Preserving the Architectural Heritage of al-Andalus. From Restoration to Virtual Reconstruction

The legacy of Arab-Muslim architecture in Spain is one of the most valuable parts of the wealthy Spanish heritage. The application of new concepts and practices to the conservation of this architecture has led to numerous examples of restoration which respect historical values, while using the most modern techniques and principles at the same time. Nowadays, virtual reconstruction of buildings that have been destroyed or severely changed, carried out using computer graphics, enables the analysis of such important aspects as visual perception, character given to space by colour and material textures, light effects, etc. Using these means it is also possible to present and study different alternatives or hypotheses without having to make physical alterations to the original elements. These new instruments, with their capacity to transmit knowledge and research results, also offer new ways of understanding the spreading of heritage. Several case studies of the use of these tools applied to al-Andalus architecture are presented.     

“He Was a Muslim Knight Who Fought for Religion,Not for the World”. War and Religiosity in Islam: A Comparative Study between the Islamic East and West (Twelfth century)

In the second half of the twelfth century, the Maghreb and the Mashriq saw two new political and religious projects taking place, which shared a common reformist spirit. The Almohad movement and the process initiated by Zankī (r. 1127–1146) gave a crucial role to jihād, as well as introducing far-reaching religious reform, doing away with the supposed decadence that had taken hold in the years before. The combination of these two elements gave rise to a greater exchange between religiosity and war. A comparative analysis of Islamic sources from both east and west reveals this increase of religiosity in war in three different fields: the participation of religious elites in the armies; the rise in the use of rituals and religiosity while at war, by means of sermons, speeches and the use of “sacred” objects; and miraculous events related to acts of war.     

Travelogue of an Almohad Sherd: from Twelfth-Century al-Andalus to Fourteenth-Century Flanders*

Excavations in Sint-Lievens-Houtem (Flanders, Belgium), an important medieval pilgrimage village, uncovered a fourteenth-century refuse pit. This feature contained a fragment of a rare Andalusī moulded lustreware vessel, dating to the mid or second half of the twelfth century. The reconstruction of the vessel’s itinerary aids in understanding how an object travelled from Muslim Spain to Catholic Flanders and why it ended up under Sint-Lievens-Houtem’s marketplace, about two centuries after its production. Traditional explanations of Crusades or trade seem unlikely or do not account for the entire trajectory of the vessel. These narratives are therefore extended with the incorporation of the vessel in Sint-Lievens-Houtem’s church treasury. This biographical approach offers a valuable framework to interpret the increasing number of Islamic finds across Europe, the way by which they travelled north and the contexts in which they functioned.     

The Almohads and the Qur’ān of Uthm ān: The Legacy of the Umayyads of Cordoba in the Twelfth Century Maghrib

The sixth/twelfth century geographer, al-Idrīsī, alludes to the presence of the so-called Qur’ān of Uthmān in the great Mosque of Cordoba and a ceremony in which it was brought out and paraded daily after the Umayyads proclaimed themselves caliphs in 317/929-30. Around 552/1157, the same Qur’ān appeared in the processions of the Almohads, a Ma?mūda Berber dynasty from the High Atlas mountains, who also claimed to be caliphs. Ibn ?ā?ib al-?alāt, al-Marrākushī and the unknown author of the ?ulal al-mawshiyya, who describe the Almohad parades, all mention the Qur’ān's Uthmānic antecedents and possession by the Umayyads. Using this as a starting point, this paper will explore the image the Umayyads projected in the Maghrib, and the later significance of Cordoban Umayyad prototypes to the ruling Mu’minid dynasty of the Almohads. This contributes to a larger discussion of the evolution of a paradigm of imperial power in the Islamic west and its manipulation to legitimise a succession of dynasties whose actual origins, ambitions and praxis diverged widely.