Loja islámica. Historia y leyenda: la Cueva de los Durmientes

Abstract

There already exists a number of editions and articles about Loja and its land based on Christian documents and sources preserved in the local Archive. As for the Islamic times, W. Hoenerbach published an article in1954 about “NasEri Loja”. Our aim now is to show a few more aspects on the Islamic Loja, scarcely or less studied so far, namely, the geographial descriptions depicted by Arab medieval writers, as well as relevant historical events until the foundation of the NasEr§ kingdom of Granada. We also deal with the Legend of the “Sleepers’ Cave”, which the tradition and Arab sources stated to have been located near Loja; and we, finally, offer the summarized biographies of people who were either born or had some link with the Islamic Loja.