or CORDOBA, one of the eight provinces into which the ancient kingdom of Andalusia is divided: bounded N. by the province of Ciudad Real, N.W. by Badajoz in Extremadura, S.W. by Seville, and E. by Jaen. Area 4150 square miles. Pop. 306,760. It is watered by the Guadalquivir and its tributaries; and is intersected in the N. from E. to W. by the Sierra Morena, and in the S. by the Montes de Granada. The mountainous region of the Sierras affords abundant pasturage for sheep and goats; and its forests give shelter to numerous animals of the chase. The southern part is distinguished for its fertility; but the cultivation of the cereal crops is neglected for the easier production of wine and oil. In the summer months the soil is parched by the heats; and the system of letting the land for short terms, and receiving the rent in produce, is unfavourable to the investment of capital in irrigation and other agricultural improvements. Both divisions of the province possess rich metalliciferous veins. Its manufacturing industry has declined since the expulsion of the Moors, and is confined to the production of coarse linen and woolen stuffs, soap, pottery, leather, and silversmith's goods. For the statistics of the province see ANDALUCIA.

CORDOBA (Lat. Corduba), the capital of the above province, situated on the southern declivity of the Sierra Morena, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir, 75 miles N.E. of Cordova-Seville. Its walls, the foundations of which are of Roman architecture, and the superstructure principally Moorish, inclose a very large area; but much of the space is occupied with garden-ground, which has been cleared from the ruins of ancient buildings. The streets are narrow and crooked, and with the exception of a single great square the houses are exceedingly dilapidated. The southern suburb communicates with the town by means of a bridge of 16 arches, exhibiting the usual combination of Roman and Moorish masonry. The principal public buildings are the various ecclesiastical edifices, many of which have been secularized; the Alcazar, now converted into stables for the royal stud; the lyceum, the city hall, and the colleges. By far the most important is the cathedral originally built by Abderrahman I., as a Mohammedan mosque, and probably erected on the site of a Roman temple. The exterior is castellated, with square buttress towers, and wears a very peculiar aspect. The interior is a labyrinth of columns, principally brought from the spoils of Nismes, Narbonne, Seville, Tarragona, and Carthage. They are of red porphyry, verd-antique, and other marbles, and have been adjusted to their present position either by being sunk into the soil, or, when too short, by receiving the addition of a variable Corinthian capital. These columns (12 feet high) support a double tier of open Moorish arches, the upper tier of which springs from the apex of the arches of the lower. They support the cypress frame of the original roof. Out of the 1200 columns of the original building, the writer of the present article counted in 1814 no more than 657, exclusive of some fragments of shafts sticking in the pavement around the building as posts. The area is about 395 feet from E. to W., and 356 feet from N. to S.; and it is pillared off longitudinally into 19, and transversely into 29 aisles. The roof is about 35 feet high, and was flat previously to the introduction of the modern cupolas. A small space parted off for the use of the Imans now serves for a chapter-house, sacristy, and treasury.

It is greatly diminished in size, by having a part which served the Mohammedans for their ablutions converted into a garden, planted with orange trees and cypresses, and adorned with three beautiful fountains. This garden and the portico, supported by pillars, is 510 feet in length. The originality of the style of the building is destroyed by the addition of a modern lofty tower, and by the erection within the mosque of a magnificent Crucero or high altar and choir, of good Roman style, the work of the architect Hernan Ruiz, and by the addition of numerous chapels along the sides of the vast quadrangle. Of its original splendour some conception may be formed from the fact that its gates are said to have been covered with bronze curiously embossed; and 4700 lamps to have been lighted in the mosque every night, the oil used in them being mixed with the wood of aloes, with ambergris, and other expensive perfumes.

Under the Romans, Corduba was a flourishing city of Hispania Baetica, having been founded by Marcus Marcellus during the war with the Celtiberi, B.C. 152. The original inhabitants of the city were Roman colonists, and picked men from the well-affect Spanish tribes. It was the residence of the praetor and the seat of the provincial assize. From the great number of provincial nobility who dwelt there, Corduba received the title of Patricia; and to this day the Cordovese pique themselves on the antiquity of their descent and the purity of their blood. In the wars between Caesar and the sons of Pompey, Corduba espoused the cause of the latter. After the battle of Munda, it fell into the hands of Caesar, who avenged the obstinacy of its resistance by putting 20,000 of the inhabitants to the sword. In literary history, Corduba was famous as the birth-place of Lucan and the two Senecas. Under the Goths Corduba maintained its importance; and in the person of Osius its bishop it furnished a president for the council of Nice. Under the Moors it was at first an appanage of the caliphate of Damascus, but it soon became the capital of the Moorish dominion in Spain, and maintained its literary reputation as the birth-place of Avicenna and Averroes. At the death of Abderrahman, this city is said to have contained within its walls 200,000 houses, 600 mosques, 900 baths, and numerous public libraries; whilst on the bank of the Guadalquivir, under the power of that monarch, there were eight cities, 300 towns, and 12,000 populous villages. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Moorish empire became dismembered, and fell an easy prey to St Ferdinand of Castile in 1235. Since that period it has gradually declined; and in modern times it has never recovered the visitation of Dupont in 1808, who stormed the town and made a great massacre of the inhabitants.

Cordova was formerly celebrated for its silversmiths who came originally from Damascus, and for the manufacture of a peculiar kind of leather. Its industry in these departments, however, has disappeared with the race who introduced it. There still are a few artists who chase silver in the ancient filagree style; but the manufacture of Cordovan has been almost entirely superseded by the introduction of Morocco leather. Pop. about 55,000.