Companion Exhibit

Islamic Moorish Spain

The origin of Europe’s Renaissance can be traced back to Islamic Moorish Spain. Yet, most of us are unaware that there existed a place of humanistic beauty and splendor in Muslim Spain (Islamic Moorish Spain) long before the European Renaissance. In 711, a Muslim Berber army crossed the Straits of Gibraltar from Morocco, North Africa and in a decisive battle defeated the army of Spain and went on to take the captitol city of Toledo. The Moors, as the Spaniards called the Muslims, populated Spain for the better part of a thousand years.

This set of wooden steps, called a "minbar," is from northern Morocco and was probably used in a mosque in a small village. One of the most valuable artifacts in the Islamic Moorish Spain exhibit, it is approximately 200 years old. The minbar is the platform from which the imam, or Islamic prayer leader, delivers sermons.

Through film, art, architectural design, portraiture, maps, agricultural displays, and music, Islamic Moorish Spain: Its Legacy to Europe and the West will share Islamic Morrish Spain’s cultural contributions to Europe and the Western world. This exhibit will explore Muslim rule in Spain, its glorious civilization and contributions to the fields of philosophy, science, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, agriculture, commerce, architecture and the arts. It will also reveal how the Muslim’s culture of tolerance, intellectual advancement and philosophy of reason and argument sparked Europe’s enlightenment, bringing it out of the Dark Ages and ushering in the Renaissance.

The exhibit recreates a period marketplace and a diminutive mosque with a 200-year-old minbar (pulpit), mihrab (prayer niche), and a lofty 200-year-old door painted with calligraphic motifs, among other exciting exhibit scenes.

For information on visiting the exhibit, see visitor information.

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