title: Haji Mastan

text: Mastan ventured into film financing later in his life, providing producers in Mumbai with some much-needed funds. He eventually turned into a film producer himself. He also had business interests in real estate, electronic goods, and hotels. He owned several electronic shops in Musafir Khana near Crawford Market.


title: Haji Mastan

text: Mastan maintained good relations with the other gang leaders. When inter-gang rivalry in Mumbai began to increase, he called all the top gang leaders together and split Mumbai between the gangs so that they could operate without coming into conflict. In this the mafia queen, Jenabai Daruwali helped him. Earlier Jenabai was known as Chavalvali, as she was doing business of selling ration in black market. But as she was ambitious, she developed contacts with the then liquor producer and seller, Varadarajan Mudliar alias Varda Bhai. After this, she came to be known as Jenabai Daruwali. Jenabai had good relations with Mastan, the Dawood Ibrahim family, and Karim Lala Pathan. So with the consent of Mastan she arranged a meeting of all rivals under one roof of Mastan's pedder road bungalow called Batul Suroor.


title: Haji Mastan

text: Later in life, Mastan did not take a direct role in running his gang, but instead, he depended on right-hand men like Lala and Mudaliar to carry out his smuggling operations and intimidate rivals and debtors. Mastan was especially close to Mudaliar as they were both from Tamil Nadu. When Mudaliar died, Mastan hired a private chartered plane to bring his body to Mumbai for the final rites.


title: Haji Mastan

text: During the Indian Emergency, he was imprisoned. Whilst in prison, he was influenced by the ideals of politician Jaiprakash Narayan and also began learning Hindi.


title: Haji Mastan

text: After his release from prison, Mastan entered politics and formed a political party in 1980-81 and named it Dalit Muslim Surakhsha Maha Sangh in 1985 which was later renamed as Bharatiya Minorities Suraksha Mahasangh currently led by Sundar Shaekhar


title: Sonu Sood

text: Sonu Sood (born 30 July 1973) is an Indian actor, film producer, model, humanitarian, and philanthropist who works predominantly in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films. In 2009, he received the Andhra Pradesh State Nandi Award for Best Villain and the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor – Telugu for his work in the Telugu blockbuster "Arundhati". In 2010, he garnered the Apsara Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role and the IIFA Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role for his performance in Bollywood film "Dabangg". In 2012, he received the SIIMA Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role (Telugu) for his role in "Julayi".


title: Sonu Sood

text: Sood's other successful works include "Yuva" (2004), "Athadu" (2005), "Aashiq Banaya Aapne" (2005), "Ashok" (2006), "Jodhaa Akbar" (2008), "Kandireega" (2011), "Dookudu" (2011), "Shootout at Wadala" (2013), "R... Rajkumar" (2013), "Happy New Year" (2014), "Devi" (2016), "Kung Fu Yoga" (2017), "Simmba" (2018), and "Kurukshetra" (2019). He also appeared in commercials for Apollo Tyres and Airtel.


title: Sonu Sood

text: In July 2016, he established the production house "Shakti Sagar Productions", which is named after his father, "Shakti Sagar Sood". In September 2020, Sood was chosen for the "‛SDG Special Humanitarian Action Award’" by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for his humanitarian works during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Sonu Sood

text: Sonu Sood was educated at Sacred Heart School, Moga, and at Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering (YCCE), Nagpur.


title: Sonu Sood

text: In 1999, Sood was introduced to Tamil language films with "Kallazhagar" and "Nenjinile". He then appeared as an antagonist in the Telugu film "Hands Up!" in 2000. In 2001, he appeared in "Majunu". He then began starring in Hindi films, with "Shaheed-E-Azam", as Bhagat Singh in 2002. Sood earned recognition as Abhishek Bachchan's brother in Mani Ratnam's "Yuva" in 2004 and in "Aashiq Banaya Aapne" in 2005.


title: Sonu Sood

text: In Tollywood, with the release of "Super" in 2005, he received greater recognition for his work. In this film, his co-star was Nagarjuna as a high-tech thief. His next film was "Athadu". In 2006, he again portrayed the antagonist in "Ashok". It was an average grosser, but by now he had become popular in Telugu films.


title: Sonu Sood

text: In 2009, he played the role of Pasupathy in "Arundhati". Following the Tollywood release of "Arundhati", he played the role of Rajkumar Sujamal in the Indian epic film "Jodha Akbar," directed by "Ashutosh Gowariker." In 2009, he played the role of gangster Bada in "Anjaneyulu" opposite Ravi Teja. In the latter half of 2009, he acted in another Telugu film "Ek Niranjan", in which he again played the antagonist. In 2010, he played the lead antagonist in Abhinav Kashyap's "Dabangg", co-starring with Salman Khan. His Kannada debut with Sudeep, "Vishnuvardhana" (2011), released to positive reviews of his performance. He was appointed "the state icon of Punjab" by the state election commission.


title: Sonu Sood

text: In April 2022, the popular reality show MTV Roadies - Season 18 was hosted by Sonu Sood in South Africa. As he reflected on the experience, he emphasized that the "magic" attribute of the show was that it demanded one to be absolutely real & every single day of our 45-day stay in South Africa was a learning experience for him.


title: Sonu Sood

text: In 1996, Sood married Sonali, a Telugu woman, who hails from Andhra Pradesh. They have two sons named Ayaan and Ishant.


title: Sonu Sood

text: Sood has founded the Sood Charity Foundation "to help people of all stature". An initiative by Sood for providing free coaching to UPSC exam candidates from underprivileged financial backgrounds. Sood was announced as the Delhi Government's brand ambassodor of its "Desh ke Mentor" ("country mentor") programme by the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on 27 August 2021.


title: Sonu Sood

text: SANKALP is one of the flagship campaigns of the Sood Charity Foundation. It is a free law entrance coaching program to assist people with academic guidance and other essential resources for CLAT and AILET exam preparation. The goal has been to bridge the gap between the less-privileged deserving candidates and Law schools.


title: Sonu Sood

text: Across the country there are many volunteers and agents who have possibly associated to support the work of the organization and have started contacting people via twitter, Facebook and Instagram to impersonate Sonu Sood and Sonali Sood and are collecting fees in his name. They take the money online via bank transfers and later withdraw the money via ATM machines. Reports also suggest that they spoof emails of Sood Charity Foundation. The Foundation has not actively taken steps to ensure this stops and contacting the foundation senior management is near impossible to most civilians.


title: Sonu Sood

text: In May 2020, during the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sood helped thousands of stranded Indian migrant workers to reach their homes by arranging buses, special trains and chartered flights for them. In July 2020 he arranged a chartered flight to bring home over 1,500 Indian students stranded in Kyrgyzstan, flying them from Bishkek to Varanasi. His charity during the pandemic was lauded, and he was hailed as a real-life hero in India.


title: Sonu Sood

text: On 25 July 2020, a video of a farmer's daughters ploughing a field, like bulls with a yoke on their shoulders, went viral over social media. Sood quickly sent the family a tractor. On 5 August 2020, he helped 101 medical students, predominantly from Tamil Nadu, who were stranded in Moscow during the lockdown, reach Chennai safely on a chartered flight arranged by him after they contacted his team for help. On his birthday he launched a website and app called Pravasi Rojgar to help migrant workers find suitable jobs amid the pandemic. On 19 February 2021, Sood launched an initiative 'Ilaaj India' platform to provide healthcare services for needy people. In December 2020 he published "I Am No Messiah", autobiographical book, narrating his journey to become an actor, and narrating his social work during the pandemic.


title: Sonu Sood

text: On 17 April 2021, Sonu Sood tested positive for Coronavirus disease. He also shared a message for his fans in his post that read: "Covid – positive. Mood and spirit – super positive. Hi everyone, this is to inform you that I have tested positive this morning for COVID-19. As a part of precautions, I have already quarantined myself and taking utmost care. But don't worry this gives me ample time to solve your problems. Remember I am always there for you all."


title: Sonu Sood

text: In 2021, Sood provided much-needed oxygen plants and cylinders for COVID-19 patients in India. Sood and Kumar Vishwas have supported the "Aao Gaon Bachayein" ("Save the Villages") campaign started by comic poet and satirist Pankaj Prasun.


title: Worm

text: Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always).


title: Worm

text: Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete worms (bristle worms); for the African giant earthworm, "Microchaetus rappi"; and for the marine nemertean worm (bootlace worm), "Lineus longissimus". Various types of worm occupy a small variety of parasitic niches, living inside the bodies of other animals. Free-living worm species do not live on land but instead live in marine or freshwater environments or underground by burrowing.


title: Worm

text: In biology, "worm" refers to an obsolete taxon, "vermes", used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, now seen to be paraphyletic. The name stems from the Old English word "wyrm". Most animals called "worms" are invertebrates, but the term is also used for the amphibian caecilians and the slowworm "Anguis", a legless burrowing lizard. Invertebrate animals commonly called "worms" include annelids (earthworms and marine polychaete or bristle worms), nematodes (roundworms), platyhelminthes (flatworms), marine nemertean worms ("bootlace worms"), marine Chaetognatha (arrow worms), priapulid worms, and insect larvae such as grubs and maggots.


title: Worm

text: Worms may also be called helminths—particularly in medical terminology—when referring to parasitic worms, especially the Nematoda (roundworms) and Cestoda (tapeworms) which reside in the intestines of their host. When an animal or human is said to "have worms", it means that it is infested with parasitic worms, typically roundworms or tapeworms. Lungworm is also a common parasitic worm found in various animal species such as fish and cats.


title: Worm

text: In taxonomy, "worm" refers to an obsolete grouping, "Vermes", used by Carl Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, now seen to be polyphyletic. In 1758, Linnaeus created the first hierarchical classification in his "Systema Naturae". In his original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, the Chordata, while his Insecta (which included the crustaceans and arachnids) and Vermes have been renamed or broken up. The process was begun in 1793 by Lamarck, who called the Vermes "une espèce de chaos" (a sort of chaos) and split the group into three new phyla, worms, echinoderms, and polyps (which contained corals and jellyfish). By 1809, in his "Philosophie Zoologique", Lamarck had created 9 phyla apart from vertebrates (where he still had 4 phyla: mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish) and molluscs, namely cirripedes, annelids, crustaceans, arachnids, insects, worms, radiates, polyps, and infusorians. Chordates are remarkably wormlike by ancestry.


title: Worm

text: In the 13th century, worms were recognized in Europe as part of the category of "reptiles" that consisted of a miscellany of egg-laying creatures, including "snakes, various fantastic monsters, lizards, assorted amphibians," as recorded by Vincent of Beauvais in his "Mirror of Nature". In everyday language, the term "worm" is also applied to various other living forms such as larvae, insects, millipedes, centipedes, shipworms (teredo worms), or even some vertebrates (creatures with a backbone) such as blindworms and caecilians. Worms include several groups.


title: Worm

text: Familiar worms include the earthworms, members of phylum Annelida. Other invertebrate groups may be called worms, especially colloquially. In particular, many unrelated insect larvae are called "worms", such as the railroad worm, woodworm, glowworm, bloodworm, inchworm, mealworm, silkworm, and woolly bear worm.


title: Worm

text: Worms may also be called helminths, particularly in medical terminology when referring to parasitic worms, especially the Nematoda (roundworms) and Cestoda (tapeworms). Hence, "helminthology" is the study of parasitic worms. When a human or an animal, such as a dog or horse, is said to "have worms", it means that it is infested with parasitic worms, typically roundworms or tapeworms. Deworming is a method to kill off the worms that have infected a human or animal by giving anthelmintic drugs.


title: Worm

text: Lobopodians are an informal grouping of extinct panarthropods from the Cambrian to the Carboniferous that are often called worms or "worm like animals" despite the fact they had legs in the form of stubby lobopods. Likewise, the extant Onychophora are sometimes called "velvet worms" despite possessing stubby legs.


title: Worm

text: "Wyrm" was the Old English term for carnivorous reptiles ("serpents") and mythical dragons. "Worm" has also been used as a pejorative epithet to describe a cowardly, weak or pitiable person.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: Eternal Love (), also known as Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, is a 2017 Chinese television series starring Yang Mi and Mark Chao, directed by Lin Yufen. It is based on the xianxia novel of the same name from 2015 by Tang Qi Gong Zi. The series was broadcast on Zhejiang TV and Dragon TV from 30 January to 1 March 2017.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: As of 1 August 2018, the series has reached 50 billion views, becoming the most watched television series in the world.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: The story begins when Zhe Yan (Ken Chang) brings Bai Qian (Yang Mi), disguised as the male immortal Si Yin, to Kunlun Mountain, where she becomes the God of War, Mo Yuan's 17th disciple and receives the Jade Purity Fan of Kunlun, which becomes her weapon. For 20,000 years, Bai Qian (as Si Yin), trains and causes quite some trouble. One day, she gets kidnapped by a jealous goddess, Yao Guang, and is then rescued by Mo Yuan. Afterwards, she causes trouble again, this time dragging along the 9th disciple, Ling Yu, and getting captured by the Ghost Lord. After several weeks of being prisoners, they are finally rescued by Mo Yuan again, and this action provokes Qing Cang to declare war on the Celestial Tribe. During this stay in the Ghost Realm, Bai Qian (still as Si Yin) develops feelings for Li Jing, the second prince of the Ghost Tribe. Xuan Nü, who has been staying at Kunlun Mountain for a while, also develops feelings for Li Jing, and by using her ability to morph her appearance into Bai Qian's, she seduces Li Jing, which consequently enrages a heartbroken Bai Qian.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: During the war, Bai Qian (still disguised as Si Yin) witnesses the Ghost Tribe breaking into the troop formation, and also witnesses Ling Yu getting killed. After a failed attempt to rescue him, Mo Yuan sends away Ling Yu's body back to Kunlun Mountain. Qing Cang, the Ghost Lord, then uses the Bell of the East Emperor to try and destroy heaven and earth, and so Mo Yuan sacrifices his spirit in order to stop the bell and seal Qing Cang's spirit in it. After seeing Mo Yuan's spiritless body, Bai Qian breaks down into tears. The disciples of Kunlun Mountain soon disperse back to their homes and families.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: 70,000 years later, Bai Qian, no longer in disguise, had been living in Qing Qiu for the past 70,000 years, not even taking a single step outside of it. Bai Qian, who knows that the seal will be lifted and that Qing Cang could break free at any moment, attempts to re-seal him, she will need more power. In order to ascend to High God she will need to go through a trial which will seal away Bai Qian's memories and powers, causing her to become a mortal woman and forget who she is.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: As a mortal woman, she meets Ye Hua (Mark Chao) when he is sent to the mortal realm to take care of the Ghost Tribe's Golden Lion Beast who has been causing havoc. Bai Qian (as a mortal woman) mistakes Ye Hua for a snake, who is in his dragon form, and brings him home to fix his wounds. While she accidentally makes his wounds worse, she did it out of good intentions, and she had offered hospitality anyway, so Ye Hua felt it was necessary to repay her kindness. He goes into the mortal realm, in his human form, and pretended to be heavily wounded. The two unexpectedly fall in love, and Ye Hua gifts her the name of Su Su and they marry, despite the fact that he already had an arranged marriage with Bai Qian of Qing Qiu (who was, unbeknownst to him, in a trial as Su Su).


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: In order to prevent the same tragedy that happened to Sang Ji, who previously had an arranged marriage with Bai Qian, and Shao Xin, Bai Qian's servant, from befalling, Ye Hua attempts to fake his death while hiding Su Su from the Nine Heavens, especially after she became pregnant with his child. However, Ye Hua's plans were eventually thwarted and Su Su was brought to the Nine Heavens.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: Su Jin (Huang Mengying), who is jealous of Ye Hua's love for Su Su, intentionally creates a series of misunderstanding between them and causes Su Su to lose her eyes. After giving birth to A Li, a devastated Su Su jumps off from the Zhu Xian Terrace, an act fatal to all mortals, thinking that Ye Hua had betrayed her. Instead of dying, the seal on her memories and powers is broken, restoring Su Su back to her new goddess status as Bai Qian. Unable to deal with the psychological trauma, Bai Qian asks Zhe Yan for his amnesia potion to erase all her memories of the events after her powers were sealed, and she forgets everything, including meeting Ye Hua.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: Three hundred years later, Bai Qian receives an invite to a banquet, and she meets Ye Hua, who mistakes her for Su Su. Another lifetime, another world, Ye Hua recognizes Bai Qian as the woman he loves, but the latter remains indifferent as she does not recognise him. Ye Hua begins to pursue Bai Qian for the second time to regain her affections, and eventually succeeds when his love is requited. Qing Cang, who had gained more power after the death of his first son, attempts to release crimson hellfire onto heaven and earth when he would die via the Bell of the East Emperor, and Ye Hua battles with him and eventually manages to kill the Ghost Lord, but in turn this would unleashes the crimson hellfire. Ye Hua sacrifices his spirit to the Bell to stop it from destroying heaven and earth, and Bai Qian is unconsolable after seeing his lifeless body. By this time, Mo Yuan had already awakened after spending 70,300 years trying to repair his spirit, which had been scattered into many pieces.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: For three years, Bai Qian kept on seeing Ye Hua, only to realize that it had only been a dream or an illusion. Due to complicated reasons and being in a crystal coffin in the Restful Sea, Ye Hua awakens after only three years of slumber, and is reunited with Bai Qian.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: The series began production in 2015. Primarily crew members was announced; with Lam Yuk-fan as the director, Zhang Shuping as the style director, Chen Haozhong as the art director and Zhang Shijie as the costume designer. It was announced that Gcoo Entertainment (a subsidiary of Huace Studio) will produce the drama.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: Principal photography began on February 10, 2016 at Xiangshan Movie & Television Town. The whole crew wrapped up filming on June 30, 2016. Filming also took place in Puzhehei, Yunnan. More than 80% of the sets were newly built in order to avoid replication.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: The "Eternal Love OST" was released on February 18, 2017 digitally. The popularity of the series has led to the soundtrack, "Bracing the Chill" to become one of the most covered songs in 2017. The soundtracks and background music were released on three discs, with a total of 60 tracks.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: "Eternal Love" is a commercial success in China, with over 50 billion views on Chinese streaming sites, making it the most viewed Chinese drama. The series also surpassed 1% in ratings on both television stations, averaging 1.288% on Dragon TV and 1.041% on Zhejiang TV.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: The series has also attracted large number of foreign fans, which was said to mark a new renaissance for Chinese television. Its success factors were attributed to its beautiful scenes, poetic dialogues and popular stars; as well as the strong fanbase of its original novel. The translated version of the book ("To the Sky Kingdom") experienced a surge in sales on website Amazon.


title: Eternal Love (TV series)

text: The source novel "Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms" (English version "To the Sky Kingdom") was suspected to be plagiarized from various sources. The allegation was that the author plagiarised the main characters, story organisation and many important details from a Chinese danmei novel titled 桃花债 (the novel's title roughly translates to "Peach Blossom Debt") written by 大风刮过; and the prologue from an unfinished contemporary Chinese love novel 非我倾城 written by .


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Natasha Anne Bedingfield (born 26 November 1981) is a British singer and songwriter. Bedingfield released her debut album, "Unwritten", in 2004, which contained primarily up-tempo pop songs and was influenced by R&B music. It enjoyed international success with more than 2.3 million copies sold worldwide. Bedingfield received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the title track "Unwritten", and at the 2005 and 2006 Brit Awards, she was nominated for Best British Female Artist. "Unwritten" also produced her only UK number one, "These Words".


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Her second album, "N.B." (2007), yielded the UK top 10 singles "I Wanna Have Your Babies" and "Soulmate". "N.B." was not released in North America, but six tracks from it were included with seven new ones and released in 2008 as her third studio album, "Pocketful of Sunshine", with the singles "Love Like This" and "Pocketful of Sunshine" earning success on the charts. In December 2010, Bedingfield released her third album in North America, "Strip Me", with the song of the same name charting on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 at 91. Bedingfield has sold over 10 million albums and 10 million singles worldwide, totalling over 20 million records worldwide. In 2012, VH1 ranked Bedingfield number 66 on the list of 100 Greatest Women in Music.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: When Bedingfield was a teenager, she and her siblings, Daniel and Nikola, formed the dance/electronic group, The DNA Algorithm. The group provided Bedingfield with the opportunity to explore different musical genres and expand her songwriting abilities. She provided vocals for the group which primarily performed dance-pop music about independence and empowerment, themes that would later be found in her own solo compositions. At age 14, Bedingfield sang vocals on Origins "Refined Intricacy" (Steelyard Records).


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Bedingfield attended a year at the University of Greenwich, where she studied psychology, then left to concentrate on singing and songwriting. At first, she recorded demos in the garages of friends who had recording studios, which she presented to record companies. In early 2000s, Bedingfield composed, wrote and recorded songs for Hillsong Church UK. Her songs appeared on the live albums "Blessed", "Shout God's Fame", and the children's album "Jesus Is My Superhero" by Hillsong Music Australia.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Bedingfield was introduced to Phonogenic founder and A&R Paul Lisberg by the artist's manager Gary Wilson. Lisberg was initially hesitant, later telling HitQuarters: "[They] were good but weren't right for us ... " However, it was when, at a meeting together, Lisberg heard her singing ability and creative vocal ad-libbing first-hand that he became excited by Bedingfield's potential. Label interest was later confirmed when a trial studio session together with writers Steve Kipner and Andrew Frampton produced songs that were in keeping with Lisberg's vision for Phonogenic. Bedingfield signed a recording contract with BMG UK & Ireland, through its imprint Phonogenic Records, in July 2003.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Her debut studio album "Unwritten" was released in September 2004 and featured collaborations with Steve Kipner, Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lachey, James Reilly, Andrew Frampton, Wayne Wilkins, Kara DioGuardi, Guy Chambers, Patrick Leonard and the rapper Bizarre. The album contained uptempo pop-rock songs and influences from R&B music. Bedingfield's lyrics focused on independence, opportunism and female empowerment. Reviews of the album were generally positive, and it was described as a "well-made pop album for the new millennium" by Allmusic. The album debuted on the UK Albums Chart at number one and reached the top thirty in the U.S. It sold well, reaching multi-platinum status in the UK and Gold status in the U.S. The first single released from the album was "Single", which reached number three on the UK Singles Chart. The song's lyrics and accompanying music video depict Bedingfield's single lifestyle. "These Words" was released as the album's second single. The song became Bedingfield's first UK number one and US top twenty single. "Unwritten" was released as the album's third single in 2004, the song reached number six on the UK Singles Chart and it also became the most played song on US radio in 2006. "I Bruise Easily" was released as the album's fourth single, it did not perform as well as its predecessors but was still a moderate success, reaching number twelve on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: At the 2005 Brit Awards, Bedingfield was nominated for four awards, though did not win any of her nominated categories. She was also nominated for an award at the 2006 Brit Awards, and in 2007, she was nominated for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" at the 2007 Grammy Awards, though was again unsuccessful in winning in any of her nominated categories.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Bedingfield's second album, "N.B.", was released in Europe in April 2007. The album received mixed reviews by critics and peaked at number nine in the UK. "I Wanna Have Your Babies", the album's lead single, was moderately successful, reaching number seven in the UK, number eight in Ireland and the top fifty in various other markets. "Soulmate" was released as the album's second single on 2 July 2007 and also peaked at number seven in the UK. To promote "N.B.", Bedingfield embarked on the FutureSex/LoveShow tour in May 2007.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: On 1 July 2007, Bedingfield performed "Unwritten" at the Concert for Diana held at Wembley Stadium, London, an event which celebrated the life of Princess Diana almost ten years after her death. The North American version of her second album, titled "Pocketful of Sunshine", featured six songs from "N.B.". The album was released on 22 January 2008, after the lead single, "Love like This", was released in September 2007 and charted at No. 11 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The title track was released as the second single in February 2008 and peaked at No. 5 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. On 18 January 2008, Bedingfield's UK tour was cancelled for the second time, one month before it was supposed to start, so she could spend more time promoting her album in the U.S. In August 2008, Bedingfield and other singers including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Melissa Etheridge, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, Leona Lewis and Mariah Carey recorded the charity single, "Just Stand Up" produced by Babyface and L.A. Reid, to support "Stand Up to Cancer". On 5 September 2008, the singers performed it live on TV.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Bedingfield stated on her blog that she would start work on her new album in early 2009. She was confirmed to be writing for the new album while on holiday in New Zealand; she said "I'm here for a couple of weeks to do a bit of writing. It is such an inspiring place to write music. I love coming here as often as I can, usually once a year to fuel up on ideas for my next album".


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: She also confirmed she was working with Brian Kennedy, who produced/co-wrote Rihanna's hit single "Disturbia" and was writing songs with him while on tour to have the album released by the end of 2009. Bedingfield also stated that Wyclef Jean, Sam Sparro and Mike Elizondo would be working on the record.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: In an interview with IN:DEMAND Producer, Ryan Tedder said: "I'm gonna try and bring Natasha Bedingfield back here in the UK with some quirky, kinda weird stuff". On 18 March Bedingfield stated on her official site that she was in Los Angeles and she was putting the finishing touches on her album. "Touch", the lead single from the album, was made available as a digital download 18 May 2010. Bedingfield performed the song on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on 24 May 2010. "Touch" was officially sent to US radio stations on 29 June 2010. On 15 July Bedingfield announced via Twitter that the title of her new album would be "Strip Me". The album was originally scheduled for release on 9 November 2010 but was released on 7 December. The second single, also titled "Strip Me", was sent to US radio on 30 August 2010 and it became available as a digital download on 21 September 2010. It was written by Bedingfield, Ryan Tedder and Wayne Wilkins. The song was selected to head the soundtrack for the 2010 comedy "Morning Glory". Bedingfield appeared on rapper Nicki Minaj's debut album, "Pink Friday", on a track called "Last Chance", and on Rascal Flatts' album "Nothing Like This" on a track called "Easy", released as the album's third single. On New Year's Eve 2010–11, Bedingfield appeared on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: In 2010, Bedingfield joined forces with Avon as a celebrity judge for Avon Voices, Avon's first-ever global, online singing talent search for women and songwriting competition for men and women. On 6 April 2011, Bedingfield visited Radio Hamburg and confirmed that the song "Pocketful of Sunshine" (originally the second single from her US album "Pocketful of Sunshine") would be the first European single from the forthcoming European release of "Strip Me". The European version of "Strip Me" will be called "Strip Me Away". The lead single "Pocketful of Sunshine" was released on 13 May in Germany. The album "Strip Me Away" will be released in June. Bedingfield was featured on Simple Plan's new single from their new album "Get Your Heart On!", released on 21 June 2011. The song, "Jet Lag" was released on 26 April 2011 as the band's first single from their fourth album. On 5 July, Bedingfield performed her song "Weightless" from her "Strip Me" album on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". Filipino singer Jake Zyrus confirmed that Bedingfield had written a song for her called "Lighthouse", which is included on her second studio album "Infinity". On 9 November 2011, Bedingfield wowed American audiences when she joined Rascal Flatts to perform "Easy," on the Country Music Awards show on ABC. Bedingfield has released a Christmas song 'Shake Up Christmas', which has been confirmed to be on the 2011 Coca-Cola Christmas television advertisements.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: In April 2012, Bedingfield announced that she was working on her fourth studio album, originally titled "The Next Chapter", mentioning her plans to release the album worldwide, not just focusing on America. The album was said to feature production from RedOne, Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco, Paul Williams and Marshall Altman. "The Next Chapter" was presumably scrapped or shelved, given that it never materialized after that. In September 2012, Bedingfield was featured on Lifehouse's single "Between the Raindrops". On 13 May 2013, she appeared as a guest judge on the New Zealand version of "The X Factor" alongside her brother Daniel Bedingfield.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: In 2013, Bedingfield composed the music of "Non mi ami", a single by Italian singer-songwriter Giorgia, included on the album "Senza Paura". In 2014, Bedingfield contributed to the soundtrack for the Disney animated film, "The Pirate Fairy", with a track titled "Who I Am". On 13 January 2015, Bedingfield released a charity single with Philosophy Skin Care titled "Hope". With the release of "Hope", Bedingfield announced via Twitter that she would become more publicly active again, promising "many more music releases to come". The release of the music video for "Hope" followed a day later. Later in 2015, Bedingfield contributed to Band of Merrymakers' album "Welcome to Our Christmas Party" and toured with the group in 2015 and 2016. Bedingfield also collaborated with Belgian record producer Basto during this time. The duo released a single titled "Unicorn" in March 2016.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Bedingfield toured Europe in late 2016 with Night of the Proms. In January 2017 it was announced that Bedingfield would open for Train's 2017 summer concert tour. On 10 March 2017 she appeared on the Soundtrack of in the track "More Of Me".


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Bedingfield released a new record, "Let Go" with Nestea on 17 March 2018. She signed a record deal with Linda Perry's record label We Are Hear in the same year. Bedingfield co-wrote the song "Black Sky" with Kimbra for her 2018 album "Primal Heart". In July 2019, Bedingfield announced that her fourth studio album and first studio release in nearly nine years, "Roll with Me", is scheduled for release on 30 August 2019. Before the announcement, she had released the song "Roller Skate" as the album's lead single on 19 July and was preceded by its second single "Kick It".


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Bedingfield has donated time and money to organisations such as the Global Angels, an international children's charity founded by her mother, Molly Bedingfield. She became associated with the organisation in 2006 and said she hoped to help "people around the world, particularly children, who live in conditions that would horrify us".


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Bedingfield is now an ambassador for Global Angels, and in November 2006 she visited India for three weeks in support of the charity. She visited an orphanage in Kolkata and a refugee camp for former child prostitutes in Mumbai to learn more about the situation and the conditions in these areas. Bedingfield later expressed her shock at what she had witnessed. Video diaries filmed during her trip were posted on her official website in early 2007. She is also an advocate for Stop the Traffik, a global coalition which works to end human trafficking and a member of the (RED) campaign. In a 2008 rockumentary, Call+Response, headed by Justin Dillon, Bedingfield performed acoustic versions of "Unwritten" and "Soulmate" in support of the film's cause: a movement against modern slavery and human trafficking.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: In 2004, Bedingfield showed interest in acting and made her debut in the "James Bond" video game "From Russia with Love" in November 2005. She voiced the character Elizabeth Stark, the British Prime Minister's daughter who is kidnapped in the opening sequence. Bedingfield commented that she would like to do more acting, but only if the film "was good enough, and it was a role that [would] fit me." She has made an appearance in the seventh-season finale of the Canadian television series "". Bedingfield also guest-starred on Nickelodeon's mockumentary series "The Naked Brothers Band" "Christmas Special" alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Leon Thomas III. She has made guest appearances on the NBC series "Lipstick Jungle".


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: She guest-starred on Nickelodeon's "True Jackson, VP" in November 2009. She sang the song "These Words". In 2012, Bedingfield made an appearance in three episodes of "Web Therapy"'s fourth season.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: In December 2012, VH1 announced that Bedingfield would perform at their 2012 VH1 Divas show, a concert benefiting the Save The Music Foundation charity. Bedingfield performed Deee-Lite's "Groove Is in the Heart" with Bootsy Collins and Iggy Azalea.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: On 22 September 2014, Bedingfield performed a song titled "Love Song to the Earth" at the United Nations 2014 Equator Prize Gala in New York City. The song is a special anthem she and Toby Gad co-wrote for the United Nations Climate Summit 2014.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: In 2021, Bedingfield competed in season six of "The Masked Singer" as the wild card contestant "Pepper". At one point, Ken Jeong hit the "Take It Off" button when he thought "Pepper" was Sara Bareilles and tried to remove the mask when he was proven wrong only to be intercepted by the men in black. When Bedingfield was eliminated alongside John Lydon as "Jester", she mentioned about her son getting treatment for his medical condition and also the fact that he got to see his mom portraying a contestant who was colored red which is the color he likes. She is set to host The Masked Singer National Tour in 2022.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: On 21 March 2009, Bedingfield married American businessman Matt Robinson in Malibu, California, US. In November 2017, their son was born.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Bedingfield's debut album "Unwritten" contained primarily uptempo pop songs and was influenced by R&B music. It enjoyed international success with over three million copies sold worldwide. In 2007, she received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" for the song "Unwritten", the third single from the album of the same name. Bedingfield's second album "N.B." yielded the singles "Soulmate"; "Say It Again"; and "I Wanna Have Your Babies", written and produced by Natasha Bedingfield, Wayne Wilkins, Andrew Frampton and Steve Kipner. Bedingfield has received four nominations from the BRIT Awards but has won none. As of July 2008, she has won five awards from eleven nominations.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The "Billboard" Music Awards honor artists for commercial performance in the U.S., based on record charts published by "Billboard". The awards are based on sales data by Nielsen SoundScan and radio information by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. The award ceremony was held from 1990 to 2007, until its reintroduction in 2011.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Established in 2004, the Billboard Touring Awards is an annual meeting sponsored by "Billboard" magazine which also honors the top international live entertainment industry artists and professionals.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The BRIT Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. Bedingfield has received four nominations.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The BT Digital Music Awards honour music distributed digitally by methods such as mobile devices, online downloads and blogging. Bedingfield has won one award.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Bedingfield has received one nomination.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The Ivor Novello Awards are awarded for songwriting and composing. The awards, named after the Cardiff born entertainer Ivor Novello, are presented annually in London by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA).


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The MTV Europe Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony established in 1994 by MTV Europe. Bedingfield has received one nomination.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Launched in 2001, the Meteor Music Awards are awarded for achievements in the Irish and international record industry.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The MVPA Awards are annually presented by a Los Angeles-based music trade organization to honor the year's best music videos.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The New Music Awards are given for excellence in music to both recording artists and radio stations by "New Music Weekly" magazine.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show recognising the people and the work of popular culture. The show has been held annually since 1975 and is voted on by the general public.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: Pop Magazine is an online music magazine created by Hotspot Entertainment and published by A-Z Publishings. The magazine was launched on April 24, 2014. In 2018, Pop Magazine launched the first annual Pop Awards with 25 nominees across 5 categories.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The Radio Disney Music Awards (RDMA) is an annual awards show which is operated and governed by Radio Disney, an American radio network. Beginning in 2013, the ceremony began to be televised on Disney Channel.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The Smash Hits Poll Winners Party was an awards ceremony which ran from 1988 to 2005. Each award winner was voted by readers of the "Smash Hits" magazine.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The TMF Awards is an annual television awards show broadcast live on The Music Factory. Bedingfield has received one award.


title: Natasha Bedingfield

text: The Teen Choice Awards were established in 1999 to honor the year's biggest achievements in music, movies, sports and television, being voted by young people aged between 13 and 19.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: Fettuccine Alfredo () or fettuccine al burro ("fettuccine with butter") is an Italian pasta dish of fresh fettuccine tossed with butter and Parmesan cheese (""). As the cheese melts, it emulsifies the liquids to form a smooth and rich cheese sauce coating the pasta. The dish is named after Alfredo Di Lelio, who featured the dish at his restaurant in Rome in the early to mid-20th century; the "ceremony" of preparing it tableside was an integral part of the dish.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: The dish became widespread and eventually spread to the United States, where it remains popular. The recipe has changed, and its commercialized version—with heavy cream and other ingredients—is now ubiquitous. In the U.S., it is often served as a main course, sometimes garnished with chicken or other ingredients. In Italy, meanwhile, "fettuccine al burro" is generally considered home cooking, and "fettuccine Alfredo" is widely scoffed at by Italian writers.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: Serving fettuccine with butter and cheese was first mentioned in a 15th-century recipe for "maccaroni romaneschi" ("Roman pasta") by Martino da Como, a northern Italian cook active in Rome; the recipe calls for cooking the pasta in broth or water and adding butter, "good cheese" (the variety is not specified) and "sweet spices".


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: Modern "fettuccine Alfredo" was invented by Alfredo Di Lelio in Rome. According to family accounts, in 1892 Alfredo Di Lelio began to work in a restaurant that was located in piazza Rosa and run by his mother Angelina. Di Lelio invented "fettuccine al triplo burro" (later named "fettuccine all'Alfredo" or "fettuccine Alfredo") in 1907 or 1908 in an effort to entice his wife, Ines, to eat after giving birth to their first child Armando. Alfredo added extra butter or "triplo burro" to the fettuccine when mixing it together for her. Piazza Rosa disappeared in 1910 following the construction of the Galleria Colonna/Sordi, and the restaurant was forced to close. Di Lelio later opened his own restaurant, Alfredo alla Scrofa, then called "Alfredo", in 1914 on the via della Scrofa in central Rome.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: The fame of Alfredo's fettuccine spread, first in Rome and then to other countries. Di Lelio was made a Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: In 1943, during the war, Di Lelio sold the restaurant to two of his waiters. In 1950, with his son Armando, Alfredo Di Lelio opened a new restaurant in piazza Augusto Imperatore, Alfredo all'Augusteo, now managed by his niece Ines Di Lelio, bringing along the famous "gold cutlery" said to have been donated in 1927 by the American actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks in gratitude for Alfredo's hospitality. The two restaurants competed vigorously, with escalating puffery: "the king of fettuccine", "the real king of fettuccine", "the magician of fettuccine", "the emperor of fettuccine", "the real Alfredo", etc.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: The dish was so well known that Di Lelio was invited to demonstrate it both in Italy and abroad. The fame of the dish, called on Alfredo's menus "maestosissime fettuccine all'Alfredo" ("most majestic fettuccine, Alfredo style"), comes largely from the "spectacle reminiscent of grand opera" of its preparation at table, as described in 1967:


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: [The fettuccine] are seasoned with plenty of butter and fat parmesan, not aged, so that, in a ritual of extraordinary theatricality, the owner mixes the pasta and lifts it high to serve it, the white threads of cheese gilded with butter and the bright yellow of the ribbons of egg pasta offering an eyeful for the customer; at the end of the ceremony, the guest of honor is presented the golden cutlery and the serving dish, where the blond fettuccine roll around in the pale gold of the seasonings. It's worth seeing the whole ceremony. The owner, son of old Alfredo and looking exactly like him, ... bends over the great skein of fettuccine, fixes it intensely, his eyes half-closed, and dives into mixing it, waving the golden cutlery with grand gestures, like an orchestra conductor, with his sinister upwards-pointing twirled moustache dancing up and down, pinkies in the air, a rapt gaze, flailing elbows.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: Recipes attributed to Di Lelio only include three ingredients: fettuccine, young Parmesan cheese and butter. Yet there are various legends about the "secret" of the original Alfredo recipe: some say oil is added to the pasta dough, others that the noodles are cooked in milk. The secret may in fact be simply that the noodles, cheese and butter are tossed constantly with some pasta water in a well-warmed platter to ensure that they melt together thoroughly.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: Fettuccine Alfredo, minus the spectacle, has now become ubiquitous in Italian-style restaurants outside Italy, although in Italy this dish is usually called simply "fettuccine al burro".


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: Alfredo's fettuccine has long been popular with Americans. By 1922, it was already being reported on by American travelers. Multiple magazine articles and guidebooks in the 1920s and 1930s extolled Alfredo's noodles. In 1927, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks supposedly dined at Alfredo's and gave him the famous gold fork and spoon. Also in 1927, the American restaurateur and writer George Rector wrote up Alfredo's fettuccine and described the ceremony of its tableside preparation, accompanied by violin music, in detail; he did not give it a specific name, nor mention golden tableware.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: In the 1950s, Di Lelio promoted the dish and his restaurant by creating a photo gallery of visiting celebrities with his noodles, including Jimmy Stewart, Bob Hope, Anthony Quinn, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, Jack Lemmon, Ava Gardner, Tyrone Power, Sophia Loren, Cantinflas, and many others.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: In 1966, the Pennsylvania Dutch Noodle Company started marketing their dried "Fettuccine Egg Noodles", which included a recipe on the package for an Alfredo sauce including cream and Swiss cheese as well as Parmesan and butter.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: The American restaurant casual dining chain Olive Garden has popularized its versions of "fettuccine alfredo", which may be combined with chicken, shrimp, or other foods to make main courses called "chicken alfredo", "seafood alfredo", etc. Given the strict separation of pasta and meat dishes in the usual Italian restaurant cuisine, this was never done by Di Lelio. Olive Garden's recipe also includes cream and garlic.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: Alfredo sauce is often sold as a convenience food in grocery stores in many countries. Unlike the original preparation, which is thickened only by cheese, the prepared food and fast food versions of Alfredo may be thickened with eggs or starch.


title: Fettuccine Alfredo

text: In 2020, the Alfredo alla Scrofa restaurant began offering its own bottled version of "Salsa Alfredo", promoted as using only the highest quality ingredients. It contains Parmigiano Reggiano (43%), water, butter, rice flour, and sunflower seed oil, and no cream.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba (), officially known by its ecclesiastical name, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption (), is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Córdoba dedicated to the Assumption of Mary and located in the Spanish region of Andalusia. Due to its status as a former Islamic mosque, it is also known as the Mezquita ('mosque' in Spanish) and as the Great Mosque of Córdoba.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: According to traditional accounts, a Visigothic church, the Catholic Christian Basilica of Saint Vincent of Saragossa, originally stood on the site of the current Mosque-Cathedral, although the historicity of this narrative has been questioned by scholars. The Great Mosque was constructed on the orders of Abd ar-Rahman I in 785, when Córdoba was the capital of the Muslim-controlled region of Al-Andalus. It was expanded multiple times afterwards under Abd ar-Rahman's successors up to the late 10th century. Among the most notable additions, Abd ar-Rahman III added a minaret (finished in 958) and his son Al-Hakam II added a richly-decorated new "mihrab" and "maqsura" section (finished in 971). The mosque was converted to a cathedral in 1236 when Córdoba was captured by the Christian forces of Castile during the "Reconquista". The structure itself underwent only minor modifications until a major building project in the 16th century inserted a new Renaissance cathedral nave and transept into the center of the building. The former minaret, which had been converted to a bell tower, was also significantly remodelled around this time. Starting in the 19th century, modern restorations have in turn led to the recovery and study of some of the building's Islamic-era elements. Today, the building continues to serve as the city's cathedral and Mass is celebrated therein daily.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The mosque structure is an important monument in the history of Islamic architecture and was highly influential on the subsequent "Moorish" architecture of the western Mediterranean regions of the Muslim world. It is also one of Spain's major historic monuments and tourist attractions, as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: A claim that the site of the mosque-cathedral was once a Roman temple dedicated to Janus dates as far back as Pablo de Céspedes and is sometimes still repeated today. However, Robert Knapp, in his overview of Roman-era Córdoba, has dismissed this claim as speculation based on a misunderstanding of Roman milestones found in the area.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: According to traditional accounts, the present-day site of the Cathedral–Mosque of Córdoba was originally a Visigothic Christian church dedicated to Saint Vincent of Saragossa, which was divided and shared by Christians and Muslims after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. As the Muslim community grew and this existing space became too small for prayer, the basilica was expanded little by little through piecemeal additions to the building. This sharing arrangement of the site lasted until 785, when the Christian half was purchased by Abd al-Rahman I, who then proceeded to demolish the church structure and build the grand mosque of Córdoba on its site. In return, Abd al-Rahman also allowed the Christians to rebuild other ruined churches – including churches dedicated to the Christian martyrs Saints Faustus, Januarius, and Marcellus whom they deeply revered – as agreed upon in the sale terms.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The historicity of this narrative has been challenged as archaeological evidence is scant and the narrative is not corroborated by contemporary accounts of the events following Abd al-Rahman I's initial arrival in al-Andalus. The narrative of the church being transformed into a mosque, which goes back to the tenth-century historian Al-Razi, echoed similar narratives of the Islamic conquest of Syria, in particular the story of building the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. For medieval Muslim historians, these parallels served to highlight a dynastic Umayyad conquest of Spain and appropriation of Visigothic Córdoba. Another tenth-century source mentions a church that stood at the site of the mosque without giving further details. An archaeological exhibit in the mosque–cathedral of Cordoba today displays fragments of a Late Roman or Visigothic building, emphasizing an originally Christian nature of the complex. According to Susana Calvo Capilla, a specialist on the history of the mosque–cathedral, although remains of multiple church-like buildings have been located on the territory of the mosque–cathedral complex, no clear archaeological evidence has been found of where either the church of St. Vincent or the first mosque were located on the site, and the latter may have been a newly constructed building. The evidence suggests that it may have been the grounds of an episcopal complex rather than a particular church which were initially divided between Muslims and Christians. Pedro Marfil, an archeologist at the University of Cordoba, has argued for the existence of such a complex – including a Christian basilica – on this site by interpreting the existing archeological remains. This theory has in turn been opposed by Fernando Arce-Sainz, another archeologist, who states that none of the numerous archeological investigations in modern times have turned up remains of Christian iconography, a cemetery, or other evidence that would support the existence of a church. Art historian Rose Walker, in an overview of late antique and early medieval art in Spain, has likewise criticized Marfil's view as relying on personal interpretation. The “stratigraphy” of the site is complicated and made more so by its impact on contemporary political debates about cultural identity in Spain. Regardless of what structures may have existed on the site, however, it is almost certain that the building which housed the city's first mosque was destroyed to build Abd ar-Rahman I's Great Mosque and that it had little relation to the latter's form.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The Great Mosque was built in the context of the new Umayyad Emirate in Al-Andalus which Abd ar-Rahman I founded in 756. Abd ar-Rahman was a fugitive and one of the last remaining members of the Umayyad royal family which had previously ruled the first hereditary caliphate based in Damascus, Syria. This Umayyad Caliphate was overthrown during the Abbasid Revolution in 750 and the ruling family were nearly all killed or executed in the process. Abd ar-Rahman survived by fleeing to North Africa and, after securing political and military support, took control of the Muslim administration in the Iberian Peninsula from its governor, Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri. Cordoba was already the capital of the Muslim province and Abd ar-Rahman continued to use it as the capital of his independent emirate.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Construction of the mosque began in 785–786 (169 AH) and finished a year later in 786–787 (170 AH). This relatively short period of construction was aided by the reuse of existing Roman and Visigothic materials in the area, especially columns and capitals. Syrian (Umayyad), Visigothic, and Roman influences have been noted in the building's design, but the architect is not known. The craftsmen working on the project probably included local Iberians as well as people of Syrian origin. According to tradition and historical written sources, Abd ar-Rahman involved himself personally and heavily in the project, but the extent of his personal influence in the mosque's design is debated.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The original mosque had a roughly square floor plan measuring 74 or 79 square meters per side, equally divided between a hypostyle prayer hall to the south and an open courtyard ("sahn") to the north. As the mosque was built on a sloping site, a large amount of fill would have been necessary to create a level ground on which to build. The original mosque's most famous architectural innovation, which was preserved and repeated in all subsequent Muslim-era expansions, was its rows of double-tiered arches. Much speculation has been offered on the inspiration for this particular design, including the alleged similarity of the arches to a forest of palm trees from Abd ar-Rahman's youth in Syria; however, a more technical motivation may have been the fact that the available columns being reused from previous buildings were not tall enough on their own to raise the ceiling to the desired height. The precedent of multi-tiered arches was also already present in the Iberian Peninsula thanks to remaining Roman aqueducts (e.g. the Milagros Aqueduct at Mérida).


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The mosque's original "mihrab" (niche in the far wall symbolizing the direction of prayer) no longer exists today but its probable remains were found during archeological excavations between 1932 and 1936. The remains showed that the mihrab's upper part was covered with a shell-shaped hood similar to the later mihrab. The mosque originally had four entrances: one was in the center of the north wall of the courtyard (aligned with the mihrab to the south), two more were in the west and east walls of the courtyard, and a fourth one was in the middle of the west wall of the prayer hall. The latter was known as "Bab al-Wuzara"' (the "Viziers' Gate", today known as "Puerta de San Esteban") and was most likely the entrance used by the emir and state officials who worked in the palace directly across the street from here. The outer walls were reinforced with large buttresses, which are still visible on the exterior today.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The courtyard of the mosque was planted with trees from at least as early as 808, according to the jurist Ibn Sahl, who himself cited five previous authorities. Although the species of tree is not known, the fact that these were fruit trees is attested in Ibn Sahl, who was consulted as to whether such a garden was forbidden and, if not forbidden, whether it was permitted to eat from it. That the trees remained in the courtyard is demonstrated by two seals of the City of Cordoba, one in 1262 and the other in 1445, both of which show the mosque (which by then had been converted to a cathedral) within whose walls appear tall palm trees. With secure evidence of its early date, this courtyard is the oldest continuously planted Islamic garden in the world.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Mosques were normally aligned with the "qibla" (the direction of prayer), which is theoretically the direction of Mecca. From Cordoba, Mecca is to the east-southeast, but the Great Mosque of Cordoba is instead oriented more towards the south. This orientation, which doesn't match that of modern mosques, is due to historical differences in opinion about the appropriate direction of the "qibla" in far western Islamic lands like al-Andalus and Morocco. In this early period, many Muslims in the region preferred a tradition that existed in the western Islamic world (the Maghreb and al-Andalus) according to which the qibla should be oriented towards the south instead of pointing towards the shortest distance to Mecca. This was based on a saying ("hadith") of Muhammad which stated that "What is between the east and west is a qibla", which thus legitimized southern alignments. This practice may also have sought to emulate the orientation of the walls of the rectangular "Kaaba" building inside the Great Mosque of Mecca, based on another tradition which considered the different sides of the Kaaba as being associated with different parts of the Muslim world. In this tradition the northwest face of the Kaaba was associated with al-Andalus and, accordingly, the Great Mosque of Cordoba was oriented towards the southeast as if facing the Kaaba's northwestern façade, with its main axis parallel to the main axis of the Kaaba structure (which was oriented from southeast to northwest). Although later mosques in Al-Andalus did have more eastern-facing orientations (e.g. the Mosque of Madinat al-Zahra in the 10th century), later expansions of the Great Mosque did not attempt to modify its original alignment.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: In 793 Abd ar-Rahman I's son and successor, Hisham I, added to the mosque a "ṣawma'a", a shelter for the muezzin on top of the outer wall, as the mosque did not yet have a minaret (a feature which was not yet standard in early mosques). The mosque was significantly expanded by Abd ar-Rahman II (r. 822–852) sometime between the years 833 and 848. This expansion preserved and repeated the original design while extending the prayer hall eight bays to the south (i.e. the length of eight arches). This made the prayer hall 64 metres long from front to back. During this expansion, the builders began to commission new marble capitals for the columns instead of just re-using ancient ones. These new capitals were imitations of the Corinthian style but still differed slightly from classical models, thus hinting at the future evolution of architectural sculpture in al-Andalus. One probable example of these capitals is now preserved at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid and features an Arabic inscription in an archaic Kufic script that offers blessings on Abd ar-Rahman II. The expansion work may have been unfinished when Abd ar-Rahman II died in 852 and it appears to have been completed instead by his son and successor, Muhammad I (r. 852–886).


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Muhammad I carried out various other works on the mosque and is reported to have created a "maqsura" (a prayer space reserved for the ruler). In 855 he also restored the "Bab al-Wuzara"' gate (today's "Puerta de San Esteban"). The decoration of this gate, which thus likely dates from this time, is often noted as an important prototype of later Moorish gateways. Muhammad's son, Al-Mundhir (r. 886–888), in turn added a treasury to the mosque. Al-Mundhir's son, Abdallah (r. 888–912), built the mosque's first elevated passage, known as a "sabat," which connected the mosque directly with the Umayyad palace across the street. This passage allowed the ruler thenceforth to enter the mosque privately, where he would remain unseen behind the screen of the "maqsura", thus separating him from the general public during prayer. (New versions of this bridge would later be rebuilt during the mosque's subsequent expansions.)


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: In the 10th century Abd ar-Rahman III (r. 912–961) declared a new Caliphate in al-Andalus and inaugurated the height of Andalusi power in the region. As part of his various construction projects, he reworked and enlarged the courtyard of the Great Mosque and built its first true minaret (a tower from which the call to prayer was issued) starting in 951–952. The minaret was 47 meters high and had a square base measuring 8.5 meters per side. Scholar Jonathan Bloom has suggested that Abd ar-Rahman III's construction of the minaret – along with his sponsoring of other minarets around the same time in Fez, Morocco – was partly intended as a visual symbol of his growing authority as caliph, and may have been aimed at defying the rival Fatimid Caliphate to the east which eschewed such structures. Abd ar-Rahman III also reinforced the northern wall of the courtyard by adding another "façade" in front of the old one on the courtyard side. Historical accounts differ on whether the completed courtyard had a surrounding gallery or portico (as seen today and as was common in the courtyards of other mosques). Many modern scholars affirm that the courtyard was provided with an enveloping gallery at this time and that its design involved an alternation between piers and columns (similar to its current appearance). The new works, including the minaret, were completed in 958, as recorded by a surviving inscription on a marble plaque that includes the name of Abd ar-Rahman III as well as the names of the master builder and the supervisor of works.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Abd ar-Rahman III's son and successor, Al-Hakam II (r. 961–976), was a cultured man who was involved in his father's architectural projects. During his own reign, starting in 961, he further expanded the mosque's prayer hall. The hall was extended 45 meters to the south by adding 12 more bays (arches), again repeating the double-tiered arches of the original design. This expansion is responsible for some of the mosque's most significant architectural flourishes and innovations. At the beginning of al-Hakam's extension, the central "nave" of the mosque was highlighted with an elaborate ribbed dome (now part of the "Capilla da Villaviciosa"). More famously, a rectangular "maqsura" area around the mosque's new mihrab was distinguished by a set of unique interlacing multifoil arches. The rectangular area within this, in front of the mihrab, was covered by three more decorative ribbed domes. The domes and the new mihrab niche were finished in November or December 965, and an inscription records the names of four of its craftsmen who also worked at the Reception Hall ("Salon Rico") of Madinat al-Zahra. Soon after this date both the middle dome of the "maqsura" and the wall surfaces around the mihrab were covered in rich Byzantine-influenced gold mosaics. According to traditional accounts like that of Ibn 'Idhari, Al-Hakam II had written to the Byzantine emperor (initially Nikephoros II Phokas) in Constantinople requesting that he send him expert mosaicists for the task. The emperor consented and sent him a master craftsman along with about 1600 kg of mosaic tesserae as a gift. The mosaicist trained some of the caliph's own craftsmen, who eventually became skilled enough to do the work on their own. The work was finished by this team in late 970 or early 971.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Al-Hakam II's work on the mosque also included the commissioning of a new "minbar" (pulpit) in 965, which took about 5 to 7 years to finish. Unfortunately, the details of its construction and of its chronology are muddled by sometimes contradictory historical sources. Ibn 'Idhari, for example, implies that Al-Hakam had two minbars built in this period, with one of them possibly having been destroyed or replaced. Either way, whichever minbar survived and became associated with the mosque was celebrated by many writers for its craftsmanship. It was made out of precious woods like ebony, boxwood, and "scented" woods, and it was inlaid with ivory and with other coloured woods such as red and yellow sandalwood. Modern scholars believe the minbar had wheels which allowed it to be rolled in and out of its storage chamber.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The mosque's last significant expansion under Muslim rule was ordered by Al-Mansur (Almanzor), the autocratic vizier of Caliph Hisham II, in 987–988. Rather than extending the mosque further south, which would have been impossible due to the proximity of the riverbank, Al-Mansur had the mosque extended laterally towards the east, extending both the courtyard and the prayer hall by 47.76 meters and adding eight naves to the mosque. Once again, the same design of double-tiered arches was replicated in the new construction. The capitals produced for the hundreds of new columns, however, have a simpler and less detailed design that may reflect the hurry in which they were produced. The new extension covered 8600 square meters and made the mosque the largest in the Muslim world outside of Abbasid Iraq. The new eastern wall of the mosque featured ten richly-decorated exterior portals similar to the ones on the mosque's western side, although these were heavily restored in the 20th century. Al-Mansur also famously looted the bells of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and reportedly ordered them to be melted down and turned into chandeliers for the mosque, although none of these chandeliers have survived.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: After the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in Cordoba at the beginning of the 11th century, no further expansions to the mosque were carried out. Indeed, the collapse of authority had immediate negative consequences for the mosque, which was looted and damaged during the "fitna" (civil conflict) that followed the caliphate's fall (roughly between 1009 and 1030). Cordoba itself also suffered a decline but remained an important cultural center. Under Almoravid rule, the artisan workshops of Cordoba were commissioned to design new richly-crafted minbars for the most important mosques of Morocco – most famously the Minbar of Ali Ibn Yusuf commissioned in 1137 – which were likely inspired by the model of Al-Hakam II's minbar in the Great Mosque.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: In 1146 the Christian army of King Alfonso Vll of Léon and Castile briefly occupied Cordoba. The archbishop of Toledo, Don Raimundo, accompanied by the king, led a mass inside the mosque to "consecrate" the building. According to Muslim sources, before leaving the city the Christians plundered the mosque, carrying off its chandeliers, the gold and silver finial of the minaret, and parts of the rich minbar. As a result of both this pillage and the earlier pillage during the "fitna", the mosque had lost almost all of its valuable furnishings.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: In 1162, after a general period of decline and recurring sieges, the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min ordered that Cordoba be prepared to become his capital in Al-Andalus. As part of this preparation, his two sons and governors, Abu Ya'qub Yusuf and Abu Sa'id, ordered that the city and its monuments be restored. The architect Ahmad ibn Baso (who was later known for his work on the Great Mosque of Seville) was responsible for carrying out this restoration program. It is not known exactly which buildings he restored, but it is almost certain that he restored the Great Mosque. It is likely that the mosque's "minbar" was also restored at this time, since it is known to have survived long afterwards up to the 16th century.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: In 1236 Córdoba was conquered by King Ferdinand III of Castile as part of the "Reconquista". Upon the city's conquest the mosque was converted into a Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary ("Santa Maria"). The first mass was dedicated here on June 29 of that year. According to Jiménez de Rada, Ferdinand III also carried out the symbolic act of returning the former cathedral bells of Santiago de Compostela that were looted by Al-Mansur (and which had been turned into mosque lamps) back to Santiago de Compostela.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Despite the conversion, the early Christian history of the building saw only minor alterations being done to its structure, mostly limited to the creation of small chapels and the addition of new Christian tombs and furnishings. Even the mosque's minbar was apparently preserved in its original storage chamber, though it is unknown if it was used in any way during this time. (The minbar has since disappeared, but it still existed in the 16th century, when it was apparently seen by Ambrosio de Morales.) The cathedral's first altar was installed in 1236 under the large ribbed dome at the edge of Al-Hakam II's 10th-century extension of the mosque, becoming part of what is today called the Villaviciosa Chapel ("Capilla de Villaviciosa") and the cathedral's first main chapel (the "Antigua" "Capilla Mayor"). There is no indication that even this space was significantly modified in its structure at this time. The area of the mosque's mihrab and "maqsura," along the south wall, was converted into the Chapel of San Pedro and was reportedly where the host was stored. What is today the 17th-century Chapel of the Conception ("Capilla de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción"), located on the west wall near the courtyard, was initially the baptistery in the 13th century. These three areas appear to have been the most important focal points of Christian activity in the early cathedral. The minaret of the mosque was also converted directly into a bell tower for the cathedral, with only cosmetic alterations such as the placement of a cross at its summit.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Notably, during the early period of the cathedral-mosque, the workers charged with maintaining the building (which had suffered from disrepair in previous years) were local Muslims (Mudéjars). Some of them were kept on payroll by the church but many of them worked as part of their fulfilment of a "labor tax" on Muslim craftsmen (later extended to Muslims of all professions) which required them to work two days a year on the cathedral building. This tax was imposed by the crown and was unique to the city of Cordoba. It was probably instituted not only to make use of Mudéjar expertise but also to make up for the cathedral chapter's relative poverty, especially vis-à-vis the monumental task of repairing and maintaining such a large building. At the time, Mudéjar craftsmen and carpenters were especially valued across the region and even held monopolies in some Castilian cities such as Burgos.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Other chapels were progressively created around the interior periphery of the building over the following centuries, many of them funerary chapels built through private patronage. The first precisely-dated chapel known to be built along the west wall is the Chapel of San Felipe and Santiago, in 1258. The Chapel of San Clemente was created in the southeast part of the mosque before 1262. A couple of early Christian features, such as an altar dedicated to San Blas (installed in 1252) and an altar of San Miguel (1255), disappeared in later centuries.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The first major addition to the building under Christian patrons is the Royal Chapel ("Capilla Real"), located directly behind the west wall of the Villaviciosa Chapel. It was begun at an uncertain date. While it is sometimes believed to have been started by Alfonso X, Heather Ecker has argued that documentary evidence proves it wasn't begun before the 14th century when Contanza of Portugal, wife of Ferdinand IV, made an endowment for the chapel. It was finished in 1371 by Enrique II, who moved the remains of his father Alfonso XI and grandfather Ferdinand IV here. (Their remains were later moved in 1736 to the Church of San Hipólito.) The chapel was constructed in a lavish Mudéjar style with a ribbed dome very similar to the neighbouring dome of the Villaviciosa Chapel and with surfaces covered in carved stucco decoration typical of Nasrid architecture at the time. This prominent use of the Moorish-Mudéjar style for a royal funerary chapel (along with other examples like the Mudéjar Alcázar of Seville) is interpreted by modern scholars as a desire by the Christian kings to appropriate the prestige of Moorish architecture in the Iberian Peninsula, just as the Mosque of Cordoba was itself a powerful symbol of the former Umayyad Caliphate's political and cultural power which the Castilians were eager to appropriate.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: In the late 15th century a more significant modification was carried out to the Villaviciosa Chapel, where a new nave in Gothic style was created by clearing some of the mosque arches on the east side of the chapel and adding Gothic arches and vaulting. The nave is dated to 1489 and its construction was overseen by Bishop Íñigo Manrique. The nave originally had a series of Byzantine-Italian style frescoes by Alonso Martinez depicting saints and kings, but only one of these frescoes has been preserved to the present day and is being kept at the Museum of Fine Arts in Cordoba.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The most significant alteration of all, however, was the building of a Renaissance cathedral nave and transept – forming a new "Capilla Mayor" – in the middle of the expansive mosque structure, starting in 1523. The project, initiated by Bishop Alonso de Manrique, was vigorously opposed by the city council of Cordoba. The cathedral chapter eventually won its case by petitioning Charles V, king of Castile and Aragon, who gave his permission for the project to proceed. When Charles V later saw the result of the construction he is reputed to have been displeased, however, and is claimed to have commented: "You have built what you or anyone else might have built anywhere; to do so you have destroyed something that was unique in the world."


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The architect Hernan Ruiz I was put in charge of the design of the new nave and transept. Before his death in 1547 he built the choir walls up to the windows and the gothic vaults on the south side. He also worked on the mosque building's eastern section (the extension added by Al-Mansur) by adding gothic vaulting to the mosque naves in this area. His son, Hernan Ruiz II "the Younger", took over the project after his death. He was responsible for building the transept walls to their full height as well as the buttresses upholding the structure. After him, the project was entrusted to architect Juan de Ochoa, who completed the project in a Mannerist style. The final element was the construction of the elliptical central dome of the transept, built between 1599 and 1607.In 1589 a strong storm (or earthquake) caused damage to the former minaret, which was being used as a bell tower, and it was decided to remodel and reinforce the tower. A design by Hernán Ruiz III (son of Hernán Ruiz II) was chosen, encasing the original minaret structure into a new Renaissance-style bell tower. Some of the upper sections of the minaret were demolished in the process. Construction began in 1593 but eventually stalled due to resources being spent instead on the construction of the new cathedral nave and transept happening at the same time. Hernán Ruiz III died in 1606 and was unable to see its completion. The construction resumed under architect Juan Sequero de Matilla in 1616 and the tower was finished in 1617. The new tower had imperfections, however, and required repairs only a few decades later in the mid-17th century. The cathedral hired architect Gaspar de la Peña to fix the problems. He reinforced the tower and modified the initial design of the "Puerta del Perdón" ("Door of Forgiveness") which passed through the tower's base. In 1664 Gaspar added a new cupola to the top of the belfry onto which he raised a statue of Saint Raphael made by the sculptors Pedro de la Paz and Bernabé Gómez del Río. In 1727 the tower was damaged by another storm and in 1755 pieces of it (mainly decorative details) were damaged by the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. A French architect, Baltasar Dreveton, was charged with restoring and repairing the structure over a period of 8 years.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: In the new "Capilla Mayor", after its completion by Juan de Ochoa, Bishop Diego de Mardones initiated the construction of its main altarpiece and provided a significant donation himself for the project. The altarpiece was designed in a Mannerist style by Alonso Matías and construction began in 1618. Other artists who were involved in its execution included Sebastián Vidal, Pedro Freile de Guevara, and Antonio Palomino. In March 1748 construction on the choir stalls began, with the commission awarded to Pedro Duque Cornejo. It was initially funded with the help of a large bequest by Archdeacon José Díaz de Recalde in 1742. Work on the choir stalls finished in 1757, though Duque Cornejo – who had worked on it continuously for nearly a decade – died just two weeks before the finished choir was officially opened.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: In 1816 the original mihrab of the mosque was uncovered from behind the former altar of the old Chapel of San Pedro. Patricio Furriel was responsible for restoring the mihrab's Islamic mosaics, including the portions which had been lost. Further restoration works concentrating on the former mosque structure were carried out between 1879 and 1923 under the direction of Velázquez Bosco, who among other things dismantled the baroque elements that had been added to the Villaviciosa Chapel and uncovered the earlier structures there. During this period, in 1882, the cathedral and mosque structure was declared a National Monument. Further research work and archaeological excavations were carried out on the mosque structure and in the Courtyard of the Oranges by Félix Hernández between 1931 and 1936. More recent scholars have noted that modern restorations since the 19th century have partly focused on "re-islamicizing" (in architectural terms) parts of the Mosque-Cathedral. This took place in the context of wider conservation efforts in Spain, starting in the 19th century, towards studying and restoring Islamic-era structures.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The Mosque-Cathedral was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, and in 1994 this status was extended to the entire historic centre of Cordoba. A restoration project began on the bell tower in 1991 and finished in 2014, while the transept and choir of the Renaissance cathedral were also restored between 2006 and 2009. Further restorations of features like chapels and some of the outer gates have continued to take place up to the late 2010s.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The Great Mosque of Córdoba held a place of importance amongst the Islamic community of al-Andalus for centuries. In Córdoba, the Umayyad capital, the Mosque was seen as the heart and central focus of the city. Muhammad Iqbal described its interior as having "countless pillars like rows of palm trees in the oases of Syria". To the people of al-Andalus "the beauty of the mosque was so dazzling that it defied any description."


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: After all of its historical expansions, the mosque-cathedral covers an area of . The building's original floor plan follows the overall form of some of the earliest mosques built from the very beginning of Islam. Some of its features had precedents in the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, which was an important model built before it. It had a rectangular prayer hall with aisles arranged perpendicular to the "qibla", the direction towards which Muslims pray. It has thick outer walls with a somewhat fortress-like appearance. To the north is a spacious courtyard (the former "sahn"), surrounded by an arcaded gallery, with gates on the north, west, and east sides, and fountains that replace the former mosque fountains used for ablutions. A bridge or elevated passage (the "sabat") once existed on the west side of the mosque which connected the prayer hall directly with the Caliph's palace across the street. Al-Razi, an Arab writer, speaks of the valuable wine-coloured marble, obtained from the mountains of the district, which was much used in embellishing the naves of the mosque.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The Christian-era additions (after 1236) included many small chapels throughout the building and various relatively cosmetic changes. The most substantial and visible additions are the cruciform nave and transept of the "Capilla Mayor" (the main chapel where Mass is held today) which were begun in the 16th century and inserted into the middle of the former mosque's prayer hall, as well as the remodelling of the former minaret into a Renaissance-style bell tower.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The mosque-cathedral's hypostyle hall dates from the original mosque construction and originally served as its main prayer space for Muslims. The main hall of the mosque was used for a variety of purposes. It served as a central prayer hall for personal devotion, for the five daily Muslim prayers and the special Friday prayers accompanied by a sermon. It also would have served as a hall for teaching and for Sharia law cases during the rule of Abd al-Rahman I and his successors.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The hall was large and flat, with timber ceilings held up by rows of double-tiered arches (arcades) resting on columns. These rows of arches divided the original building into 11 aisles or "naves" running from north to south, later increased to 19 by Al-Mansur's expansion, while in turn forming perpendicular aisles running east–west between the columns. The approximately 850 columns were made of jasper, onyx, marble, granite and porphyry. In the original mosque, all of the columns and capitals were reused from earlier Roman and Visigothic buildings, but subsequent expansions (starting with Abd al-Rahman II) saw the incorporation of new Moorish-made capitals that evolved from earlier Roman models. The nave that leads to the "mihrab" – which was originally the central nave of the mosque until Al-Mansur's lateral expansion of the building altered its symmetry – is slightly wider than the other naves, demonstrating a subtle hierarchy in the mosque's floor plan. The double-tiered arches were an innovation that permitted higher ceilings than would otherwise be possible with relatively low columns. They consist of a lower tier of horseshoe arches and an upper tier of semi-circular arches. The voussoirs of the arches alternate between red brick and white stone. Colour alternations like this were common in Umayyad architecture in the Levant and in pre-Islamic architecture on the Iberian Peninsula. According to Anwar G. Chejne, the arches were inspired by those in the Dome of the Rock. Horseshoe arches were known in the Iberian Peninsula in the Visigothic period (e.g. the 7th-century Church of San Juan de Baños), and to a lesser extent in Byzantine and Umayyad regions of the Middle East; however, the traditional "Moorish" arch developed into its own distinctive and slightly more sophisticated version.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The mosque's architectural system of repeating double-tiered arches, with otherwise little surface decoration, is considered one of its most innovative characteristics and has been the subject of much commentary. The hypostyle hall has been variously described as resembling a "forest of columns" and having an effect similar to a "hall of mirrors". Scholar Jerrilynn Dodds has further summarized the visual effect of the hypostyle hall with the following:


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Interest in the mosque's interior is created, then, not by the application of a skin of decoration to a separately conceived building but by the transformation of the morphemes of the architecture itself: the arches and voussoirs. Because we share the belief that architectural components must by definition behave logically, their conversion into agents of chaos fuels a basic subversion of our expectations concerning the nature of architecture. The tensions that grow from these subverted expectations create an intellectual dialogue between building and viewer that will characterize the evolving design of the Great Mosque of Cordoba for over two hundred years.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The mosque's original flat wooden ceiling was made of wooden planks and beams with carved and painted decoration. Preserved fragments of the original ceiling – some of which are now on display in the Courtyard of the Oranges – were discovered in the 19th century and have allowed modern restorers to reconstruct the ceilings of some of the western sections of the mosque according to their original style. The eastern naves of the hall (in al-Mansur's expansion), by contrast, are now covered by high Gothic vaults which were added in the 16th century by Hernan Ruiz I. On the exterior, the building has gabled roofs covered in tiles.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The prayer hall also has a richly-decorated "mihrab" (niche symbolizing the direction of prayer) surrounded by an architecturally-defined "maqsura" (an area reserved for the emir or caliph during prayer), which date from the expansion of Caliph Al-Hakam II after 965. This "maqsura" area covers three bays along the southern qibla wall in front of the mihrab, and was marked off from the rest of the mosque by an elaborate screen of intersecting horseshoe and polylobed arches; a feature which would go on to be highly influential in the subsequent development of Moorish architecture. The mihrab opens in the wall at the middle of this "maqsura", while two doors flank it on either side. The door on the right, "Bab al-Sabat" ("door of the "sabat""), gave access to a passage which originally led to the "sabat", an elevated passage over the street which connected the mosque to the caliph's palace. The door on the left, "Bab Bayt al-Mal" ("door of the treasury"), led to a treasury located behind the qibla wall (now partly occupied by the cathedral's treasury).


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The mihrab consists of a horseshoe arch leading to a small heptagonal chamber covered by a shell-shaped cupola above a ring of polylobed blind arches and carvings. This is the earliest known mihrab that consists of an actual room rather than just a niche in the wall. Under the horseshoe arch are two pairs of short marble columns with capitals – each pair featuring one red column and one dark green column – that are believed to have been reused from the mihrab of Abd al-Rahman II's earlier expansion of the mosque. The mihrab is, in turn, surrounded by a typical arrangement of radiating arch decoration and a rectangular framing or "alfiz", which is also seen in the design of the earlier western mosque gate of "Bab al-Wuzara" (the "Puerta de San Esteban" today) and was likely also present in the design of the mosque's first mihrab. Above this "alfiz" is another decorative blind arcade of polylobed arches. The lower walls on either side of the mihrab are panelled with marble carved with intricate arabesque vegetal motifs, while the spandrels above the arch are likewise filled with carved arabesques. The voussoirs of the arch, however, as well as the rectangular "alfiz" frame and the blind arcade above it, are all filled with gold and glass mosaics. Those in the voussoirs and the blind arcade form vegetal and floral motifs, while those in the "alfiz" and in smaller bands at the springs of the arch contain Arabic inscriptions in Kufic script. The two doors on either side of the mihrab section are also framed by similar, but less elaborate, mosaic decoration.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The three bays of the "maqsura" area (the space in front of the mihrab and the spaces in front of the two side doors) are each covered by ornate ribbed domes. The use of intersecting arches in this area also solved the problem of creating additional support to bear the weight and thrust of these domes. The domes themselves are built with eight intersecting stone ribs. Rather than meeting in the center of the dome, the ribs intersect one another off-center, forming an eight-pointed star with an octagonal "scalloped" cupola in the center. The middle dome, in front of the mihrab, is especially elaborate and is also covered by mosaic decoration, including an inscription around the base of the central cupola containing verses from the Qur'an ("Surah" 22: 77–78). The translation reads:


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Scholars have affirmed that the style of the mosaics in this part of the mosque is heavily influenced by Byzantine mosaics, which corroborates historical accounts of the Caliph requesting expert mosaicists from the Byzantine emperor at the time, who agreed and sent him a master craftsman. Scholars have argued that this use of Byzantine mosaics is also part of a general desire – whether conscious or not – by the Cordoban Umayyads to evoke connections to the early Umayyad Caliphate in the Middle East, in particular to the Great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, where Byzantine mosaics were a prominent element of the decoration.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The Arabic inscriptions in the "mihrab"'s mosaics are the first example of a major series of political-religious inscriptions inserted into Umayyad Andalusi architecture. They contain selected excerpts from the Qur'an as well as foundation inscriptions praising the patron (Caliph Al-Hakam II) and the people who assisted in the construction project. The largest inscription of the "alfiz" (rectangular frame) around the "mihrab", in gold Kufic characters on a dark background, begins with two excerpts from the Qur'an ("Surah" 32:6 and "Surah" 40:65), translated as:


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Immediately inside this rectangular inscription frame is another inscription in a horizontal band above the mihrab, in dark letters against a gold background, which quotes "Surah" 59:23, translated as:


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: Nuha N. N. Khoury, a scholar of Islamic architecture, has interpreted these inscriptions, in combination with the other foundation inscriptions in this part of the mosque, as an attempt to present the mosque as a "universal Islamic shrine", similar to the mosques of Mecca and Medina, and to portray Caliph al-Hakam II as the instrument through which God built this shrine. This framed the official history of the Umayyad dynasty in prophetic terms, promoting the idea of the new Umayyad caliphs in Cordoba as having a universal prerogative in the Islamic world.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: In the nave or aisle of the hypostyle hall which leads to the mihrab, at the spot which marks the beginning of Al-Hakam's 10th-century extension, is a monumental ribbed dome with ornate decoration. The ribs of this dome have a different configuration than those of the domes in front of the mihrab. Their intersection creates a square space in the center with an octagonal scalloped cupola added over this. In total, this intersection of ribs creates 17 vaulted compartments of square or triangular shape, in different sizes, each further decorated with a variety of miniature ribbed domes, star-shaped mini-domes, and scalloped shapes. The space under this dome was surrounded on three sides by elaborate screens of interlacing arches, similar to those of the "maqsura" but even more intricate. This architectural ensemble apparently marked the transition from the old mosque to Al-Hakam II's expansion, which some scholars see as having a status similar to a "mosque-within-a-mosque". The dome is now part of the Villaviciosa Chapel, while two of the three intersecting arch screens are still present (the western one has disappeared and been replaced by the 15th-century Gothic nave added to the chapel). Like the ornate decorative arches, this dome and the other ribbed domes of the "maqsura" were highly influential in subsequent Moorish architecture of the period, appearing also in simpler but imaginative forms in the small Bab al-Mardum Mosque in Toledo and giving rise to other ornamental derivations like the much later stucco domes of the Great Mosque of Tlemcen and the Great Mosque of Taza.


title: Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba

text: The courtyard is known today as the "Patio de los Naranjos" or "Courtyard of the Orange Trees". Until the 11th century, the mosque courtyard (also known as a "sahn") was unpaved earth with citrus and palm trees irrigated at first by rainwater cisterns and later by aqueduct. Excavation indicates the trees were planted in a pattern, with surface irrigation channels. The stone channels visible today are not original. As in most mosque courtyards, it had fountains or water basins to help Muslims perform ritual ablutions before prayer. The arches that marked the transition from the courtyard to the interior of the prayer hall were originally open and allowed natural light to penetrate the interior, but most of these arches were walled up during the Christian period (after 1236) as chapels were built along the northern edge of the hall. The courtyard of the original mosque of Abd ar-Rahman I had no surrounding gallery or portico, but it is believed that one was added by Abd ar-Rahman III between 951 and 958. The current gallery, however, was rebuilt with a similar design by architect Hernán Ruiz I under Bishop Martín Fernández de Angulo between 1510 and 1516. The current layout of the gardens and trees is the result of work carried out under Bishop Francisco Reinoso between 1597 and 1601. Today the courtyard is planted with rows of orange trees, cypresses, and palm trees.