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Madinat Balagî
The prophet Muhammad proposed to transform a society divided into tribes into
a community of believers and endow it with a universal projection. This intention
had its physical and spiritual centre in Medina, a city that at the same time became
the model of life for the generations to come. It has been said that the city is
the ideal of Islamic perfection, as it is only here that the obligations imposed
by this religion can be completely fulfilled.
In al-Àndalus, Islamised cities could be distinguished from newly built cities.
Islamic Balagî (Balaguer) was a newly created city, on the contrary to the
other two important cities of the furthermost zone ñLleida (Larida) and Tortosa (Turtusha)ñ,
and it preserves many of the remains of its Andalusian past that are gradually being
recuperated thanks to the study of the written documentation and archaeology.
The madîna
The oldest documented settlement of the Islamic epoch in Balaguer is the Pla
(Plain) d'Almatà (Almatà, an Arabic toponym which means "a strong,
protected, flat place...") and has a noticeable military character. The strategic
situation, which implied the control of the river Segre as a communication route
between the plain of Lleida and the Septimania, and the possibility of raising a
military encampment in a large, topographically well defended space are the factors
in which the origin of the Pla d'Almatà have to be seen and which must be
related to the incursions of the Muslims towards the Septimania during the initial
years of the conquest.
After the 10th century, the city became the centre of a territory on which the castles
and the rural settlements depended directly. From this moment onwards, Balaguer would
be mentioned in written documentation as a city. A new city was drawn up, perfectly
planned, madîna Balagî, and it was on the Pla d'Almatà where the
original nucleus was created. There are three basic and essential elements that have
to be present in a city for it to be qualified as a madîna:
- the aljama or great
mosque.
- the area of the souk
or market, and
- the citadel or residence
of the local authority
The mosque is the
fundamental building of worship in Muslim culture: it is the place where doctrine
is taught, justice is apportioned and great public meetings are held. The aljama
mosque is the main one in a city, as it is here that Friday prayers are made. According
to Latin documentation, the great mosque of Balaguer was situated in the place where
later the Romanesque church of Santa Maria d'Almatà would be built, converted
in the 17th century into the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost.
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