Search

, the Arabic transcription of the Latin comes , a title which in al-Andalus denoted the person responsible to the state for the muʿāhidūn [ q.v] or Scriptuaries, or at least, for the Christian Mozarabs [ q.v.]. According to A. Fattal, “les représentants religieux des d̲immīs sont autorisés par le pouvoir, moyennant waṣiyya , a exercer leur autorité. Il semble bien que les Arabes de la conquête respectèrent tant l’organisation administrative que judiciaire, que religieuse des populations soumises”. Certain capitulation documents ( ʿahd , ṣulḥ ) [ q.v.] expressly affirm this: “They …

, Spanish mozarabe , Portuguese moçarabe , Catalan mossarab , a word of uncertain origin for which two etymologies have been propounded. In the 13th century, the Archbishop Rodrigo Ximenez ( De rebus Hispaniae , iii, 22) declared ¶ that the Christians living under Muslim rule after the conquest of 92/711 “Dicti sunt mixli arabes, eo quod mixti Arabibus convivebant”. This Latin-based interpretation is the earliest known etymology of the word Mozarab. However, Arabist scholars of the 19th century (following F.J. Simonet) considered it an arabism, derived from mustaʿrab , mustaʿrib …

, capital of the ancient kingdom of Léon and, at the present time, of the province of that name, to the south of the Asturias. The name comes from the Legio Septima Gemina Asturica , which established its castrum there in the reign of the Emperor Trajan. J. M. Blazquez ( Estructura económica y social de España ) includes it among the towns which were provided with walls during the Later Empire, and its role was very slight for the whole of the Visigothic period. The Arab geographers mention Liyūn only rarely. Abu ’l-Fidāʾ says that “Ibn Saʿīd places it in 10°5′ longitude and 46°…

, one of the important mawālī families who figure prominently in the history of al-Andalus Together with the Banū Ṭawīl and the Tud̲j̲ībids [ qq.v.], they divided between them effective power in the region of Aragon. The history of this region only becomes clear when considered in the light of the centripetal-centrifugal struggles which are a constant feature of Spanish history. The Banū Ḳasī followed an opportunistic policy in order to preserve their virtual autonomy, but they were at the same time relatively faithful…

(a.), known in European usage as the Almoravids , a dynasty of Berber origin which ruled in North Africa and then Spain during the second half of the 5th/11th century and the first half of the 6th/12th century before being replaced by another Berber dynasty, that of the Almohads or al-Muwaḥḥidūn [ q.v.]. The Almoravids are mentioned in the anonymous 12th century Troubadour song Chevalier , mult estes guariz: “Quant Deu a vus fait sa clamur Des Turs e des Amoraviz”, “Knights, your salvation is assured since God has appealed to you to take Hi…

, a name by which three places are known: Carthage, Cartéia (Ḳarṭād̲j̲annat al-D̲j̲azīra) and Carthagena. This synonymy seems to be the cause of numerous confusions between the ancient Punic capital and Ḳarṭād̲j̲annat al-k̲h̲alfāʾ (and not al-k̲h̲uladāʾ as Yāḳūt interprets it). These confusions have been studied by J. Vallve, Carthage et Carthagène au VIII e siècle . The name of the town, seat of a bishopric, must be the translation of Cartago-Spartaria, alluding to the abundance of esparto grass in the region. According to al-Ḥimyārī ( Rawḍ al-miʿṭār , no. 1…

(a.), lit. “an instrument or apparatus for providing shade, ẓill ,” apparently synonymous with the s̲h̲amsa , s̲h̲amsiyya , lit. “an instrument or apparatus for providing shelter from the sun”, probably therefore referring to the sunshade or parasol born on ceremonial occasions and processions [see mawākib ] over early Islamic rulers. 1. In the ʿAbbāsid and Fāṭimid caliphates. The historical sources provide a few references on practice in the ʿAbbāsid caliphate. Thus the official Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik al-Zayyāt [see ibn al-zayyāt ] was responsible in al-Muʿtaṣim’s time fo…

(a., sing, mawkib ), processions. 1. Under the ʿAbbāsids and Fāṭimids The basic meaning of procession (mounted or unmounted), cortège, is found in ḥadīt̲h̲ (al-Buk̲h̲ārī. Badʾ al-k̲h̲alḳ , 6; Ibn Ḥanbal, iii, 213; al-Dārimī, 2695). This is the precise sense given in the dictionaries, and that used by the Umayyads, ʿAbbāsids and Fāṭimids, often to describe the cortège of an amīr , wazīr , or other official (see, e.g., al-Ṭabarī, ii, 1731; Hilāl al-Ṣābī, Rusūm dār al-k̲h̲ilāfa , 9-10, 12, 14ff.). By the 4th/10th century, it had acquired the broader meaning of audience as well …

, Arabic name corresponding to the Spanish Aragon. In fact, this word has both a geographical and a political sense. As a geographical term, it refers to a river, dominated by the fortress of S̲h̲antamariyya. the first of the defensive system of Navarre (al-Ḥimyarī, Rawḍ , no. 105). This watercourse rises on the southern slope of the Pyrenees, near Canfranc; after passing the town of Jaca, the Sierra de la Peña diverts it towards the west, watering Berdun, Tiermas, Sangüesa, Rocaforte, Aibar, Caparroso and Villafranca before joining the Arga and flowing into the Ebro in Navarre. This Wādī A…

, Arabic name for Castile in Spain. The first, and not the least problem, is that of the original name of the territory called, from the 9th century onwards, Castilla. This name appears to be derived from Latin castellum , and would have been given to the region because of the abundance there of fortified places. Arabic al-Kilāʿ would accordingly be the expected translation, but many sources (Yāḳūt, al-Idrīsī, al-ʿUd̲h̲rī, al-Ḥimyarī, Ibn ʿId̲h̲ārī, al-Maḳḳarī, etc.) have Ḳas̲h̲tāla, Ḳas̲h̲tīla, or Ḳasṭīlya. Above all, al-Rāzī on several occasions mentions enemies min aḳṣā Banbalūna…

bi’llāh (Almanzor in the mediaeval Spanish chronicles) is the name by which is known the man who was, de facto, the real master of al-Andalus from 368/978 to 392/1002. Since no new source is available, except as regards the military campaigns, to expand upon the major features of the biography of Abū ʿĀmir Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Abī ʿĀmir al-Maʿāfirī , as revealed through the works of R. Dozy ( Histoire des musulmans d’Espagne ) and E. Lévi-Provençal ( Histoire de l’Espagne musulmane ), this article will be confined to a summary of this material. Born in 326/938 into a minor a…

(a), official court ceremonies, both processional and non-processional. The whole range of ceremonial, including protocol and etiquette, is called also rusūm other terms found frequently are mawsim [ q.v.] and mawkib . Mawākib [ q.v.] refer specifically to solemn processions, but seem also to have had the more general meaning of audiences (for the ʿAbbāsids, see references in D. Sourdel, Le vizirat ʿabbāside de 749 à 946, Damascus 1960, ii, 684, n. 3; for the Fāṭimids, see e.g. al-Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Ṣubḥ , iii, 494: d̲j̲ulūs [ al-k̲h̲alīfa ] fi ’l-mawākib; ayyām al-mawākib ). 1. Under the …

(Spanish; in Catalan mudèixar ), from ¶ the Arabic mudad̲j̲d̲j̲an or ahl al-dad̲j̲n , a term to designate the Muslim who, in return for the payment of tribute, continued to live in territories conquered by the Christians. The word covers the double sense of “one who remains behind, a laggard”, and of tributarius , which is the translation of the Vocabulista in arabico. In fact, there is a correlation between the fact of not emigrating before the Christian advance and that of becoming subject to a new jurisdiction which is no longer Islamic. The term is als…

(a.), a word belonging to the vocabulary of stock-breeders and designating the product of a crossing ( tawlīd ) of two different animal breeds, thus a hybrid, of mixed blood. It ¶ is hardly surprising that it was extended to humans from the time when the feeling arose that the purity of the Arab race had been altered following the conquests, the influx of elements of other stocks and mixed marriages. In a more limited sense, muwallad designates a cross-breed, half-caste or even, as Dozy states ( Suppl., s.v.) “one who, without being of Arab origin, has been born among the Arabs an…

[English edition] (أ.) المرابطون سلالة ذات أصول بربريّة، تعرف في الاستعمال الأوروبي بـ «Almoravids» حكمت شمال إفريقيا ثم الأندلس خلال النصف الثاني من القرن 5هـ/11م والنصف الأول من القرن 6هـ/12م، قبل أن تحلّ محلها سلالة بربريّة أخرى، هي سلالة الموحّدين (انظر ج. 1). ذكِر المرابطون في أغنية لمغنّ مجهول من التروبادور، عاش في ق. 12 يقول: «أيها الفرسان إنّ نجاتكم أمر متأكّد بما أن الله دعاكم إلى تعزيز جانبه ضد الأتراك والمرابطين». يبدو أن هذه اللفظة تحيل على «صنف من مجاهدي الأربطة» (انظره [رباط])، والرباط صومعة محصّنة تقام على ثغور بلاد الإسلام. يتأكد هذا المعنى في عديد الأمثلة (انظر: E. Doutté, Les…