Al-Andalus (Muslim Iberia), A Past for The Present?

Carsten Niebuhr Lecture at the David Collection by Professor Maribel Fierro, Institute for the Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean – CSIC.

Abstract

The name al-Andalus was given by the Muslims to the Iberian Peninsula (Iberia) when they entered it as conquerors in 711. The name mainly became associated with those territories under Muslim rule. Given that such a rule lasted longer in the southern region, this area is now known as Andalucía. On their part, the Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula called it Sefarad.

Many traces today remind the visitors of modern Spain and Portugal of the societies including Jews, Christians and Muslims that existed in the past. Such a past has been approached in different ways. For example, it has given rise to compelling and long-lasting conceptions of al-Andalus as a lost paradise for Muslims all over the world; as the 'Golden Age' of Medieval Judaism; as the land of 'convivencia' where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived in mutual appreciation; as the heritage lost by the local Christians that had to be recovered in a process labelled 'Reconquista'...

All these past readings carry a heavy weight for historians interested in studying the history of al-Andalus. Drawing on my own experience as a scholar, I will give an overview of how al-Andalus has been imagined both in the past and the present and what we gain and lose by making it a 'combat concept'.

Practical information

Space is limited, so reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Please RSVP your attendance no later than Friday 9 September to Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen.

The lecturer and recipient of the Carsten Niebuhr prize, Maribel Fierro, is a Research Professor at the Institute for the Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean - CSIC - The Spanish National Research Council. Her research focuses on the political and intellectual history of the pre-modern Islamic West (al-Andalus and North Africa), Islamic (Maliki) law and on the construction of orthodoxy in Islamic societies. Among other works, she is the author of 'Abd al-Mu'min. Mahdism and caliphate in the Islamic West (2021) and the editor of The Routledge Handbook on Muslim Iberia (2020).