LA KOUTOUBIA

the design for the tower of the koutoubia mosque in marrakesh was not based on the tower of the mosque in córdoba. if i had ever seen it, i wouldn't have made the bet, she said. as it turns out, the tower of the koutoubia served as the model for the design of the giralda in seville, and it goes without saying that having seen the both of them i probably shouldn't have made the bet. i was nonetheless sure that i had read something or other about córdoba in one or another explanation of the history of the koutoubia, and as it turns out (or as i remember reading in one or another description of the koutoubia on the internet after i lost the bet), the pulpit of the koutoubia mosque was in fact built in córdoba, and the order for the building of the entire structure was handed down by abd al-mu'min, the first caliph of the almohad empire, which by the time the building of the koutoubia was first ordered in 1147 might have been on its way to having its capital at córdoba as well. my memory, evidently, isn't perfect. still, it was true that i hadn't seen the mosque (the mosque-cathedral) in córdoba, and i'd lost the bet so i thought that i should.

we didn't set out for there directly upon arriving to the city, but all the roads in the center of the old city more or less lead there -- with a guide, anyway -- and the route we took to the plaza that might as well have been the alameda of córdoba led us directly past the ruins of the roman temple. before the mosque-cathedral was a mosque, the visgoths had something there, but for whatever reason they decided to start their own tradition and build closer to the river than the romans had. the government of córdoba at one point found the site of the roman temple suitable enough, however, and it was on the plot adjacent where it built its current city hall, a middling sized building in the architectural tradition of the developers who filled florida with resorts and retirement communities in the second half of the last century. across the street, the wall painted with the anti-capitalist mural has been re-tagged with an anarchist love poem made of letters from a label maker. also, something in french.

the pillars and foundation of the roman temple in córdoba certainly form something more easily imagined into a complete structure than the three pillars near the giralda that were apparently once part of the much grander roman temple that once stood in the city that is now seville. but maybe it's exactly for their nebulousness that the pillars in seville work more magic in the imagination. plus, they're larger. córdoba is -- and to say so isn't at all to diminish it -- is in many ways a smaller seville, and its concentration into a smaller population and geography has, in some parts of it, made its character all the stronger. the albas may only have a small park bearing their name in córdoba (which might not even be the size of the driveway at the casa de las dueñas in seville, but the smaller city definitely has more (creepily) androgynously (fascistically?) dressed toddlers. the building across the street from the albas' park is deserted and ramshackle. it probably reminds me of lisbon, she says. and it does.

earlier, we'd talked about the similarities between córdoba and seville in a place called café málaga where the coffee we were served was from portugal. the tapas restaurant where we had a fine, fine lunch (other than the flamenquin, my guide said) is named for its specialty dish, which i really couldn't distinguish from morrocan shakshuka. the couple that had been standing behind me at the bar had a good laugh with us when the waiter returned my card and told me it had been an honor to serve a family member of the chancellor's. i told him that i would pass the kind words on to my cousin, but the joke hadn't made up for all of the elbow jabs i got in my back throughout my meal. i can't remember what was across the street, but odds are (and we all know i'm betting) that there was a church on the adjacent plaza.

we didn't see the plaza de toros, but if the interior of our lunch spot (think la estrella in seville?) would lead you to believe that córdoba has a hardened soft spot in its heart for its local talent. and that would definitely have led me to wondering over lunch why the duchess didn't have more of a presence here, but we hadn't yet seen the albas' park. but for all i know, although that's an exaggeration because everyone knows what the duchess looks like just like everyone who doesn't like bullfighting knows about the famous bullfighting dynasties of córdoba...but for all i know she might have been walking around the city that day with us, because the other day in seville i wouldn't have been able to tell that noble from one of those darling toddlers if a friend hadn't pointed him out to me in the plaza del salvador. i don't think that you can see the giralda from there.

but there's a grand view of the mosque-cathedral of córdoba from across the guadalquivir, and i was told that the newly restored bridge and rampart are roman. we, however, approached it from the city side, earlier, although we did eventually make our way across the bridge. (the arch on the mosque-cathedral side is not original.) and we were near the other bridge later as we were looking for another coffee, not far from the plaza where cervantes once lived and which was featured in "the greatest novel of all time." (the plaque in seville only commemorates where cervantes was in prison.) we had also been able to buy a single stamp (the city was sold out of stamps for cards to any other country than portugal) and after only a little trouble had found the postbox too. and although we ended up at the famous cake shop and ice cream parlor on the other side of the center, córdoba seemed to be full of stylish (ironically cosmopolitan city style) cafés where clients seemed to be encouraged to linger over what they'd ordered -- a certain rarity in seville.

i might even have said that people seemed encouraged to read at the cafés there, because then i would have had my transition back to the koutoubia, the booksellers mosque, but then i remember that the mosque and córdoba (or at least the mosque in córdoba) have almost nothing directly to do with each other. you really do have to see it, though. the one in córdoba. and we had, much earlier in the day. i would have said something earlier, actually, except that you really do have to see it. the photos hardly do it justice at all. and it's not just that it's incredibly more massive than you would have believed before getting inside, but that writing things like how incredible is the light from the renaissance cathedral built out of the center of the thing (and how strangely different from but seamless with the moorish arches of the muslim prayer hall it is) really, well, it just doesn't shine with the same incredibility. and on that point my memory is keen.

i did, however, also have a certain image of the tower of the koutoubia in my mind, and that image may have been warped by time and intention, but before going into all that incredibility inside the mosque-cathedral i did inspect the bell tower, and really, the two seemed not so unlike each other to me. the giralda could look like either of them. maybe. but i did lose that bet. i'd well forgotten it, though, by the time we got to the synagogue...although now i couldn't tell you exactly when that was.