In the eighth century, a contingent of Arab troops landed on the Mediterranean coast. They soon took over the weakened Visigothic kingdom and Cordoba was captured by Mugit, a lieutenant of Tariq. This event heralded a period of coexistence between the Christian and Muslim populations.

In the year 716, the third Muslim emir dependent on Damascus, Al-Hurr ben abd-Rahman al-Tha Qafi, declared the independence of the Emirate and decided to move the capital of al-Andalus - formerly in Seville - to Cordoba, which gave a final twist to the city's role in history.

Over the following centuries, Cordoba grew into the largest and possibly the most erudite city in Europe and the world with the sole exception of Constantinople. In the tenth century, Cordoba was the largest city in the world and a flourishing centre of culture, economics and politics.

Between the years 780-785, the construction of the Aljama (Great) Mosque was started, under the reign of Emir Abderraman I. The Great Mosque of Cordoba was finished during the tenth century, and it has since been described as "the most beautiful Muslim shrine in the world". Nearly all the caliphs were involved in its construction, development and extension: Abderraman I, Hisham I, Abderraman II , Abderraman III Alhakem II and the vizier Al-Mansur.

The Independent Western Caliphate was declared in 929, under the mandate of Abderraman III. It was during this period that the city reached its peak – and as a symbol of the power of the Caliphate, following the tradition of the Caliphs of Damascus (Baghdad) and Egypt (Cairo), Abderraman III founded, on the outskirts of Cordoba, the city of Madinat al-Zahra, which took over 10,000 labourers twenty-five years to build.

The reign of Alhakem II marked the beginning of an era of cultural splendour, during which the third major expansion of the Aljama Mosque was carried out. His successor, Hixam II, entrusted his power to the vizier Al-Mansur, who was responsible for the third and final extension of the mosque.

Al-Mansur's death in 1002, after his defeat at Calatañazor (Soria), plunged Al-Andalus into a long period of division and strife. In less than thirty years, nine caliphs came to the throne, and finally in 1031, the Caliphate of Cordoba disappeared for ever. In its place, a mosaic of small states, known as the Taifa kingdoms, appeared.

At first, the Caliphate split up into twenty-seven Taifa kingdoms. The weaker ones disappeared and were annexed by their more powerful neighbours. One by one, the Taifas of Almeria, Murcia, Alpuente, Arcos, Badajoz, Carmona, Denia, Granada, Huelva, Moron, Silves, Toledo, Tortosa, Valencia and Zaragoza broke free from the central power in Cordoba.

These small kingdoms, much weaker than the Caliphate, submitted to the Christian leaders, and paid them tributes known as parias. Meanwhile, the Christian “reconquest” advanced apace and culminated with the conquest of Toledo in 1085.

As soon as their unity was broken, Al-Andalus was at the mercy of the Christians in the north, who gradually occupied the territories that had been ruled by the Muslims. After the defeat at Las Navas de Tolosa (Jaen) in 1212, the Christians proved impossible to stop and Muslim Spain was finally reduced to the small kingdom of Granada.