The Cathedral of Seville is the world’s largest Gothic cathedral. The edifice carries a layered history that began not as a Christian monument, but as a mosque. In AD 1171, the Almohad Caliph Abu Ya‘qub Yusuf (known in Europe as Jacob al-Mansur), ruler of a vast Moroccan empire spanning North Africa and al-Andalus, completed the Great Mosque of Seville. Its towering Giralda minaret became one of the marvels of Islamic architecture, modeled on the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakesh. When King St. Ferd