Similar Islamic architectureYemen and Spain have cultural links [Archives:2003/685/Local News]

The German House hosted a lecture by Dr. Hadi Eckert, an expert and consultant with the German Center for International Migration in the filed of architecture and urban planning with General Organization for the Preservation of Historic Cities in Yemen on Nov. 4.
The topic was about the preservation of diverse cities and towns in Yemen, especially Zabid and the old city of Sana’a. The choice of those two cities comes through the comparison between them and some of the remains and ruins in many Spanish cities and old towns.
Dr. Eckert explained the similarity in the names and the monuments of the cities in Andalusia (Spain’s name in old times), and many of the Yemeni towns, especially with the influence of the Islamic culture on Spain some 400 years ago.
He indicated in the lecture that although the Spanish people used their language and their culture in the renaming of the cities and towns in Andalusia, they could not abolish the linkage between the naming for example and the Islamic Yemeni names where many of the important towns in Spain hold names such as Khawlan, Bani Shaiban and al-Maafir and many other names of Yemeni towns.
Dr. Eckert explained the historical relation through the migration of Yemenis during the Islamic expansions to Spain and how the impressions those migrants left hundreds of years ago persist today and into the future of Spain as well.
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