La corte del califa

A hitherto unknown account of the court of Caliph al-Hakam II during the heyday of the Umayyad Caliphate. During the second half of the 10th century, the Caliphate of Córdoba became the greatest political and cultural power in the West. Visiting place for embassies and merchants from all over the Mediterranean, al-Andalus experienced great splendor reflected in the flourishing of arts and letters. The zenith of this supremacy occurred during the time of Caliph al-Hakam II (961-976), famous for possessing one of the largest libraries of the time, for his works to expand the mosque of Córdoba, and for the sumptuousness of the palatine city in which he lived, Madinat al-Zahra', located a few kilometers from the capital.This book is based on an extraordinary text that had never been the subject of a complete study: the annals that an official and chronicler of the caliph's court wrote almost daily between June 971 and July 975, which allows us to offer a great fresco of the Umayyad Caliphate from the hand of an eyewitness.Eduardo Manzano Moreno, one of the greatest specialists in al-Andalus, guides us through this fascinating era to understand what the Caliphate of Córdoba meant and what were the reasons why it ended up disappearing after having achieved such heights of splendor.