Cortijo Bujio sits inside a ring of castle-topped villages — Montefrío, Íllora, Moclín, Loja — that were once the fortified frontier of the last Muslim kingdom in Spain. That is the story most guidebooks tell. But there are two deeper, stranger and more beautiful stories hidden in the same hills: who first settled this land — soldiers from Damascus — and the many languages the people here have spoken over thirteen centuries. Together they turn a drive through the countryside into a journey across the whole medieval Mediterranean.

The ring of stone: the castles that guarded Granada

For the last 250 years of Al-Andalus, the northern edge of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada ran right through this landscape, and it was defended by a remarkable system. A chain of fortified towns and hilltop watchtowers (atalayas) stood within sight of one another, so that a fire or smoke signal could pass an alarm from tower to tower and reach the Alhambra within hours.

Each stronghold had its role, and its nickname:

• Loja — "the key" (la llave) to the kingdom, guarding the river corridor from the west.
• Íllora — "the right eye of Granada" (el ojo derecho de Granada), perched on a great rock, in permanent signalling contact with Moclín and Montefrío, watching for Christian raids.
• Moclín — "the shield," commanding the mountain pass.
• Montefrío — its castle-church still crowning the Nasrid fortress rock, fifteen minutes from the villa.

Facing them across the border stood the great Christian fortress of Alcalá la Real. The stalemate held for generations — until it didn't. In the spring campaign of 1486, King Ferdinand took Loja first (the key that unlocked the rest), then Íllora on 8 June 1486, and Moclín and Montefrío in the same season. At Íllora the monarchs installed Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba — "the Great Captain," later the most famous general in Europe — as its first Christian commander. Six years later, Granada itself fell. When you climb any of these ruins, you are standing on the very line where two worlds met and, finally, one gave way.

Settlers from Damascus: why Granada is "the Damascus of the West"

Here is the fact that surprises almost everyone. The Islamic history of this exact region does not begin with generic "Moors" — it begins with Syrians from Damascus.

After the conquest of 711, waves of Arab soldiers arrived to garrison Al-Andalus. Around 743, the ajnād (military divisions) of Greater Syria were settled across the south, and — by design — each was given a district that reminded it of home. The jund of Damascus, some ten thousand people, was settled in the Cora de Elvira: the district that would become Granada (they also settled around Baza and Guadix). The jund of Jordan went to Málaga, of Palestine to Sidonia, of Homs to Seville, of Qinnasrin to Jaén.

The Damascenes chose Elvira, the sources say, precisely because its green valley, its river and its snow-topped mountains reminded them of Damascus and Mount Hermon. Medieval Muslim writers repeatedly compared Granada to Damascus — and the comparison stuck for centuries. The land around Cortijo Bujio was, from the very beginning of Muslim Spain, a piece of Syria transplanted to Andalusia.

The connection runs to the top. When the Umayyad dynasty of Damascus was massacred by the Abbasids in 750, one prince escaped: Abd al-Rahman I. He fled the length of North Africa and, in 756, founded an independent Umayyad emirate at Córdoba — a Damascus government reborn in Spain. Homesick, he planted a palm tree in his garden and wrote a poem to it, seeing in the lone tree, far from its homeland, a mirror of himself. Al-Andalus was, in a real sense, Damascus in exile.

The languages people spoke here

If you could stand in a market in medieval Elvira, you would hear a genuinely multilingual world — far richer than "they spoke Arabic."

• Classical Arabic was the prestige language: of government, law, religion, science and formal poetry. It is the language carved across the walls of the Alhambra.
• Andalusi Arabic was the everyday spoken dialect — the Arabic of the street, the field and the home, distinct from the formal written language.
• Mozarabic was the Romance vernacular, descended from Latin, still spoken in daily life by large parts of the population — Christians and Muslims — especially in the early centuries.
• Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic flourished among the great Jewish communities; Granada was even known as Gharnāṭat al-Yahūd, "Granada of the Jews."
• Berber was spoken by the many North African settlers.

The mixing produced something extraordinary. The kharjas (Spanish jarchas) — short refrains in Mozarabic Romance tacked onto the end of sophisticated Arabic and Hebrew poems — are among the oldest surviving lyric poetry in any Romance language: a woman's voice in early Spanish, written in Arabic or Hebrew letters, sung in Al-Andalus a thousand years ago. Later, Spain's Muslims wrote Aljamiado — the Spanish language written in Arabic script — to keep their faith alive in a language the authorities could no longer read.

After 1492 the official world changed fast. Castilian Spanish was imposed; a 1567 decree banned Arabic outright, helping to trigger a revolt in the Alpujarras; and by 1614 Spain's Moriscos were expelled. Yet the language never really left. An estimated 4,000 words of modern Spanish come from Arabic — aceituna (olive), almohada (pillow), azúcar (sugar), alcázar (fortress), and the everyday ojalá ("let's hope," from in shā' Allāh). And it is written across the map: Guadal- place names come from wādī ("river"), as in Guadalquivir (al-wādī al-kabīr, "the great river"); Gibraltar is Jabal Ṭāriq, "Tariq's mountain"; and Andalucía itself descends from al-Andalus. Say the names of the villages and rivers around you, and you are speaking a little Arabic without knowing it.

Reading this history in the landscape

• Climb the frontier castles — Montefrío (15 min), Íllora and Moclín within a short drive — and picture the signal fires passing the alarm toward the Alhambra.
• Listen to the place names. The Arabic is hiding in plain sight, in villages, rivers and hills all around the villa.
• Visit Granada. The Alhambra is the Damascus-descended civilisation at its most perfect. (See our Granada & the Alhambra guide and our history of Moorish Andalusia.)

Frequently asked questions

Why is Granada connected to Damascus? Around 743, the jund (military division) of Damascus — some ten thousand Syrians — was settled in the Cora de Elvira, the district that became Granada, reportedly because its green valley and snow-capped mountains recalled Damascus. Medieval writers long compared the two cities.

What languages were spoken in Al-Andalus? Several at once: Classical Arabic (official and literary), everyday Andalusi Arabic, Mozarabic Romance (descended from Latin), Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic among Jews, and Berber among North African settlers — later Aljamiado (Spanish written in Arabic script) and, after 1492, Castilian Spanish.

What are the kharjas? Short Mozarabic-Romance refrains attached to the end of Arabic and Hebrew poems — among the oldest lyric verse in any Romance language, written in Al-Andalus around a thousand years ago.

Which castles guarded Granada near Montefrío, and when did they fall? Loja ("the key"), Íllora ("the right eye of Granada"), Moclín ("the shield") and Montefrío formed a signalling ring on the kingdom's frontier. They fell in Ferdinand's campaign of 1486 — Íllora on 8 June 1486 — six years before Granada itself.

How much Arabic is in modern Spanish? An estimated 4,000 words, plus countless place names — from aceituna and ojalá to Guadalquivir and Gibraltar. The whole region's names are a living record of Al-Andalus.

The countryside around Cortijo Bujio was a frontier — and, long before that, a colony of Damascus. Read on about Granada & the Alhambra, Moorish Andalusia, El Cid and the age of the frontier and Montefrío.

Sources: Cora de Elvira / Medina Elvira historical sources (medinaelvira.org; lacoradeilbira.es); Encyclopædia Britannica, "Abd al-Rahman I"; Brian A. Catlos, Kingdoms of Faith; María Rosa Menocal, The Ornament of the World; turgranada.es and castillosdegranada.es on the frontier castles of Íllora, Moclín, Loja and Montefrío; Real Academia Española on Arabic loanwords in Spanish.

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