Shilb (Silves) at the islamic period – a “West of Baghdad”

Abstract

Silves, known as the "Baghdad of the West" was during the Islamic period, especially at the time of the Taifa, an important city of Gharb Al-Andalus. However, later, this city lost its importance in the past, becoming a small town in the interior of the Algarve. In this sense. The research carried out for this article is part of the research that we have been conducting on the Arab and Islamic heritage in Portugal and which gave rise to the project we have been coordinating and developing entitled Routes of the Gharb al-Andalus.In this town, they were born and lived renowned poets, such as al-Mu'tamid, Ibn 'Ammar and Maryam al-Ansari, among others. Some of his poems offer a city representation with all its splendor and demonstrate the importance of Silves had in the context of al-Andalus. The architecture, the magnificence of the palaces, festivals, music, literature, not forgetting the mystical, where stood the figure of Ibn Qasi, were elements that contributed to a certain mystification of the city itself, the Arab Shilb, conquered in 713 by Abd al-Aziz and remained Muslim until the thirteenth century. Currently, the Islamic Shilb, left few traces of this legacy, especially the archaeological artefacts, the castle, the walls, cisterns, literary production, the imagery of the enchanted Moorish, survival of a past golden age, and the beautiful inebriated landscape by scent of orange trees, fig and almond trees, whose cultivation was brought by the Arabs to the Iberian Peninsula. This past late witness is the Arade river, whose waters and margins witnessed the living of the population, merchants, poets, mystics and musicians ... Oh ... if the river speak!...