Bust of Abd al-Rahman III, Cadrete

A bronze bust of Abd al-Rahman III, the first Caliph of Córdoba, was unveiled in June 2016 in the small Spanish town of Cadrete near Zaragoza in Aragon. Three years later, it was removed by the right-wing new local government. The removal prompted debate on how Spain should interpret the legacy of Al-Andalus, the Muslim realms of the Middle Ages.

Background

Abd al-Rahman III, the eighth and final Emir and first Caliph of Córdoba, ordered the construction of Cadrete's castle in 935 AD while in the area to crush a rebellion by the Banu Tujib vassal dynasty.[1] A bust commissioned in his honor was unveiled on 18 June 2016 in the town's Plaza de Aragón, and celebrated with a medieval fair.[1]

The bust was sculpted by Fernando Ortiz Villarroya of Teruel.[1] Ortiz is linked to Cadrete as his partner is from there.[2] He took no payment for his work, though casting it in bronze cost €7,000 of public money.[2] He characterises the work of art as "a simple portrait. It has a stern facial expression because he was a leader, but also tender because it is stylised".[2]

Controversy and reactions

Removal

Ortiz said that in 2017 a member of the far-right Vox political party struck the bust with a 4x4, and another group vandalised it with paint. He chose not to press charges.[2]

In June 2019, local elections resulted in the right-wing People's Party needing an alliance with Citizens and Vox to form government. Three days after the new government was formed, Vox's proposal to remove the bust was enacted. The explanation was that it allegedly caused "division and confrontation" and that the prominence of the Plaza de Aragón required symbols identifiable to all residents.[3] All opposition parties and Citizens condemned the removal, with Podemos local leader Nacho Escartín asking if the statue of Augustus Caesar – namesake of Zaragoza – would be removed from that city.[4]

The bust was removed to the third floor of the town hall, where there is an information centre about the castle, with the promise that it would be displayed at an upcoming museum at the castle.[5] Around 50 people protested the removal.[6] The information centre closed in June 2020.[7]

Remarks on removing statues of historical figures

Columnist Víctor Orcástegui of the Heraldo de Aragón argued that the logic of removing the bust would also apply to the statue of Augustus as he was a foreign pagan invader, and drew a parallel between Vox's activism and that of Barcelona left-wing mayor Ada Colau against that city's statue of Christopher Columbus.[8] Ortiz disagrees with suggestions that the Law of Historical Memory that bans public memorials to the regime of Francisco Franco could also be used to remove statues of medieval conquerors like Abd al-Rahman III, as well as of conquistadores like Hernán Cortés.[2] In July 2020, the Cadrete episode was brought up in the Parliament of Andalusia by Pilar González of the left-wing Adelante Andalucía party amidst the context of debate over statues due to the George Floyd protests; she said it was hypocritical for the right-wing to pick and choose when to preserve or remove statues.[9]

Historian

José Luis Corral, a medievalist from the University of Zaragoza, accused Vox of rewriting history for political motives. He said that Abd al-Rahman was no more of a dictator than his Christian monarch opponents, as was the nature of life a millennium ago. He added that Al-Andalus could not be classed as a foreign occupation, as there is no historical or genetic evidence for mass migration of Arabs, rather the inhabitants converted.[10]

Abd al-Rahman's physical appearance and genealogy has been mentioned by Corral to justify the caliph as a Spaniard and not a foreigner.[10] He had fair-coloured eyes, skin and hair, and according to the Muslim chronicler Ibn Hazm, he dyed his hair dark to justify his rule as a descendant of the prophet Muhammad.[11] His immediate female ancestors were born in the Christian kingdoms in the north of the Iberian peninsula;[10] five generations of Cordobese leaders, from Abd al-Rahman III's great grandfather to his own grandson, were born to Basque women who were married for alliances or taken as slaves.[11]

See also

References
  1. "Cadrete regresa al siglo X para rememorar el paso de Abderramán III" [Cadrete goes back to the 10th century to remember Abd al-Rahman III's passage] (in Spanish). Europa Press. 14 June 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  2. Artigas, Miguel Ángel (21 June 2019). "Nando Ortiz, el turolense que hizo el busto de Abderramán III: 'Lo peor es que la alcaldesa de Cadrete mienta para justificar que se vende a Vox'" [Nando Ortiz, the Teruel native who made the bust of Abd al-Rahman III: "The worst thing is that the mayor of Cadrete lies to justify selling it to Vox"]. Diario de Teruel (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  3. "Un concejal de Vox retira el busto de Abderramán III en Cadrete (Zaragoza)" [A councillor from Vox takes down the bust of Abd al-Rahman III in Cadrete (Zaragoza)]. Público (in Spanish). 18 June 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  4. Lisbona, Jorge (20 June 2019). "Todos los partidos, salvo el PP, critican a Vox por la "absurda" retirada del busto en Cadrete" [All parties, except PP, criticise Vox for the "absurd" removal of the bust in Cadrete]. Heraldo de Aragón (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  5. "Un concejal de Vox, sobre Abderraman III: "No gusta cómo trataba a mujeres y niños, pero mandó construir el castillo"" [A councillor from Vox, on Abd al-Rahman III: "How he treated women and children wasn't good, but he ordered the castle to be built"]. 20 minutos (in Spanish). 19 June 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  6. "Protesta en Cadrete contra la retirada del busto de Abderramán III" [Protest in Cadrete against the removal of the bust of Abd al-Rahman III]. El Periódico de Aragón (in Spanish). 23 June 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  7. Civieta, Óscar F. (15 June 2020). "Abderraman III, encarcelado por Vox en Cadrete" [Abd al-Rahman III, imprisoned by Vox in Cadrete] (in Spanish). Ara Info. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  8. Orcástegui, Víctor (20 June 2019). "Iconoclastia" [Iconoclasm]. Heraldo de Aragón (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  9. Jiménez, Borja (3 July 2020). "Podemos e IU en Andalucía azuzan el derribo de estatuas: «Se ponen en la vía pública para visualizar el poder»" [Podemos and IU in Andalusia give the OK to taking down statues: "They're put in the public space to visualise power"]. Okdiario (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  10. Civieta, Óscar F. (18 June 2019). ""En Vox no tienen la menor idea: Abderraman III era más español que los reyes visigodos, hijo, nieto y bisnieto de hispanos"" ["Vox don't have the slightest idea: Abd al-Rahman III was more Spanish than the Visigothic kings, he was the son, grandson and great grandson of Hispanics"]. El Diario (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  11. "Las vasconas que engendraron emires y califas andalusíes" [The Basque women who have birth to emirs and caliphs of Al-Andalus]. Revista de Historia (in Spanish). 11 August 2017. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
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