Al-Qanṭara

Ṭāriq b. Ziyād and the barbar

Maribel Fierro — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

In memoriam Prof.ª Concepción Castillo Castillo (19 de noviembre de 1940 – 11 de junio de 2024)

María Jesús Viguera-Molins, Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100

In memoriam María Luisa Ávila Navarro (1951-2021)

Manuela Marín — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Mandrake (Mandragora spp.) and sīmiyāʾ (10th-17th centuries)

Indalecio Lozano-Cámara — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This article explores the history of some of the myths and superstitions about mandrake (Mandragora spp.) that were in circulation in the Arab-Islamic world between the 10th and the 17th centuries and analyzes the magical uses of the plant in that context. More specifically, it analyzes how and for what purpose mandrake was used in the framework of white or natural magic (al-sīmiyāʾ) operations, relating its uses to the different sciences or arts (ʿulūm) involved in the definition and practice of this form of magic. The results of the research indicate that mandrake occupied a very prominent place in the vegetable pharmacopoeia used in white magic practices, as shown by the ointments, amulets, talismans, incenses, fumigations, inhalations and mandrake filters documented in Arab sources and which were intended for very different purposes. The results also indicate that the magical beliefs about the plant present in the Arab-Islamic tradition have their origin in the myths and superstitions of Greco-Latin and Eastern Antiquity; at the same time, they show a close parallelism with the complex of beliefs and practices in force in Christian Europe of the period under study.

Antique Sculpture at Madīnat al-Zahrāʾ: Transcultural Collecting and the Assertion of Caliphal Power

Jorge Elices Ocón — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100

The collection of Roman sarcophagi and statues from Madīnat al-Zahrāʾ is a significant case in the study of the reception of antiquity in the Islamic world. By analysing the literary and archaeological evidence, this paper delves into the background of this collection, the provenance of the pieces, the criteria that motivated their selection and the process of reinterpretation that allowed images from the Ǧāhiliyya to be reused and to acquire new meanings and purposes in an Islamic context. This article focuses on the transcultural character that defines the collection. The sarcophagi and statues were objects that could be interacted with or learned from, images that, beyond fascination and repudiation, mediated the construction of identity and memory from a transcultural perspective, evoking different cultures, spaces and temporalities, resonating with ceremonial and courtly activities, and thereby affirming the connections and universality of the Umayyad caliph's power.

Retelling the Narratives of the East in the West: The Unique Morisco Account of the Polemic of Wāṣil of Damascus

Monica Colominas Aparicio — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This article discusses the polemics of Wāṣil of Damascus at the Byzantine court in a hitherto unstudied Aljamiado manuscript copied by Moriscos, or Muslims converted to Christianity in Early Modern Iberia. This debate, which unfolded in the first centuries of the expansion of Islam, has so far been studied on the basis of a single Arabic manuscript. The present contribution adds to the discussion the Aljamiado materials and a number of relevant Arabic sources. It reassesses the character of Wāṣil, his involvement in Byzantine politics and iconoclastic controversies, and his identification with the early theologian Wāṣil b. ʿAṭāʾ (d. 2^nd/8^th c.). The historical data in Ibn ʿAsākir’s Taʾrīḫ (6^th/12^th c.) and the role of Wāṣil as the true hero of the story also justify the need for a detailed and extensive analysis of the Muslim readings of the text. The unique Morisco account will be discussed alongside the new evidence, paying attention to the uses of this narrative and its adaptation in the passage from East to West. The practices of retelling tie with the examination of how the original triumphalist story and the key issues of the early Eastern Muslim-Christian debates acquired meaning in the face of the expansion of Iberian Christian society that ended with the expulsion of the Jews and, ultimately, the Moriscos. Taken together, the evidence attests to the preservation of this polemics over the centuries in Muslim circles and its dissemination sometimes in contexts far removed from the original, such as the Muslim West.

An Unclear Sharif Prince: Muley Hamet, “Who Claims to Be a Descendant of the Kings of Fez”, and his Exile to the Spanish Court in 1648

Ramón Ojeda-Corzo — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Throughout the Modern Age, the Spanish Monarchy received many exiles that came to the Castilian Court looking for help and refuge under the Habsburgs’ imperial power. One of them was Muley Hamet (Mawlāy Aḥmad), a Sharif prince of the saʿdī dynasty of Morocco, searching Philip IV’s protection to regain his legitimacy as heir to the throne of Fez. The bureaucratic sources generated during his uncomfortable presence in Getafe between 1648 and 1649, will serve in this article, not only to clarify this blurred princely figure, but also to consider the mechanism of reception of foreigners in the Castilian Crown face to Catholicism’s outsiders.

Ornamental Plants in the Ibn Luyūn’s Agricultural Poem

Batul Al-Husein-Raie — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100

In the context of the new edition and translation of the agricultural poem by Ibn Luyūn (14th century) from Almería that I am carrying out, I offer in this paper a study of the chapters that deal with plants used as ornamentation due to their beauty and good smell. First of all, I present a new edition and translation for the cited chapters and their marginal notes. For the edition I have consulted three of the five registered copies of this work, which can enhance the previous one elaborated by the Spanish scholar Joaquina Eguaras.

Secondly, I analyze the data found in the numerous marginal notes, neither edited nor translated at the time by the Arabist. These marginal notes cover a wide variety of topics and reflect the different sources used by Ibn Luyūn. This last aspect will undoubtedly allow us to explore the theoretical and practical agronomic knowledge of the Nasrid period and Ibn Luyūn’s contribution in depth.

Ilyass Amharar, Langage et théologie chez Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī (543/1148) – Les informations subtiles de la somme de théorie légale (Nukat al-Maḥṣūl fī ʿilm al-uṣūl), Piscataway, Gorgias Press, «Islamic History and Thought», 31, 2023, 615 pp.

Yassir Mechelloukh — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Joseph Chetrit, Notre Judéo-arabe. Les dialects judéo-arabes du Maroc: structures, usages et diversité, Haifa, Pardes Publishing, 2023, 512 pp. (In Hebrew) + א-כ"ז (in Hebrew) and iii-Xii (in French: Table des matières et présentation).

Aharon Geva-Kleinberger — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100

María Jesús Viguera Molins, Tiempos y lugares de al-Andalus en textos árabes, Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, 2023, 620 pp.

Almudena Ariza Armada — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100