Madrid

Spain

Madrid, the capital of Spain, began in the second half of the 9th century as a fortress built by Emir Muhammad I of Córdoba near the Manzanares river, on the frontier of al-Andalus. Known in Arabic as Majrit, it gave its name to the astronomer and mathematician Maslama al-Majriti (d. c. 1007), whom a medieval Andalusi historian called the best mathematician and astronomer of his time in al-Andalus. Alfonso VI of Castile took the town in 1083, and in 1561 Philip II moved the royal court there; Bartolomé de las Casas died in Madrid in 1566. The university moved from Alcalá to Madrid in 1836, and Santiago Ramón y Cajal became a professor in the city in 1892.