Church vs. Mosque

As a medieval historian I am sensitive, perhaps overly so, about the accusation that my subject doesn't matter - a point raised usually in the context that unless you're saving a life (read: training as a doctor) what you're doing doesn't really count.

This was, to some extent, disproved during my trip to the cathedral church of Cordoba, a vast renaissance edifice built in the centre of one of the most spectacular medieval mosques in Europe. This is widely recognised by historians and visitors as an appalling act of architectural vandalism and a miserable piece of symbolism, emphasising cultrual chauvanism and religious intolerance. Even Carlos V, the king who authorised the construction of the church and who was responsible for a huge amount of muscular church building in what was formerly Al Andalus, damned the creation after he saw its completion. Indeed for three centuries after Cordoba was taken by the Christians the mosque was maintained more or less intact.

The modern cathedal chapter, to judge from its visitor guide, which is given for free to every visitor to the church, does not share this opinion. Indeed the mosque, one of the most extraordinary pieces of architecture in the world and a rare survivor from the ninth century, merits only a cursory summary in the guide - two sides - while the cathedral, an impressive building for its domination and power but otherwise rather familiar from every other church in Andalucia, receives a wealth of attention - and three sides.

The leaflet goes further, however, in emphasising the destruction of the Muslims and the restoration of the Christians. Some of the quotes are quite extraordinary in their revision of history.

It is an historical fact that [the Visigothic church] was destroyed during the Islamic period in order to build the subsequent Mosque... the dominating Muslims proceeded to the demolition of the martyr's church

In fact after the Islamic conquest, the church was divided between Muslims and Christians. The Moors were reknown for a high degree of religious tolerance: Abd ar-Rahman I, the builder of the first mosque, allowed the Christians to rebuild their ruined churches. Evenually he purchased the Christian half of the church and rebuilt it as a mosque, which seems almost civilised compared to the wholesale destruction and rebuilding of mosques as churches across Andalucia after the reconquista.

[The consecration of the mosque as a church] was a matter of recuperating a sacred space that had suffered the imposition of a faith that was foreign and distant from the Christian experience... the reforms of the church were motivated by the need to restore the cult that had been interrupted by Islamic domination

This could hardly have been the case after almost five centuries of Muslim rule. It would be as reasonable to argue that Christianity was a foriegn experience for the pagans who had worshipped in Spain for millenia before Christ.

Indeed the building of the church could hardly be

a response to the desire of contemplating Christian symbols, or the inconvenience of celebrating the Liturgy amid a sea of columns

It is transparently an act of religious domination, a word often used in the guide to describe the Muslims but never the Christians, who merely 'restore' the true religion of Spain.

There is hardly any mention of the controversy of the new building, which is described as

an ingenious integration of the caliph structures within the gothic, renaissance, and baroque creations.

This guide probably reveals more of the insecurity and defensiveness of a church on the decline than the muscular military Christianity of the Reconquista but it is a sad example of the tensions that still exist between religions and the contortion of history to fit political aims. It also demonstrates an inability to understand the lessons of history for the confidence to engage with those of other beliefs.

Hell is a High Rise Office Block

As my train drew into London last night it was dawdling on the empty track outside Paddington. Outside my window office blocks towered to every side, every floor lit and empty. The scene was almost gruesome - layer after layer of identical strip lit, double glazed, climate controlled expanses; row after row of small desks and big chairs stretched out one after the other. How extraordinary that this ethos has come to govern office architecture for so long. Although it was inevitable that at some point the drive to increase profit would lead to the principle of 'pile 'em high; sell 'em cheap' being applied to work spaces, that it would endure for so long is almost incomprehensible. It is not only amazing that talented workers would continue to apply for jobs in these kind of battery-farm conditions but that companies would disregard the obvious benefits of providing their employees with more stimulating surroundings. Illness, inefficiency and poor attention spans are only some of the miserable effects of these conditions, and yet they are subject to remarkable little public criticism let alone political attention. Even the bankers and lawyers of Canary Wharf appear to be more willing to put up with this architectural monotony than to insist on improvements at a fraction of a cost of their annual bonus.

I spent some time working for a large company in a large, bland, open plan office, I can remember how miserable it was having no variation in temperature, light quality or view and how difficult it was to focus in an open plan space. Perhaps it is the destruction of the unions that has led to this inability to claim a working environment that will actual help employees work? Perhaps our sensibility is too accustomed to experiencing illness, headaches and misery at work to expect anything different? Or possibly we just don't think architects can do better? The architects offer only a spineless kowtowing to the profiteering requirements of developers. No matter how spectacular the exterior might appear, no matter how grand the architect's name, neither developer nor designer appears to have given any thought to the experience (or efficiency) of the office block's users. The 'Gherkin' in London is a case in point - unusual looking, very recently built, and design by the much lauded and once-great designer of tedious, identikit office blocks Norman Foster, but hell to work in.