States of Knowledge – Special

According to the Spanish Ministry of Culture, there are (186) museums in Andalusia, whose map today is distributed among several Spanish provinces, embracing Andalusian memory in its deep Arab and Islamic capacity, where Muslims remained in Spain (the Iberian Peninsula) for nearly eight centuries—specifically during the historical period between 711 AD (92 AH), which was the time of the Islamic conquest led by Tariq ibn Ziyad, until the year 1492 AD (897 AH), the date of the fall of the Kingdom of Granada, the last of the Arab-Andalusian kingdoms, and their final departure from it following the defeat of its ruler: Abu Abdallah (Boabdil) the Younger, who wept bitterly over its collapse. Historical and literary accounts indicate that when he stood contemplating Granada and the Alhambra Palace for the last time after handing over the keys of the Alhambra to the Catholic Monarchs on January 2, 1492, and while departing Granada at an area known as "The Moor's Last Sigh", tears flowed from his eyes, whereupon his mother "Aicha al-Horra" uttered her famous poetic line: "Weep like a woman for a kingdom lost .. that you could not defend like a man", thus ending the era of Islamic presence in the Iberian Peninsula.

Museum Memory:

The Kingdom of Spain embraces a diverse Arab-Islamic Andalusian heritage, embodied in these Islamic palaces, ancient monuments, and deep-rooted tangible heritage. It also houses a massive collection of iconic Andalusian heritage pieces distributed across several museums, most prominently: The Museum of the Alhambra (Granada): located in the Palace of Charles V, featuring the finest collections of Andalusian art, including ceramic pieces, plaster inscriptions, carved wood, and palace artifacts; the National Archaeological Museum (Madrid), displaying rare acquisitions spanning different eras, including architectural capitals, pottery vessels, ivory artifacts, and Andalusian metalwork; and the Museum of Fine Arts (Seville), which houses a primary collection of visual arts, Andalusian ornamentation, and creations of the Golden Age.

Andalusian Provinces:

The Andalusian museums are distributed across the provinces of: Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga, and Seville, which are all encompassed by the regional government of Andalusia that holds autonomous status. The province of Almería contains eight museums, including: the Museum of Almería, the Andalusian Center of Photography, the Antonio Manuel Campoy Museum, and the Municipal Historical Museum of Terque. Cádiz contains 22 museums, including: the Municipal Museum of San Roque, the Andalusian Costume Museum, the Equestrian Arts Museum, the Municipal Museum of Algeciras, and the Espera Archaeological Museum.

Málaga contains a large number of museums reaching (38) museums, varying in their exhibits between old and new, and between heritage and contemporary, most notably: the Museum of Málaga, the Picasso Museum Málaga, the Jorge Rando Museum, the Cathedral Museum, and the Museum of Popular Arts and Customs, with some interweaving displays of heritage acquisitions that trace back to the Andalusian period approaching 800 years.

21st Century Andalusia

The region of Andalusia holds first place in terms of population among the seventeen autonomous regions of Spain. Its estimated population as of January 1, 2026 reached around 8,733,535 inhabitants. The population is concentrated mainly in the regional capitals and along the coastlines. The level of urbanization is relatively high, as half of the population is concentrated in 28 cities with populations exceeding 50,000 each.

Among the most prominent museums of the Andalusian region: the Museum of Málaga, which was established in 1973 by merging the Provincial Museum of Fine Arts (founded in 1913) and the Provincial Archaeological Museum (founded in 1947). Until 2010, the museum remained institutionally divided into two sections, each representing the old museum. The fine arts collection includes slightly over 2,000 pieces, while the archaeology collection includes more than 15,000 pieces. The museum was opened to the public in December 2016, becoming the largest museum in Andalusia and the fifth largest in Spain.

The museum houses works by Luis de Morales, Luca Giordano, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Antonio del Castillo, Alonso Cano, Pedro de Mena, Jusepe de Ribera, Francisco de Zurbarán, Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, Federico de Madrazo, Ramón Casas, José Moreno Carbonero, Enrique Simonet, Joaquín Sorolla, Léon Bonnat, Franz Marc, and Pablo Picasso. These visual artwork pieces were painted according to several artistic movements—realist, naturalist, abstract, cubist, surrealist, and modern—some of which draw inspiration from the Andalusian era, especially in architectural style, designs of Islamic Andalusian palaces, and the famous Flamenco dances which a large number of critics and scholars consider to have Andalusian origins.

Arab researchers perhaps need to re-examine the collections of these diverse museums to deepen the historical and cultural dimensions of the Andalusian era and uncover what has not been studied before.

Footnotes:

The Arab presence in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) remained for nearly 781 years, and this era passed through a set of essential stages, represented by: The Era of Governors (711 - 756 AD), where Andalusia was affiliated with the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus and ruled by successive governors; The Era of the Umayyad Emirate and Caliphate (756 - 1031 AD), which began with Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil establishing an independent Umayyad state in Andalusia, during which Andalusia reached its peak of cultural and scientific prosperity; The Era of the Taifa Kingdoms (1031 - 1090 AD), in which Andalusia split into warring petty states, weakening its strength before the Christian kingdoms; The Eras of the Almoravids and Almohads (1090 - 1269 AD), during which Andalusia was reunited under the banner of two states from the Far Maghreb, halting the Spanish advance; and the Kingdom of Granada (1232 - 1492 AD), which was the final stronghold for Arabs and Muslims in Andalusia until its fall under the reign of the Nasrid Dynasty (Banu al-Ahmar)