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Sainthood and Social Boundary Crossing in Medieval Islamic North Africa Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2024-03-16 Amira K. Bennison
This article considers how the spread of new modes of religiosity in the twelfth-century Maghrib, namely pietistic mysticism or Ṣūfism, enabled groups previously excluded from the ranks of religiou...
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Introduction: Negotiating Borders in the Medieval Islamic West Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Ann Christys
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Resolving Gender Ambiguity: An Initial Approach to Hermaphroditism in al-Andalus: The Case of the “Bearded Woman” of Tudela Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Aurora González Artigao
In the context of al-Andalus, intersexuality is a topic that has received limited exploration, despite its significance. Within this landscape, a narration discovered in al-Bakrī’s geographical tre...
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Mālikī Scholars on Christians in Umayyad al-Andalus: Juridical Dialogues and Discussions of “Mixed Families” Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Ryo Takahashi
This essay deals with early Mālikī doctrine in Umayyad al-Andalus regarding the Christians. It focuses in particular on “mixed family” issues, that is, those arising from the marriage between a Mus...
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“However Many Priests Instructed in Latin and Arabic of Good Reputation and Letters You May Find”: Dominican Traditions About Language Acquisition and Missionary Preaching, c. 1190–1250 Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2024-02-03 Amy C. Boland, Kyle C. Lincoln
This article investigates the long history of language training and missionary preaching in the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) from the early training of Domingo de Caleruega, the Order’s founder,...
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Rulers Making Boundaries Clear in the Medieval Islamic West: The Cordoban Umayyads and the Almohads Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Ann Christys, Maribel Fierro
Four events that took place in the medieval Islamic West (al-Andalus and North Africa west of Egypt, second/ninth–eighth/fifteenth centuries) illustrate how rulers intentionally drew clear boundari...
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The Emperor and the Elephant: Christians and Muslims in the Age of Charlemagne Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2024-01-29 Christopher Heath
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Diplomats and Betrayers: Christian Negotiators and the Confessional Rewriting of Surrender during the Islamic Conquest (634–642 AD) Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Marianna Mazzola
Combining evidence from Muslim and Christian sources, this paper attempts to offer some plausible readings as to the identity of the mediators who negotiated the submission of the main Byzantine ci...
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The Islamic-Byzantine Border in History: From the Rise of Islam to the End of the Crusades Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2024-01-29 Lucas McMahon
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Institutional and Functional Aspects of Hunting in Byzantium Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-12-27 Anna Kotłowska, Kazimierz Ilski
This article concerns issues connected with references to wild animals in a variety of sources, reflecting Byzantine social practices primarily connected with hunting. Hunting here is understood in...
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Mallorca at the Crossroads of Powers in the Ninth Century Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-12-26 Jordi Maíz Chacón
The history of Mallorca during the early Middle Ages remains a subject of intense debate to this day. The literary and archaeological information that has been preserved from the transition from th...
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Rethinking the Ninth-Century Islamic Presence in Peninsular Italy: A Perspective Through Islamic History and Politics Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-12-08 Marco Zuccato
This article critically reviews the recent historiography and primary sources pertaining to the Muslim presence in early medieval peninsular Italy. The study illuminates the intricate dynamics of M...
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Approaching the Early Medieval Iberian Economy from the Ground Up Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-11-09 Paolo Tedesco, Merle Eisenberg, Jamie Wood
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 3, 2023)
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Riches beyond the Horizon: Long-Distance Trade in Early Medieval Landscapes (ca. 6th–12th centuries) Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-11-09 Jessica Tearney-Pearce
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 3, 2023)
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Early Islamic North Africa: A New Perspective Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-11-09 Chloé Capel
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 3, 2023)
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The Deeds of the Neapolitan Bishops: A Critical Edition and Translation of the “Gesta Episcoporum Neapolitanorum” Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-11-09 Christopher Heath
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 3, 2023)
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Living on the Edge: Commerce and Trade on the Southwest Lusitanian Port Ensembles in Late Antiquity Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-08-09 Ana Patrícia Magalhães
In Antiquity, coasts witnessed the growth of cities and the expansion of a range of different economic activities due to the maritime networks with which they were associated. Late Antiquity in Lus...
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Pastoralism and Peasant Accounting in Post-Roman Times: The Numerical Slates of the Sistema Central Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-07-14 Nerea Fernández Cadenas
Numerical slates that appear in certain areas of the Iberian Peninsula in the post-Roman period have aroused considerable academic interest. Yet there is minimal agreement concerning the function o...
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The Early Medieval Peasant Economy: An Analysis of Archaeological Data from Central Portugal Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-06-24 Sara Prata, Catarina Tente
This article presents and compares direct and indirect markers of economic and social strategies of peasant communities from two territories in central Portugal. Over the last fifteen years, severa...
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Medieval Muslim Mirrors for Princes: An Anthology of Arabic, Persian and Turkish Political Advice Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-06-08 Nicholas Morton
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 2, 2023)
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Iberian Mooring: Al-Andalus, Sefarad, and the Tropes of Exceptionalism Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-06-08 Shai Zamir
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 2, 2023)
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Inclusion and Exclusion in Mediterranean Christianities, 400–800 Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-06-08 Mateusz Fafinski
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 2, 2023)
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The Paulicians: Heresy, Persecution and Warfare on the Byzantine Frontier, c. 750– 880 Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-06-07 Bojana Radovanović
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 2, 2023)
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Italy, Cyprus and Artistic Exchange in the Medieval Mediterranean Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-06-06 Nicholas Morton
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 2, 2023)
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Arab Conquests and Early Islamic Historiography: The Futuh al-buldan of al-Baladhuri Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-06-05 Sam Ottewill-Soulsby
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 2, 2023)
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The Business of Bishops: The Ecclesiastical Economy of Visigothic Iberia Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-06-04 Merle Eisenberg, Jamie Wood
Visigothic Iberia experienced significant economic transformations from the sixth through the early eighth centuries, during which churches played an increasing ideological and material role. This ...
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The Role of Cities in the Early Medieval Economy Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-06-01 Daniel Osland
This contribution explores the economic roles of cities in the early medieval economy, through the presentation of a range of archaeological datasets that can all be linked to urban production and/...
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Testators and the Visigothic State: A “from the Ground Up” Approach to Inheritance Law Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-06-01 Damián Fernández
Property structures, demographic patterns and political vicissitudes encouraged testators in the Visigothic kingdom to follow a wide range of testation strategies to bequeath their property. Testat...
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Making the East Latin: The Latin Literature of the Levant in the Era of the Crusades Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-02-08 Nicholas Morton
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 1, 2023)
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Abraham’s Luggage: A Social Life of Things in the Medieval Indian Ocean World Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-02-07 J. E. Tearney-Pearce
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 1, 2023)
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Rethinking Norman Italy: Studies in Honour of Graham A. Loud Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-02-06 Charles C. Rozier
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 1, 2023)
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Religious Plurality and Interreligious Contacts in the Middle Ages (Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 161) Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-02-06 Teresa Witcombe
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 1, 2023)
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The “Long History” of Nidūy – from Tannaitic Literature to Late Antiquity Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-01-31 Shimon Fogel
ABSTRACT The nidūy is the primary method of excommunication used by the early rabbis in the first two centuries CE. This article suggests some new readings in the earliest texts discussing this practice and their reception in Talmudic writing from Late Antiquity. By understanding excommunication as an attempt to set social boundaries and noticing the differences between the early texts, one can try
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Commercial Deceit: Fraudulent Trade from the Ports of Cilicia and Cyprus to the Mamlūks Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-01-01 Ahmet Usta
ABSTRACT The article aims to examine the deceitful practices employed by traders in the eastern Mediterranean. It investigates three principal types of deception that Italian merchants in the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia and in Cyprus used in order to conceal prohibited products and their routes to Mamlūk ports between 1260 and 1310. The papacy issued several decrees that prohibited Christian merchants
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Comparing “Acts of Excommunication” in the Late Antique and Early Medieval Middle East Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2023-01-01 Edmund Hayes
ABSTRACT This introduction suggests an approach to the study of excommunication that is comparative (here highlighting Jewish, Christian and Islamic cases) and carefully contextual, taking note of specific institutional dynamics and processes of historical memory formation. Moreover, excommunication should be not be understood as a clearly defined category, but part of a broader network of acts of
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Islam and Judaism: Religious Attitudes and Identity in the Medinan Era Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-12-29 Mohammed Ibraheem Ahmed
ABSTRACT For two centuries, Orientalists have consistently questioned the role of Judaism in the early development of Islam. This has resulted in an array of scholarship that attempts to unpack a more accurate relationship of early Islam with Medinan Jews than is found in much of the historiographically tenuous sīra and taʾrīkh literature. This article contributes to this strand of revisionism by assessing
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A Dwarf Among Giants: A Diplomatic and Political Reading of Florence’s First Commercial Expedition to Ottoman Constantinople Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-12-29 Carlo Virgilio
ABSTRACT This article investigates the start of Florence’s approach to Ottoman Constantinople. It analyses the elements that enticed the Florentine Signoria to reconsider its commercial interest in Constantinople by highlighting the political role of the Ottoman sultan. In addition, this study intends to shed light on the difficulties the Florentine establishment faced in its diplomatic effort to successfully
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A Fifteenth-century Fatwa Issued by al-Wansharīsī on the Fate of Christian Prisoners: Death, or Captivity? Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-12-18 Ana B. Cano-Carrillo
ABSTRACT This article presents a translation and analysis of a fatwa belonging to one of the most important and extensive compilations of legal opinions in Mālikī Islamic law, gathered together in the fifteenth century by al-Wansharīsī. We explore the fatwas in this compilation on the subject of captives, and focus in particular on one whose main point of interest is its exhaustive analysis of the
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“Smash His Head with a Rock”: Imāmic Excommunications and the Production of Deviance in Late Ninth-Century Imāmī Shīʿism Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-11-17 Edmund Hayes
ABSTRACT In this article, I study how Imāmī imams ʿAlī al-Hādī (d. 868 CE) and al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī (d. 874 CE) attempted to police boundaries. While their excommunications have hitherto been treated through the lens of doctrinal discipline, I argue that we should not situate doctrine within practice. Religious leaders like the Imams used the politics of boundaries in order to meet challenges to their
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Resolving Ambivalence through (Claimed) Excommunication: The Depiction of al-Ashʿath b. Qays in Early and Classical Arabic-Islamic Historiography Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-11-01 Georg Leube
ABSTRACT This contribution approaches the Kindī aristocrat al-Ashʿath b. Qays as a case-study for a contested figure in Muslim cultural memory. Al-Ashʿath is portrayed in a wide variety of conflicting reports, suggesting a spectrum of interpretations ranging from him being remembered as a 'villain' excommunicated by Muḥammad to having been one of the main 'heroes' of the divine miracle of the early
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City-republics of Northern Italy and the Sicilian Vespers: The Perception of the Revolt in the Urban Chronicles Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-10-28 Francesco Migliazzo
ABSTRACT The revolt of the Vespers was immediately perceived around the Mediterranean and Europe as a turning point that threatened one of the greatest potentates in Europe: the Angevin Kingdom of Sicily. In central-northern Italy, these events jeopardised the Guelph hegemony supported by the Angevins and so the Italian city-republics experienced the consequences of the revolt, but its political and
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The Late Mamlūk Transition of the 1380s: The View from the North Caucasus Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-10-28 John Latham-Sprinkle
ABSTRACT This article argues that the transition between the early and late Mamlūk Sultanate in Egypt in the 1380s was partially caused by political developments in the Northwest Caucasus. The transition from “Turkish” to “Circassian” mamlūk dominance was facilitated by the rise of new princely elites in the Northwest Caucasus during the bulqaq civil wars in the Ulūs of Jochi (Golden Horde) (1359–1381)
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Military Jihād against Muslims: ‘Abd Allāh b. Yāsīn and the Foundation of a Saharan Political Unit that Would Conquer the Maghreb and al-Andalus (Eleventh Century) Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-10-25 Inês Lourinho
ABSTRACT In 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Urban II delivered a speech that roused the crowds against the infidels.Footnote1View all notes Soon thereafter, the Christian sovereigns rallied the troops, targeting Jerusalem. Even in the Iberian Peninsula, the population went into raptures at the prospect of taking up arms,Footnote2View all notes and had to be appeased by the Pope so as not to undermine
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“Lest the Faithful Doubt or the Heretics Mock”: Patriarchs, Caliphs and Implementing Excommunication in the Jacobite Church c.650–850 Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-10-25 Philip Wood
ABSTRACT This article considers the role of the Muslim authorities in enforcing Christian excommunication. After setting out late Roman precedents for the use of excommunication, it examines four cases in the period 650-850 in which the patriarch opposed other high-ranking clergy. It argues that Muslim authorities were increasingly willing to intervene in these disputes to support the legitimacy of
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Excommunication and apostasy: re-drawing Jewish communal boundaries in Fāṭimid and Ayyūbid Egypt Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-10-21 Moshe Yagur
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 35, No. 1, 2023)
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Warrior Women in Ibn Rushd’s Commentary on Plato’s Republic: Mythico-Barbarian Geography in the Case for Female Guardians, an Unsolved Passage Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-10-09 Tineke Melkebeek
ABSTRACT In his commentary on Plato’s Republic, Ibn Rushd (Averroes) discusses the case for female guardians. Besides following Socrates’s argument for female warriors, which cites the efficiency of female guard dogs, Ibn Rushd introduces an additional argument: that the female capacity for warfare is evident from the inhabitants of certain regions. Unfortunately, the precise formulation of the regions
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Minorities in Contact in the Medieval Mediterranean Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-10-01 Enrico Boccaccini
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 34, No. 3, 2022)
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Codex Epistolaris Carolinus: Letters from the popes to the Frankish rulers, 739-791 Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-09-29 Christopher Heath
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 34, No. 3, 2022)
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Talking Maps Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-09-29 Brittany Forniotis
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 34, No. 3, 2022)
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Nomads in the Middle East Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-09-29 Nicholas Morton
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 34, No. 3, 2022)
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Franks and Crusades in Medieval Eastern Christian Historiography Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-09-29 Nicholas Morton
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 34, No. 3, 2022)
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Bridge of Civilizations: The Near East and Europe, c.1100-1300 Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-09-29 Nicholas Morton
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 34, No. 3, 2022)
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The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the Crusades Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-09-28 Hülya Taflı Düzgün Assoc. Prof. Dr.
Published in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Vol. 34, No. 3, 2022)
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May the Umayyad Coastal Ribāṭ Fortress of Kafr Lāb Have Been Built in Memory of Mujāhid ibn Jabr? Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-07-29 Hassan S. Khalilieh
ABSTRACT The history of the ribāṭ of Kafr Lāb is shrouded in obscurity. Until the IAA undertook archaeological excavations of the site near Caesarea in 1999, the great majority of contemporary scholars tended to attribute the fortress's construction to the Crusaders, who captured the port-city of Caesarea and its district in 1101. Based on written records from the Islamic and pre-Islamic periods and
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What Does Ibn Khaldūn Mean by the Term Mādda? On Human Association and Political-Economic Organisation Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-06-21 Lilian Abou-Tabickh
ABSTRACT Preeminent interpreters of Al-Muqaddima situate Ibn Khaldūn’s thought within ancient philosophy based on philosophical terminology that appears in the text. In this essay, I argue that in the context of ʿilm al-ʿumrān, Ibn Khaldūn does not use the term “matter” in the philosophical-metaphysical sense of natural philosophy, but in an economic sense to mean money. This interpretation is based
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Exaltation of Women in the Chapter on Muḥammad in Ibn ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-06-13 Ismail Lala
ABSTRACT Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) is arguably the most influential Ṣūfī in Islam. Of his vast oeuvre, no work has attracted more attention than Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. In the most important chapter of this work – on Muḥammad – Ibn ʿArabī writes of the true significance of women, showing the exceptionally high regard in which he holds them. Ibn ʿArabī is keen to underscore that it is the metaphysical
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Ifrīqiya’s Status in the Caliphal Hierarchy in the Marwānid Period Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-05-08 Antonia Bosanquet
ABSTRACT This article examines the integration of Ifrīqiya into the Umayyad Empire from the conquest of Carthage in 78/698 until the ʿAbbāsid revolution in 132/750. It compares the province of Ifrīqiya with the province of Egypt and argues that, although Ifrīqiya and Egypt were both directly subordinated to caliphal control from 86/705 and therefore equal in a formal administrative sense, Ifrīqiya
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Reconsidering the Fort at Civetot (Kibotos) and the Recent Discovery of a Submerged Building Complex in Nicomedia Bay Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-04-26 Serkan Gündüz, Işıl Akalan Gündüz
ABSTRACT This article proposes a new approach to debates over the fort’s location at Civetot (Kibotos), known to have been built by Emperor Alexios in the eleventh century before it disappeared from the historical record after the thirteenth. The crusades significantly changed the political and cultural structure of Asia Minor so understanding the early period of the crusades is important for gauging
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The Absence of the Jewish Usurer Trope in Andalusī Written Sources Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-04-25 Adday Hernández
ABSTRACT Starting in the twelfth century, usury became one of the immoral activities attributed to the Jews in Christian anti-Jewish propaganda. Jews became so commonly associated with usury in the Latin-Christian world that the word “Jew” itself became a synonym for “usurer”, mainly in the texts of Christian exegetes. However, although this trope spread geographically and over time, it does not seem
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The Mount Sinai Monastery: A Successful Example of Shared Holy Space Al-Masāq Pub Date : 2022-03-16 Bernard Hamilton,Andrew Jotischky