Muslim Cities of the Post-Classical Age

Because Muslim cities during the Post-Classical Age like Cordoba were famous for its cultural advances, Muslims, near and far, came to those cities for cultural experiences and sought education, and thus these cities played as residences and centers of people of religion, intellect and learning and had great cultural influence throughout the Muslim world
             But it's also important to notice that although Andalusian was a resident of Cordoba, he was also of Arab origin, which makes him tend to speak higher of Cordoba under Muslim reign and make it seem better than it actually was, so it would be nice to have a document from a resident of Cordoba who was of Iberian origin and experienced both non-Muslim and Muslim rule describing the change of the city after the Arab conquest of Iberian Peninsula for he had a different view, so when these two perspectives add up the whole accurate picture of the city will appear. In short, Muslim cities played important roles as crucial centers of culture for they were honored as blessed heaven, resided by religious leaders, regarded as religious Holy Cities and considered advanced in science and literature.
             Other than playing important roles in cultural aspect, Muslim cities during the Post-Classical Age were also crucial hearts of economy, especially trades in the Muslim world. Persian Muslim traveler and Ismaili spy Nasier Khusraw's (Doc #3) report on Cairo depicts a vivid prosperous image of the Muslim city of Cairo as an active trading city, with all the services like caravansaries for caravan traders and the two thousand ships belonged to the Sultan, shows that Muslim cities at that time period were on the trade routes and were important in keeping trades going. Italian merchant Marco Polo's (Doc #5) picture of another prosperous city on the trade route, Tabriz, focuses more on the trading activities happening in the city, and from his perspective, commerce and manufactures made the merchants who probably came from all over the inside and outside of Muslim world in the city wealthy.