Topography and buildings of an early Islamic Andalusi city: evidence for Madīnat Ilbīra from excavations and ground penetrating radar*

Abstract

ABSTRACT Madīnat Ilbīra was the capital of one of the territorial organization units of the Umayyad state. The city was founded in the second half of the ninth century, and then abandoned in the eleventh century as a result of the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba and the transfer of the centre of the region to Granada. Its remains were located only in the nineteenth century. Modern excavations and non-invasive geophysical prospections carried out in this century allow the reconstruction of the spatial system of the city in the era of its greatest prosperity, the location of the citadel and the main mosque, and the reconstruction of the city’s buildings.