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Last updated Aug 05 2021.
The 10th century Caliphate of Córdoba was the largest, culturally the most sophisticated polity in all Europe. Contemporary chroniclers, all of them Arabic, like the geographer Ibn Hawkal in 948, marvelled, "The amount of coins in circulation! The variety of crops grown! The people! "The textiles! The gardens! The mosques!" — There were more than 600 mosques and 900 public baths, 50 hospitals and several large markets. "You could walk through her streets for ten miles in one direction at night, and always have the light of lamps to guide your way. Seven hundred years later this would still be an innovation in London or Paris, as would pave streets." It is believed that Córdoba was the largest city in the world from 935 to 1013.http://www.spaniasidene.com/eng/spain_area_%20information_spanish_cordoba_andalucia_city_costablanca_costadelsol_spain.htm