The Cútar manuscripts (in Spanish, Los manuscritos de Cútar) refer to three documents from

Islamic Spain Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

that were discovered in 2003 in the village of

Cútar Cútar is a town and municipality in the province of Málaga, part of the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. The municipality is situated approximately 10 kilometers from Vélez-Málaga and 32 km from the provincial capital ...

in the

province of Malaga A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provin ...

. The documents, including a copy of the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

and two other books, had lain hidden behind the wall of an old house for more than 500 years. Subsequent research revealed that the books had been left there by Muhammad Al-Ŷayyār, a jurist ( alfaqui) and imam in the then-village of Aquta, around the year 1500. Al-Ŷayyār had arrived in Cutar in 1490. After the

Catholic reconquest of Spain The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish and Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian kingdoms waged against the Muslim kingdoms following the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Penin ...

, he was faced with the choice of conversion or exile. Choosing the latter, and in the hope of returning one day, he decided to secrete the books behind the wall. The books were never recovered by him. They were finally discovered by accident on June 28, 2003, when workers were renovating the house of its current owner Magdalena Santiago, who alerted the authorities. The books were restored and are now kept at the Archivo Histórico Provincial de Málaga. The Quran, which is square in shape, has been dated back to the

Almohad The Almohad Caliphate (; or or from ) or Almohad Empire was a North African Berber Muslim empire founded in the 12th century. At its height, it controlled much of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) and North Africa (the Maghreb). The Almohad ...

period, either the 12th or 13th century, making it one of the two oldest Qurans in Spain. The two other documents were written mainly by Al-Ŷayyār, and contain details of his work as alfaqui of the village, and his accounts of contemporary events such as the

fall of Granada The Granada War was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1492 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada. It ended with the defeat of G ...

in 1492 and the Malaga earthquake of 1494. Facsimiles of the books are also kept at the Monfi museum in Cutar.http://www.lacultura.cc/blog/the-three-arab-magreb-books-of-ctar

References

{{reflist Andalusia Islamic manuscripts History of the province of Málaga