Valle del Zalabí. A primitive landscape

The uniqueness of these lands was no doubt a decisive factor for different cultures to settle here since the Neolithic period. Valleys and river courses provided natural access for these primitive settlements, and the fertility of its irrigated lands, together with the newly developed uses of metals to build rudimentary tools to work the fields, all boosted the development of new agricultural techniques. This was the birth of the first urban centres in an enclave considered ideal for the richness of its resources, provided thanks to numerous favourable circumstances.

The favourable climate of the valley, which runs shielded by hills of clay, together with its superb location on the transit route to Almería, made of Exfiliana and Alcudia de Guadix the anteroom of the historically prominent city of Guadix. This city started to become important in times of the Roman Hispania, as it was crossed by the famous Via Augusta[1] , Julius Caesar founded the city in the year 45 B.C. under the name of Iulia Gemela Acci, giving it the political status of “Colony”. And scarcely two kilometres away is Exfiliana, or Esfiliana, so called due to its affiliation to the Roman centre of Iulia Gemella Acci (Ex- Julia, or on the outskirts of Julia).

[1] The Vía Augusta was the longest and busiest road built by the Romans in Hispania, with a distance of 1,500 kilometres. The road linked the Pyrenees with Cadiz.

Tracing the existence of this valley in the times of al-Andalus, we find numerous references, among them those from the great Algerian writer al-Maqqari (Tlemcen 1578 – Cairo 1632), who describes this cluster of populations as “a castle so big that it looks like a city.” The renowned geographer al-Idrisi also refers to it as Isn- Yiliana in a passage that describes the distances between Guadix and the village of Dólar, where he mentions that it is well-known for its pears.

According to professor J.A. Rodríguez Lozano, expert in Medieval History and History of Islam at the University of Granada, “the identification of Esfiliana has gone through diverse processes, and after recurring to phonetic, historical, documentary and geographic reasons, among others, in this work we try to stablish the most plausible identification of Esfiliana, is as a ‘towns to the south of Guadix (Granada)’. It is probable that it looked like a city, since it maybe had under its control Esfiliana, Alcudia de Guadix and, between them, the Salabín, mentioned by Mármol, and all of them together with Zigüeñí, from which depended administratively Esfiliana y Zalabín, which on its turn was dependent on Alcudia.”[2]

[2] Rodríguez Lozano, J. A. “Hisn Ŷliāna. Esfiliana”. Miscelánea de Estudios árabes e islámicos. N. 40. Universidad de Granada, 1991.

The category of these places, located at the edge of a significant route of communication, were upgraded particularly during the Umayyad caliphate. It was an obligatory route to reach the port of Almeria, one of the greatest in al-Andalus. It connected the western Mediterranean with the East ̶ an area which comprised almost the whole of the then known world ̶ , and its importance derived not only from the vast amount of business transactions that took place there, but also from the defensive and military possibilities that its fabulous strategic location offered.

In 1489 this area in northern Granada province became part of the Crown of Castile, following the surrender of King Muhammad XIII, known as al-Zagal, uncle of Boabdil, the last king of Granada.

During the Moriscos’ rebellion, which in Guadix had a great impact, Exfiliana played an important role, given its proximity to this city. It not only supported the revolt, but also gave refuge to those who were expelled from nearby areas such as Alcudia, Cigüeñí and the Zalabí, even though Hernando al-Havaqui was from Alcudia. Known as the “Great Constable”, he actively participated in the Moriscos’ rebellion against Phillipe II, while he (Hernando) was captain of the area comprising Guadix, Baza and the Marquesado (Marquisate) del Zenete when they revolted in the Alpujarras.

Accounts about the Moriscos in official documents of those times that are preserved, such as the titled Apeos que se hicieron por el Doctor Miguel de Salazar, en el año 1571, de todas las Haciendas de los lugares de Exfiliana, Zalabí y Cigüeñí que fueron moriscos (Demarcation made by Doctor Miguel de Salaza, in the year 1571, of the properties of Exfiliana, Zalabí and Cigüeñí that belonged to Moriscos), In 1571, after they were expelled from the Kingdom of Granada, the locality was left empty, and it was repopulated by Christians.

This thus began a strong Christian tradition. Its patron saints are the Holy Martyrs Saint John and Saint Paul (both former officers of the Roman army, who suffered persecution by the Romans in the times of Constantine the Great, being martyred by their conversion to Christianity and decapitated in 362) and through the commemoration of the Virgen del Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary), the victory of Lepanto (that took place the 7th October 1571) when it was traditionally celebrated.

It is not surprising then that this small village was to be home of one of the top representatives of the religious art of the Late Baroque period: Torcuato Ruiz del Peral, the author of the sculptures of the saints located in the choir of the Guadix cathedral, and that of the Virgin of Santa María de la Alhambra, among many other important works.

In the 16th century, the small village is named Ysfilyna and two centuries later, in 1750, it is described, according to the Catastro de Ensenada (Ensenada’s Land Registry), as a “small town of 80 houses and 5 grinding mills. The inhabitants of the municipality used to earn their living by cultivating orchards, vineyards, poplar groves, mulberry and other fruits trees, chestnuts, and some olive trees as well as by the production of silk.”.

Returning to the historical natural environment of this land, we find how it is described in many medieval sources that refer to the beauty of this setting. Historian and soldier Luis del Mármol Carvajal, born in Granada in 1524, wrote: “the river, going down from Sierra Nevada finds Alcudia and Zalabin and Ixfiliana… with very fine groves in the banks of the rivers, which waters throughout the orchards and plantations of the fertile plains, in which apples of great fame were produced, as well as the apricots, registered in the Castilian proverb books as ‘the apricots from Exfiliana, if they do not fall today will fall tomorrow’.”

As for Alcudia, it is believed that its traces its origins to prehistoric times, when it was located opposite its current setting, on the other side of the valley where the Zalabí hermitage dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza stands now. However, it was not until the 8th century, at the dawn of the history of al-Andalus, that first Muslims, the Yund Syrian family, settled here. This tribe managed to escape Damascus after the massacre of the Umayyad family members, at the hands of the Abbasids, the rival dynasty.

From this massacre also escaped the young prince who later became the caliph Abd-er-Rahman I, who started the Umayyad saga in al-Andalus, marking the most brilliant period of Muslim Spain. Yet, the population of Alcudia shifted in the 10th and 11th centuries to be composed of North African Berber groups, and other tribes’ groupings like the Kalbids (a Muslim dynasty of Yemeni origin who came from the Emirate of Sicily) Alcudia begun then to be known as Alcudia al-Hamra, Alcudia the red one, in an allusion to the colour of its land.

After the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs, and once it was integrated into the Crown of Castile, Alcudia earned acknowledgment by its fine farm production, and because of the advanced standard of living for daily life of the time: there was water in every house, its inhabitants could benefit from a myriad of communal goods, and it was also popular because of the fame of its baths, which became nightly parties mainly in wedding celebrations.

Throughout the Middle Ages, the area remains imbued with an unmistakable medieval tradition. We are acquainted with figures like the Marquis of Zenete, or the acclaimed Granadan admiral Álvaro de Bazán (whose most important campaign took place in the Battle of Lepant) had properties in the Valle. This admiral had a vast property in Exfiliana, about which it is said his orchards had great fame due to their highly productive agriculture.

Spanish politician Pascual Madoz (1806-1870), who gave name to his famous Diccionario geográfico-estadístico de España y sus posesiones de Ultramar (Geographic and Statistic Dictionary of Spain and its overseas possessions) known simply as Madoz’s Dictionary,describes in it: “outside the walls of Exfiliana towards the east, in the site known as Zalaví, that is to say the place which already was a population nucleus in the times of Mármol Carvajal, it can be even proven how important and close were the four nuclei, as they were almost united.”

What adds most to this primitive landscape’s distinctive character is the way its fertile plains, poplar, and pine groves alternate with the clay formations of its hills. They have been and still are, ideal for troglodyte habitations, so common in this area.