When the Muslims conquered al-Andalus, they found in the city of Qurṭuba [Córdoba] the ruins (‘athār) of a massive bridge that spanned the river, held on several arches of firm pillars, the work of the people of ancient civilizations now vanished, of which only traces remained (al-‘umam al-māḍīa al-dāthara lam yabqā minhā).

Mérida [Mérida] was one of the first places that the kings of the ‘ajm [non-Muslims] and the emperors before them chose to settle as […] a foundation on which to build. It was completed in the time of the Caesar Uktūbiyān [Octavian]. The first Caesar began it and the second Caesar completed it. The rulers visited frequently and renewed the monuments, excellently made, the decorations, and the astonishing marble. They were

When the forces of Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in 711, followed a year later by those of Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr, the governor of North Africa appointed by the caliph in Damascus, they found all around them the material traces of Roman and Visigothic Hispania. In Córdoba, Roman walls, gates, and streets formed the template of the new capital. Visigothic buildings abutting the southern wall of the city served as the palace and administrative centre of the first Umayyad emir, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān I (756–788). The Great Mosque of Córdoba may have replaced a Visigothic basilica on the same site. Roman hydraulic systems were repaired to supply the garden palaces of Rusāfa, al-Rūmanīya, and Madīnat al-Zahrā’ outside Córdoba.