"In 750, only one Umayyad notable, Abd-al-Rahman I, escaped the Abbasid massacre of his clan in Syria.  He fled to Spain, where, ... the Arabs had overthrown the Christian kingdom of the Visigoths in 711.  The Arab military governors of the peninsula accepted the fugitive as their overlord, and he founded the Spanish Umayyad dynasty, which lasted for almost three centuries.  The capital of the Spanish Umayyads was Cordoba, which became the center of a brilliant culture rivaling that of the Abbasids at Baghdad and exerting a major influence on the civilization of the Christian West."

- Gardner's Art Through The Ages, 11th edition, Vol. I, p. 367

Hall of the Ambassadors in the Alcazar, Seville

  And from outside looking in:

Cupola in the Hall of the Ambassadors, The Alcazar, Seville, Spain

La Giralda, Seville, Spain

"The jewel of the capital at Cordoba was its Great Mosque, begun in 784 and enlarged several times during the ninth and tenth centuries.  It eventually became the largest mosque in the Islamic West.  The additions followed the original style and arrangement of columns and arches, and the builders maintained a striking stylistic unity for the entire building.  The hypostyle prayer hall has thirty-six piers and five-hundred fourteen columns topped by a unique system of double-tiered arches.  The lower arches are horseshoe shaped, a form perhaps adapted from earlier Near Eastern architecture or of Visigothic origin.  The horseshoe arch quickly became closely associated with Muslim architecture.  Visually, these arches seem to billow out like sails blown by the wind, and they contribute greatly to the light and airy effect of the mosque's interior."

- Gardner's Art Through The Ages, 11th edition, Vol. I, pp. 367 - 369

An Interior View in the Grand Mosque, Cordoba, Spain

Fortifications (Moorish Walls), Sintra, Portugal

    and another view: 

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Islamic Architecture in the Balkans

Former City View of Sarajevo **

Former Fountain of Sarajevo's Principal Mosque (Gavi Husrev Begova)

Interior of Gavi-Husrev Begova

Former Library/Townhall in Sarajevo (19th c. Neo-Moorish)

(Photo credit: R. Borneman, 1989)