Last January, the Centre for the Study of Islamic Madrid (CEMI), a project of the Islamic Culture Foundation (FUNCI), had the opportunity to participate in the program “Medina” of RTVE. Directed by Bouziane Khodja Ahmed, it is a weekly television program dedicated to current issues concerning the Muslim population, as well as to the recovery of the Islamic legacy in Spain. María Rodríguez, deputy director of the program, together with Patricia Ogando (Activities Coordinator of the Centre for the Study of Islamic Madrid), presented a total of two episodes in which both the work of CEMI and the material and immaterial Islamic heritage present in the heart of the city of Madrid were presented.
Despite preserving a small number of material remains visible today, due in part to the damnatio memoriae policies carried out during the reign of Philip II, there are many traces that the Muslims left in the city. Both in the Andalusian period, as well as in later times, a survival of the Islamic culture is documented. In fact, from the 16th century onwards, there are multiple testimonies of cryptomuslims who continued to transmit their traditions, language and customs in a clandestine manner.
In these episodes many of the emblematic places of Madrid are visited, scenes of the history and life of the Muslims who inhabited the city since its foundation in the 9th century by the emir Muhammad I, until the expulsion of the Moors in 1609. This walk aims to uncover many of the issues, spaces and events that have shaped the capital’s Islamic heritage, but also to highlight the invisibility suffered by the Muslim community today.
Access the content of the program in the following links:
Discovering Islamic Madrid (part I)
Discovering Islamic Madrid (Part II)
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