Early History
Although the site of modern-day Madrid (Spain) has been occupied since prehistoric times, and there are archeological remains of a small Visigoth village near the modern location, the first historical data from the city comes from the 9th century, when Muhammad I of Córdoba ordered the construction of a small palace in the same place that is today occupied by the Palacio Real. Around this palace a small citadel, al-Mudayna, was built. Near that palace was the Manzanares river, which the Muslims called al-Majrīṭ (Arabic: المجريط "source of water").
From this came the naming of the site as Majerit, which was later rendered to the modern-day spelling of Madrid. The citadel was conquered in 1085 by Alfonso VI of León and Castile in his advance towards Toledo. He reconsecrated the mosque as the church of the Virgin of Almudena (almudin, the garrison's granary). In 1329, the Cortes Generales first assembled in the city to advise Ferdinand IV of Castile. Sephardic Jews and Moors continued to live in the city until they were expelled at the end of the 15th century.
Read more about this topic: History Of Madrid
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or history:
“I would observe to you that what is called style in writing or speaking is formed very early in life while the imagination is warm, and impressions are permanent.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)