In Search of the Spirit of Al-Andalus
With the Moorish architecture of Granada's Alhambra and Córdoba cathedral as a backdrop, Marcel Theroux meets a group of Spanish Muslims who are drawing on the area's Islamic legacy to a promote a new religious tolerance

Cities of Light
Cities of Light tells the relationship between Muslims, Christians and Jews in Spain

Watch the full episode. See more Cities of Light.

The Erotic Legacy of the Moors
THE OLIVE PRESS: A chance encounter in the Alhambra leads Jason Webster to believe Christian Spain’s obsession with sex and sensuality stretches back to when the country was ruled by the Moors

THEY used to say Spain was the only country where power was more important than sex. But that was in the dark days of Franco, when Catholicism and fascism combined to ensure that even those who escaped the firing squads were not allowed to have any fun.



The Caudillo himself was said to be a passionless creature – at least according to a confidential remark by his wife that quickly spread across the whole of Spain – but follar (f*cking) particularly within the confines of family life, was officially at least, a strictly joyless affair.


All this, as everyone knows, has now changed. With the death of Franco, Spain went loco por el sexo, a trend which, 30 years on, I can report is still pulsing vibrantly through the veins down here.

But the current overflowing of physical vitality is not simply a reaction to the repressive years of the dictatorship. Anarchists in the Civil War spread the word of free love and open marriages, while ‘liberating’ prostitutes from sexual slavery – some of these later fought in the trenches of Aragon.

Promiscuity on the Left in the 1930s became the norm, and even the rather austere-looking widow at the head of the Spanish Communist Party, La Pasionaria, was said to keep a young party member as a lover back home while she emboldened the troops at the front with cries of ¡No pasarán!

Erotic history

Yet the deep eroticism of the Spanish is older than this, and to find its roots you have to go back much further, as I have discovered, to the times of the Moors.

Muslims ruled parts of Spain for 800 years, creating a rich, vibrant culture way ahead of their Christian rivals. When London was a mere group of huts in a marsh by the Thames, as the dusky Arab reminds the blond lieutenant in Lawrence of Arabia, Moorish Cordoba had street lighting, a thousand bath houses and more than 300 libraries.

Moorish Spain was hippest place to be in Medieval Europe, whether you were looking for knowledge, a wash, or the best looking girls, most of them following the latest fashions and trends from Baghdad – even today las co[r]dobesas are renowned as being the prettiest women in Spain.

Cosmopolitan culture and vast wealth combined in this southwestern corner of Europe to create a powerhouse of sophistication and sensuality.

Stroll through the pleasure palace that is the Alhambra in Granada today and you will see what I mean. Rivalled only in beauty by the Taj Mahal, it is a dream-scape made of stone, where fresh mountain water trickles from white marble fountains, forests of fine needle columns reach up to snowflake ceilings, where Arabesques and geometric patterns draw you into other worlds while you shade yourself by a myrtle bush from the relentless Andalusian sun.

This was once the Sultan’s harem, perhaps the most erotic place in the Medieval world. Who could not be stirred by such a place? Read on and comment >>> Jason Webster* | Friday, July 06, 2007

*Jason Webster has written three books about Spain. Duende, Al-Andalus and Guerra are published by Black Swan and are available at all good bookshops. Visit his website here.

Muslim Spain
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Cities of Light: The Rise And Fall Of Islamic Spain (2007)
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