 'Islamic' city may be informed by, or speaks to, the context of a multi-confessional society. The study approaches the sacred as a social construct with social meaning, complementing and contrasting with Mircea Eliade's renowned theory of the sacred.