27 - The Glory of Cordoba

This episode looks at how the Umayyads forged Muslim Spain into a great emirate, separate from the Caliphate in Baghdad, and which would be the cultural rival to the great Abbasid Empire.  Their capital, Cordoba, was the largest city in Europe, surpassing Constantinople, and a center for transmission of knowledge into Europe.  It was a time when the greatest world powers were rival Muslim states.