Description
This book focuses on the conceptualization of the court, palace and ruler of the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus. Western terminology still plays a normative role in the representation of foreign courts, determining concepts that fit poorly into chronologies with their own dynamics and specificities, which is the case of Muslim courts. While Court Studies is a well-developed field for modern Western societies, Muslim medieval courts lack a consistent field of research.
Sources elaborate a specific terminology for medieval Muslim court societies. In the specific case of the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus, the court is usually articulated as Bāb Suddat al-Khalīfa ("The door of the Sudda of the caliph") - a reference to the symbology of the main city gate of Cordoba - or simply as Bāb. Bāb Suddat al-Khalīfa became the most emblematic concept to name the Umayyad palace and its society, which will be additionally interpreted in the framework of the performance of ceremonial. The strong conceptualization of the Umayyad court of Cordoba was highlighted through the articulation of ceremonial, as the mis-en-scène of the conceptualization, expressed by gestures, insignia and hierarchies.
The preliminary comparative perspective with the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus, the 'Abbasid and Fatimid Caliphates and the Byzantine Empire further discusses the Umayyad Andalusi model in relation to other dynasties. While this book focuses on the Umayyad conceptualization and articulation of ceremonial, this model will be discussed within the Mediterranean and Eastern framework of the 10th and 11th centuries, which broadens the interest of the book to other fields of research.
Author: Elsa Cardoso
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 05/29/2023
Pages: 280
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.69d
ISBN13: 9781032207155
ISBN10: 1032207159
BISAC Categories:
- History | Europe | Spain
About the Author
Elsa Cardoso is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and the Near East (ILC) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), in Madrid. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Lisbon in 2020. From April 2021 to March 2022, she was as postdoctoral fellow of the German DFG Center RomanIslam, at the University of Hamburg. Her research focuses on history of Islam and history of al-Andalus. She has worked and published on court, diplomacy and ceremonial of the Umayyads of Cordoba, considering a comparative perspective within the Mediterranean. She is also developing her research on historiography of al-Andalus, as well as on history of the Gharb al-Andalus.
This title is not returnable