Omar ben Hafsun
This is a shame because Juzcar is in the Genal Valley, one of the Serranía's most beautiful and unspoiled mountainous areas, and is a great place to use as a base for exploring the walking tracks of the Genal.
Way back in the late 10th century, Juzcar became infamous as the bithplace of a resistance hero, Omar Ben Hafsun, who was supposedly of Visigothic ancestry and led a band of men against the caliphate in Córdoba protesting at high taxes and restrictions on their traditional lifestyle.
He led a successful rebellion for many years even carving out a small co-religionist kingdom centered at Bobastro, but his downfall came when he converted from Islam to Christianity. His muslim followers abandoned him, and the Caliphate immediately raised a large army to crush him.
The story is fascinating and worth reading, though most of it happened outside of Juzcar. These days Juzcar is more modern, most of the houses have been built in recent times, which is a shame because nothing from Moorish times remains to be seen.
The village has a great little hotel and restaurant called Bandeleros and is popular with walking and art groups. The hotel also has an art gallery.
