Philosophers

María Zambrano was born on the 25th of April, 1904 in Vélez-Málaga (Málaga province), the daughter of Blas José Zambrano, a teacher. She only stayed in Vélez for three years as her family moved to Jaén and subsequently to Segovia, where she attended high school.

Latin philosopher, playwright, politician and prominent writer, Lucio Anneo Seneca was born in Cordoba. He was the son of the Roman rhetorician Marco (Lucio) Anneo, better known as Seneca "El Viejo". Lucio studied philosophy in Rome where he was deeply influenced by the teachings of the Stoics.

The love story of the poet Ibn Zaydun and his beautiful, courageous Princess is still alive in the hearts of the people of Cordoba, the capital of Moorish Spain and of the Ummeyad Caliphs. But where I was born, Syria, their poems are studied in every high school student's Arabic literature class.

I have always been especially fond of the great Moorish philosopher Averroes. He was born in Cordoba, then the capital of al-Andalus, in 1126. His real Arabic name was Ibn Rushd Al-Cortobi, or "of Cordoba", and we can admire his statue today, just outside the medieval walls.