Epitaph of an ‘Āmirī (Cordova 374 H/985 CE)

Epitaph of an ʿĀmirī (Cordova 374 H /985 CE)

Carmen Barceló

University of Valencia, Spain

[email protected]

© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2015, Office 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX

JIA 1.2 (2014) 121–142 Journal of Islamic Archaeology ISSN (print) 2051-9710doi: 10.1558/jia.v1i2.21557 Journal of Islamic Archaeology ISSN (print) 2051-9729

Keywords: al-Andalus, Caliphate period, al-Mansur, epigraphy, tombstones, turbah, Umayyad mawlā and fatā kabīr

An analysis of a marble tombstone in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, which was acquired in its entirety in Cordova (Spain) in 1916, has provided information on some of the slaves freed by the ḥājib Muḥammad b. Abī ʿĀmir, better known as al-Mansur, and the activities and the lives they led in his court in the Umayyad capital of al-Anda-lus. A careful study of the marble slab’s internal and external characteristics yields the following conclusion: that this piece possibly served as a gravestone for a young male child that died in the year 374 H/985 CE, son of a relative or fictitious member of the family of al-Mansur, whose genealogy is reflected in the deceased child’s nasab, which reads “son of Muḥammad al-ʿĀmirī.” To arrive at this conclusion, it was necessary to gather as much information as possible regarding all the persons in al-Andalus using the nisbah al-ʿĀmirī, culling data from chronicles, biographies, and artistic and literary sources. This analysis revealed two lineages: Some uses of the name seemed to be asso-ciated with ancient Arab tribes from the North (Qaḥṭānids) and the South (ʿAdnānids), but most seem to be linked to the walā’ system of patronage, especially those slaves of the court of al-Mansur at the end of the 10th century under the Umayyad Cali-phate of Cordova. This relationship with al-Mansur is further attested by the presence of the nisbah al-ʿĀmirī in surviving epigraphic texts carved in architectural elements made of marble in Cordovan palaces and ivory pieces produced during the Caliphate. In these pieces, which are now key works in the history of Islamic art in Spain, the nisbah al-ʿĀmirī is linked to slave chiefs (mawlā) who supervised and coordinated the production of artistic objects on behalf of the Caliph.

Among the holdings of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) of London there is a white marble tombstone featuring an Arabic inscription, which was donated by the museum’s benefactor Dr. Walter Leo Hildburgh (1876–1955), a well-known American art collector who came to London in 1912 (Rosser-Owen 2010). Hildburgh donated most the objects he acquired in Spain to the V&A museum, which, thanks to his patronage, now boasts a remarkable collection of Islamic Andalusi art (Rosser-Owen 2011, 164). The item under study here was assigned an inventory number of

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© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2015

A 92–1921, with the last four digits representing the year that the piece was acquired by the museum. Now in storage, this piece belongs to the museum’s Medieval Epig-raphy Spain Collection. A handwritten note on the back of the slab contains informa-tion regarding the location and date of acquisition, as well as other details concern-ing its purchase (Figure 1). The note reads as follows:

Small marble slab with Kufic inscription. When [dis]covered by vendor, it was bui[lt hori]zontally into a wall, in [the man]ner of a flat brick, with [only] one edge showing. It appears at one time to have been used as a door-base. Cordova, 16.

The handwritten note transcribed above mentions the slab’s use as a door-base, an assumption supported by the presence of a mark on the surface of one of the faces of the tombstone, which was probably left behind by a hinge. The slab may have been re-used as a base of sorts or served as a jamb for a shutter, or an outer door at some point in time. It would appear that the small circular hole with a diameter of 3.5 cm was cut into the slab (damaging a small portion of the inscription), for the purpose of holding a peg. Given its reduced size, this hole would have been too small to with-stand the weight of a solid door of any kind; holes normally made for this purpose in Andalusi marble slabs bearing Arabic inscriptions are generally between 8 and 10 cm in diameter. It is more reasonable to imagine that this hole served to hold a small inner door for a small opening or ventilation window.

Figure 1. Handwritten note from Dr. Hildburgh on the back of the V&A marble slab. Victoria & Albert Museum, London (Photo courtesy of Dr. Mariam Rosser-Owen).

Epitaph of an ‘Āmirī (Cordova 374 H /985 CE) 123


After its use as a door-base, but prior to the slab’s purchase in 1916, this 27.5 cm x 20 cm piece was used as a structural element built into the wall of a house; its present-day dimensions correspond to roughly half of the standard size seen in rectangu-lar solid stones typically used in Spain from the Middle Ages onward, which usually measured approximately 45 cm x 35 cm x 5 cm (Barceló 1998, 1: 68).

This thesis as to the slab’s subsequent use is further supported by the presence of rough grooves on the back (which does not bear any inscriptions) created by a tool such as a pick in order to enhance the slab’s adherence to the wall mortar, the remains of which are still visible in some of the grooved areas and especially in the upper edge of the carved face of the tablet. This indicates that it was probably re-used in another building at a later date, much later than its original date of manufacture.

The absence of further information on the piece makes it impossible to guess as to the origin of the slab or the locations in Cordova where it was re-used for the second and third time.

Description of the piece

Rectangular in shape, this marble slab is an example of the now-familiar tablet, or lawḥ, bearing text carved in relief, which was common in the period of the Andalusi Caliphate (Barceló 2004, 178). Its still-visible border frames the carved Arabic inscrip-tion on the tablet’s two vertical sides and bottom edge, and measures 1.25 cm wide along the vertical and 1.5 wide along its horizontal bottom edge. The sides of the marble slab show signs of wear. The front of the tablet has a polished surface, and while the back has been somewhat smoothed it has not received further treatment. This is a characteristic that is common to surviving inscribed tombstones from dif-ferent periods produced in al-Andalus (Barceló 1998, 1: 61–62 and 2: figs. 5–9 and 11; Barceló 2004, 177).

The upper edge of the slab is cracked, and the upper corners also show signs of frac-ture, as do the two lower corners. The loss of the thin band or border along the upper edge which framed the inscription was doubtless the result of the slab’s subsequent adaptation and installation in a smaller space. Even though it now measures 27.5 cm (H) by 20 cm (W), it is clear that the upper part of the slab had a border of some kind. This means that the stone’s original height was slightly greater than its current height. By our calculations the stone originally measured approximately 29 cm (27.5 cm plus a border width of at least 1.5 cm).

Slab anchoring points

Each corner of the marble slab contains fractures and marks around what appears to be the vestiges of a hole (four in total), which is visible on both sides of the slab; the only other markings that are visible are some very small notches (Figure 2, 4). The slab seems to have broken around these holes, indicating that the marble stone was torn from its original location with great force, removing it from the anchoring points which supported the slab on a vertical surface. In fact, the upper corners (left and right) of the front side of the slab show some remnants of oxidation that could have been left behind by a bolt of some sort which held the slab onto a wall (Figure 4).

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These holes do not correspond to the slab’s subsequent use but must have been made when the inscription was carved into the slab, as the inscription itself does not seem to be altered by the holes.

Similarly-shaped notches (also made at the corners) have been observed on other marble slabs produced in al-Andalus, and Cordova in particular. The oldest record of their use can be seen in the tombstone of ʿUqār, jāriya of Muḥammad the Amir (r. 238–273 H/852–886 CE) who died in 268 H/852 CE.1 Three of the original four fasten-ing points are visible on this piece, with the fourth corner completely lost due to breakage (Ocaña 1952, no. 1 and 1970, Table V).

Holes such as these are also seen in two tombstones made in the 9th century. The first, a small fragment of a tomb marker for a man who died in Cordova in 277 H/891 CE; here, there is a mark left behind by a hole made in the lower right corner (Ocaña 1970, table VII). The second, a small fragment of a tombstone made to mark the death of a relative of the Emir Muḥammad (MACo, inv. n. 10.993), features a mark on its upper-left corner. Although no date can be found on this latter piece, its Kufic char-acters (Santos 1953, 28, fig. 15) date it to the end of the 9th century.

The early tombstones of the Umayyad Caliphate, were directly embedded into the outside walls of buildings (Barceló 2004b). While similar orifices have also been observed in a tablet that commemorated the construction of a bridge in Écija (Seville)

1. Archaeological Museum, Cordova (Spain) [ = MACo], inv. n. 11.335; 51 cm x 30 cm. This piece is reproduced on plate 46 of Bernus-Taylor 2000, 94.

Figure 2. Marble slab, back. Victoria & Albert Museum, London (Photo courtesy of Dr. M. Rosser-Owen).



under the orders of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III in 318 H/930 CE (Souto 2010, 238, fig. 2), it is difficult to determine whether they were made during the Islamic era or at a later date.

Perforations made for the anchoring of slabs have been seen in pieces from the city of Toledo dating from the 10th century during the reign of al-Mansur. One such exam-ple, a white marble tombstone dating from 370 H/981 CE, features similar notches on its right and left corners, although on the left side only traces of such perforations can be seen (Museo de Santa Cruz (Toledo, Spain), inv. n. 21; Lévi-Provençal 1931, no. 51, Table XIII, b; Delgado Valero 1987, no. 48). In Cordova we also see them on at least seven tombstones. Interestingly, five of these pieces bear the same date: the year 400 H/1011 CE (Lévi-Provençal 1931, no. 25, Table VIII b; Fernández Puertas 1977; Labarta et al. 1995, 160; MACo, nos. inv. 11506, 108260). The remaining two are undated, but one likely dates from a period subsequent to 366 H/976 CE, as this is the date of Caliph al-Ḥakam II’s death, which is mentioned in the inscription (Monferrer et al. 2009, 492); based on the style of its characters, the other slab can be dated to the end of the fourth century of the Hijra (MACo, inv. n. 11.507; Lévi-Provençal 1931, Table VIII, c).

Some of the slabs mentioned here show breakage at this same anchoring point - the weakest point of the tablet, explaining why corners are frequently missing from tablets such as these (a phenomenon observed in our V&A slab). In other instances, this breakage has unfortunately affected the inscription itself. Doubtless, then, that the purpose of these circular holes was to hold hooks, fasteners or bolts to anchor the slab to a wall.

Figure 3. Map of Cordova (circa 1980), showing the location of the al-Rabaḍ al-Qiblī cemetery. 1. Al-Jāmiʿ. 2. Maqbarat Quraysh. 3. Maqbarat al-Rabaḍ 4. Bāb ʿĀmir. 5. Tower of Cala-horra (Drawing: Carmen Barceló).

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This phenomenon has led the author to suggest that these were carved for a mauso-leum, vault or family crypt (Barceló 2004). Archaeological excavations in non-urban cemeteries of al-Andalus have identified some rectangular tombstones found in an area enclosed by a wall containing a number of graves. These slabs were set into the wall enclosing the gravesite, which is located in the city of Orihuela, Alicante (Mar-tínez Núñez 2001, 46 and 61–66, no. 2, 331 H/943 CE).

For the time being, however, there is no documented proof of the existence of tombstones (with or without epigraphic inscriptions) that may have been placed on one of the four inner or outer walls of any funerary building of the 10th century which made use of fastenings of any kind; nor is there any evidence of a building existing in excavations of funerary sites of that period.

Yet information from written sources tells another story. Medieval Arabic records from al-Andalus indicate that during the period of al-Mansur, the Arrabal (al-Rabaḍ) cemetery of Cordova located on the left bank of the river opposite the main mosque, contained funerary chambers known as turbah. Much like a mausoleum, these con-tained tombs, with one in particular holding the remains of Princess Marjān, mother of the Caliph al-Ḥakam II. Featuring both walls (aswār) and doors (abwāb), this build-ing was used by the qadi, or Islamic judge, of the court of Ibn Zarb, who sought ref-uge from the people of Cordova, maddened by his ineffectual intercession to God for much-needed rain during a harsh drought (al-Nubāhī Marqaba, trans. 1948, 79 and 2005, 114 ed., 251).

This information confirms that the Cordovan al-Rabaḍ al-Qiblī cemetery, which housed the mausoleums of the Marwanids, included areas devoted to women of the harems of Umayyad amirs and caliphs, as evidenced by the various epitaphs recov-ered from the city’s Fray Albino district (Figure 3), a short distance away from the Medieval tower of Calahorra, in El Campo de la Verdad (Ocaña 1952, 379–380; Barceló 1992, 549, 552).

It can therefore be stated that during the Umayyad period cemeteries of the Ibe-rian Peninsula housed chambers not unlike mausoleums or crypts—whose dimen-sions and capacity are unknown to us—which were generally enclosed areas; perhaps their function was to remind the masses of the link that existed between these monu-ments and certain well-positioned families which buried their dead there. This was a common custom among the Cordovan populace under the caliph, some even bury-ing their deceased kin next to their homes, as in the case of the qadi ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn Fuṭays (d. 402 H/1012 CE), who was interred in the family crypt (turbaht salafihi) located next to the home of his ancestors (Ibn Bashkuwāl Ṣila 1883, 2: 469, no. 682).

As for our marble slab from the V&A collection, for the time being and owing to the paucity of data, we cannot draw any conclusions as to whether it was originally located in one of Cordova’s numerous cemeteries.

Slab inscription

The entire marble slab has been carved using a point and chisel, and bears an inscrip-tion enclosed by a rectangle (0.26 m x 0.175 m). The inscription consists of seven lines; no markings that may have served as guides can be seen on the stone. There is a sepa-



ration of 3.5 cm between base-lines. Line length is consistent throughout, a standard practice in epigraphic inscriptions of al-Andalus under the caliphs (Barceló 2004, 177). The bottom edge of the first line is located at a distance of 5 cm from the upper border, while the last line (3 cm high) is just 0.5 cm from the lower border (Figure 4).

The Arabic script used in the text is Kufic, which is mainly characterized by the absence of the points used to differentiate characters—the reason why no diacritics or other ancillary signs were used in the inscription. Using the terms employed by renowned Spanish epigraphist Manuel Ocaña to describe Kufic writing, the calligra-phy observed on the slab can be ascribed to the “simple” style used in al-Andalus; that is, the style in which the ends of the characters have not been converted into decorative elements (Ocaña 1970, 35–44 and figs. 7-8; Ocaña EI2, 5: 218–219).

In addition, there are few instances where characters have been joined by way of a connecting stroke below the base line (Figures 4, 5). In fact, these connections are only clearly visible twice, between the letters lām and hā’ in the words Allāh (Line 1)

Figure 4. Front side of slab, with inscription. Victoria & Albert Museum, London (Photo cour-tesy of Dr. M. Rosser-Owen).

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and layla (Line 4). This general absence of connecting strokes is a characteristic of inscriptions used in official contexts in Cordova at the end of the 10th and the early 11th centuries—a period that corresponds to the reign of Umayyad Caliph Hisham II, and in particular the time of his ḥājib or chamberlain al-Manṣūr (Ocaña 1970, 42).

This piece features one unusual characteristic, however, that has not been observed in inscriptions from the official Cordovan workshops before the period of al-Mansur. There is an evident hierarchical difference between letters, whose size decreases in a downward fashion. There is a clear size difference between the first line of charac-ters (Figures 4, 5, 6), whose alifs measure 5 cm in height and the remaining lines (alif = 3 cm). This technique gives the text an added visual dimension and has also been observed in a foundational inscription from Lisbon dating from the same year 374 H/985 CE (Barceló, in press).

Another characteristic of the Kufic script of al-Andalus of the period and associated with the reign of its third caliph is the terminal chamfer applied to some of the final letters (such as nūn and rā’). These are not curved, as in the style that is often given the descriptive name of “swan neck,” a flourish which was commonly used during the rule of Caliph al-Hakam II (r. 350–366 H/961–976 CE). In the inscription of the marble slab at the V&A museum, the nūn sign (14f) has a longer ascender, only on the word bn, at the end of the second line (Figures 5, 6). However this element does not exhibit the characteristic shape of the “swan-neck,” which in other cases touched the base-line above (Ocaña 1970, 42).

This inscription shares many features with two other inscriptions of the same time period. One of these, produced in the same year as our epitaph, commemorates the

Figure 5. Alphabet and connecting elements (374 H/985 CE). Cordovan tombstone, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (Drawing: Carmen Barceló).



renovation of the walls of the city of Lisbon and is now on display at the Museu da Cidade in the Portuguese capital (Barceló, in press). It also bears some resemblance to an inscription running along the edge of a marble font, now at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid (Inv. n. 50428). This inscription mentions the ḥājib al-Manṣūr Abī ʿĀmir Muḥammad b. Abī ʿĀmir, or al-Mansur, and states that it was carved for him at the al-Zāhira palace (bi-qaṣr al-Zāhira) in 377 H/987 CE (Ocaña 1970, Table VII).

The Arabic text on the marble slab under study (Figure 4 and 6) reads as follows:

bismillāhi l-raḥmāni l-raḥīm. / hādhā qabru jumʿata bini f.tūḥini bni / muḥammadini l-ʿāmirī. tuwuffiya ra/ḥimahu Allāh laylata l-arbiʿā’i / li-ti[sʿin baqī]na min jumādā l-ā/khirati sanata arbaʿin wa-sabʿīna / wa-thalāthi mi’ah. ghafara Allāhu lahu.

Translation: 1 In the name of God, Merciful and Forgiving. / 2 This is the tomb of Jumʿa bn F.tūḥ bn / 3 Muḥammad al-ʿĀmirī. He died, may God have mer-/ 4 cy on him, on Wednesday eve / 5 at ni[ne (nights) from] Jumādā the la-/ 6 st of year seventy-four / 7 and three hundred May God forgive him!

Figure 6. Diagram of the V&A tombstone inscription (Drawing: Carmen Barceló).

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When inscribing the text on the slab, the inscriber took the liberty of separating two words over two lines, separating them at points in which the letters would not have been connected to the letters that follow. This occurs between lines 3 and 4 (ra/ḥima-hu) and again between lines 5 and 6 (al-ā/khira). In studies on Arabic epigraphy in al-Andalus, these licenses were considered to be errors in the carving work, even though this was a widespread practice in all kinds of inscriptions throughout Medi-eval Islam. As has been described and explained in another paper (Barceló 1998, 1: 101–106), this cannot be attributed to linguistic ignorance on the part of the artisan.

The inscriber also used scriptio defectiva in two words: al-raḥman and thalath (lines 1 and 7), which were traditionally written with the alif subscript.

Commentary on the text

The inscription is the epitaph of a man. If we compare the text to the C. Barceló’s protocol and formulas used prior to the 13th century on epitaphs of al-Andalus, the text seen here makes use of the typical structure of funerary tombstones for males during the tenth century:

a. basmala;b. “this is the tomb of” (hādhā qabr) and name of the deceased;c. “died” (tuwuffiya);d. “May God have mercy on him” (raḥimahu Allāh);e. profession of faith (shahāda) and date of death;f. prayer for the deceased, expressed in a manner that is different from that in d)

of Barceló’s protocol (1990, 41–54; 2004, 179–180).If we compare the textual formulas used on this piece with those used on tomb-

stones of the same type produced at approximately the same period from the city of Cordova, our epitaph contains the same four formulas at the beginning of the text, that is, from a) to d), in the same order with the same content. In c), our epitaph indi-cates the date of death alone, following the same formula as that seen on tombstones of the period: day of the week, date, month and year (Barceló 2004, 180). Here, the text indicates that death occurred on a Wednesday. Readers should recall that a small portion of the text at the beginning of line 5 is missing due to a 4-cm hole. This made it necessary to insert a numeral that matched the rest of the date information given, i.e. Wednesday, and the month of the second Jumādā of the year 374 of the Hegira.

I believe that the only numeral that fits is “nine (nights) from”. When the calendars are converted, the only day possible (in theory) would be the night of Tuesday (and not Wednesday) 18 November 984 of the Common Era, which would mean that there is an apparent error in the inscription. However, this is not the case: as M. Ocaña has clearly explained (1981, 149), in al-Andalus one night was often added to the second half of the lunar month. Therefore if we add another night to “nine (nights) from” (20th of the month) then we actually have “eight (nights) from” (19th of the month), which means that the date, both theoretical and real, would fall on a Tuesday. If the error were attributable to an extra day added to the lunar month, we would have to accept that the month of Jumādā II of the year 374 started one day later than that indicated in the theoretical calculation and the restored number would also be correct.



Upon examining the text, right away we observe that one of the most important elements found in this type of inscription is missing from the epitaph: the shahāda or the Muslim profession of faith, for during this period in Cordova it was customary to include a declaration of this type (Barceló 1990, 47–48; Barceló 1998, 1: 78–79). The absence of the shahāda in our inscription is rare in tombstones of al-Andalus and the Umayyad capital. Perhaps the reason lies in the circumstances of death or the deceased himself, who may not have been able to profess his faith at all; this line of reasoning has led us to think that perhaps the deceased was a child, who was too young to speak.

Another detail which supports this thesis is the use of a shortened petition for forgive-ness; a pious eulogy to conclude the epitaph. This statement is reduced in our inscrip-tion to the more generic “May God forgive him!” (ghafara Allāh lahu), a final invocation that was commonly used during the times of al-Mansur (Barceló 2004, 180). Many funer-ary stones of al-Andalus include this petition, which comes from the Quran and the Hadith, and was also used in reference to the deceased. Although it usually appears on its own, in certain areas and periods it can sometimes be accompanied by other expres-sions forming a long prayer included at the end of the inscription (Barceló 1990).

If the above thesis is true, then the inscription under study is missing an invocation often used in epitaphs for children produced in al-Andalus: “May God have mercy on him and make him an intercessor for his parents (raḥimahu Allāh wa-jaʿalahu shafīʿan li-abawayhi)” (Barceló 1977, 228; Barceló 1998, 1: 149–150, n. 15) or “May God make his parents benefit from him (nafaʿa Allāh bihi li-abawayhi)” (Lévi-Provençal 1931, nos. 27, 126), a pious supplication which directly refers to the parents of the deceased. In the case of our epitaph, the final invocation in favour of the parents may have been omitted due to considerations of space.

Identity of the deceased

That marble was used to engrave the tombstone indicates that it was a family of some means. In al-Andalus, this material was used in more than half of the inscribed tombstones that survive to this day. This type of stone is only employed in half of the inscribed tombstones of the Caliphal period (Barceló 2004, 176); with the other half produced using limestone. A few inscriptions have also been found on fragments of sandstone—a type of stone that is plentiful in the Iberian Peninsula (Barceló 2004, 176). The fact that it is marble is a valuable piece of information, for it demonstrates that it comes from the ancient Umayyad capital.

The epitaph features some elements (both external and internal) which indicate that the stone was prepared for the tomb of a child and not an adult. Elements found within the inscription itself and the various formulae found within it (internal) have already been cited above. Yet there are other elements external to the inscription that provide clues that lead to the same hypothesis. The main indication that this stone tablet was used for a child’s tomb is the size of the tablet itself, which is small in comparison with the average size of marble slabs found in Cordovan tombs for adult individuals. Intact adult tombstones that survive generally measure about 0.45 m x 0.30 m (Barceló 1998, 1: 66–67). It is clear that the smaller size of the slab studied here was probably associated to a tomb that was also smaller than the norm.

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Other slabs have been found with similar dimensions: a tombstone (0.44 m x 0.35 m) for a child buried in 432 H/1041 CE in the Taifa of Denia (Alicante), with an inscription measuring 0.26 m x 0.31 m (Barceló 1977, 227). In Cordova there is an unpublished tombstone of a three-year old girl (0.30 m x 0.25 m), without a date but which prob-ably dates to the early 12th century owing to the style of the inscription (MACo inv. n. 12479). A reduced text format (0.35 m x 0.30 m) was used on a funerary monument (0.76 m x 0.39 m) for the Caliph Yūsuf Ibn Tāshufīn’s nephew, who died in 517 H/1123 CE (Lévi-Provençal 1931, n. 27).

The reduced size of these tombs for infants is also seen in the prism-shaped forms used on monuments that became popular during the Almoravid period, along with the funerary monuments in the form of a vertical rectangle. One such monument survives, and can be found in the Archaeological Museum of Malaga. Sometimes incorrectly referred to as a mqābrīya, this prism-shaped monument was made for the grave of a girl, who died in Almeria in 524 H/1130 CE (Ocaña 1964, n. 57). Its small dimensions (0.55 m x 0.15 m x 0.13 m) are noteworthy because the monuments usu-ally engraved for both adult men and women generally measured 1.70 m x 0.24 m x 0.21 m (Barceló 1998, 1: 70).

The name of the deceased

The name of the deceased is also remarkable–given the fact that it was not customary in funerary inscriptions of al-Andalus to include the name (ism) of the departed with two or more names of their ancestors (nasab) and their patronymic, the name associ-ated to their geographical origin or lineage (nisbah). There are just a few instances where the proper name is added to the family name (Barceló 1998, 1: 79). Although this may have been the norm in some rural areas, it was not customary in the cities, where it was not uncommon to include at least the name of the deceased, their two immediate ancestors and their lineage or geographical origin (Barceló 2004, 10–11).

This inscription contains a series of names that were uncommon during the Caliphal period. Although records alluding to the isms ʿ alam Jamʿah or Jumʿah are found in the general history of Arabic names (Al-Zubayr 1991a, 1: 337–338 and 1991b, 3: 1421), these are not found among the names of notable individuals included in chronicles and biographies of al-Andalus from the moment of the conquest to the death of its first caliph (Marín 1983), nor were they used during the reign of his son al-Hakam or his successor al-Mansur, the period in which the inscription was made.

Although the name of the deceased’s grandfather (Muḥammad) was and still is quite common and found in every corner of the Islamic world, the name of his father was not as frequent in 10th century Cordova; it is not the name of Fatḥ, which is often found in Arabic sources (Meouak 1999, 208, n. 23; Rodríguez et al. 2000a, 386; Souto 2005) and those using the Roman alphabet (Labarta 1987, 192), where the name is also used as a kunya (Terés 1992, 18–19, n. 341 Abū l-Fatḥ). Nor can we find the name of Fatḥ in records on the use of names among the ancient Arabic peoples; for instance, it is not found in the large repertoire of names of the Nihāyat al-arab by the Egyptian Aḥmad al-Qalqashandī (756–821 H/1355–1418 CE).



On the name F.tūḥ

Perhaps the name of the deceased’s father was the same as that of the celebrated Nasrid ḥājib Fatūḥ b. Mufarrij, whose kunya was Abū l-Naṣr. This name is found on the tombstones of two of his sons who died in the mid-fifteenth century (Lévi-Provençal 1931, xliv and nos. 183, 184). Among the scholars of al-Andalus there are few indi-viduals that bear this name. Yet some chronicles from the first era of the Taifa kings (mulūk al-ṭawā’if) mention the existence of individuals with this ism. Although the sources do not indicate how this name was spelled, it was probably Fattūḥ (Al-Zubayr 1991b, 2: 1311, s.v. “fattūḥ”).

The first possibility, that of Abū Naṣr Futūḥ b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Futūḥ b. Ḥumayd al-Azdī, born in al-Ruṣāfa in Cordova, who later escaped to Majorca where his son al-Ḥumaydī (420-488 H/1029–1095 CE) was born, author of the Jadhwat al-muqtabis (A. Huici Miranda EI2, 3: 573–574).

Another individual who bore this name is an ancestor of ʿĀmir ibn F.tūḥ, who was the governor of Malaga in 405 H/1015 CE. Some Arabic sources claim that he was a client (mawlā) and personal servant of Fā’iq, the fatā kabīr of al-Hakam II (Meouak 1991–1992, 225). He accompanied the troops of Idrīsid ʿAlī ibn Ḥammūd, who were joined by the troops of Khayrān of Almeria to take possession of Cordova (Ibn ʿIdhārī, Bayān, 1930, 116), which was then controlled by Sulaymān al-Mustaʿīn (r. 399 H/1009 CE and 403–407 H/1013–1016 CE).

This ʿĀmir was later driven out of the province (kūra) of Tākurunnā (Malaga) by the king of the city of Ronda (Malaga) Hilāl bn Abī Qurra (r. 405–445 and 449-57 H/1014–1054 and 1057–1060 CE). This ruler was an Ifrānid Berber whose ancestors were prob-ably brought to this kūra by Sulaymān al-Mustaʿīn at the beginning of his reign. One of the sons of this Berber bore the kunya of Abū Naṣr (r. 457 H/1060 CE) and was named F.tūḥ, which is sometimes interchangeably pronounced by current scholars as Futūḥ, Fatūḥ or Fattūḥ (Ruiz de Almodóvar 1983, 191; Al-Zubayr 1991b, 2: 1311).

During this time there was a Cordovan who enjoyed certain literary fame who also served the Taifa kings. Abū l-Muṭarrif ʿ Abd al-Raḥmān Ibn Fatūḥ or Fattūḥ, also known as Ibn ṣāḥib al-isfīriyyā or al-Isfiriyānī (Ibn Bassām, Dhakhīra 1: 2: 39, 770–787), was the secretary of Ibn Jahwar of Cordova (r. 1043-1065) and al-Ma’mūn of Toledo (r. 1043–1075). Apart from his literary works, little is known about his life (Granja 1976, 64–65).

It can therefore be concluded, despite the paucity of information that at the end of the tenth century Fattūḥ was a name used by some individuals associated to pow-erful circles of the Umayyad either as freedmen, members of the army, or scholars. Although we cannot discard the possibility that the correct reading of this name on the epitaph may be the plural Futūḥ (Terés 1992, 19, no. 342), it could also be Fatūḥ, an adjective synonymous with ḥalūb (milky [cow]), or Fattūḥ, the diminutive form (faʿʿūl) —common in Syria and Egypt–of the name Fatḥ, like the popular form Faṭṭūma which is derived from the name Fāṭima (Schimmel 1989, chap. 6, 69).

On the nisbah al-‘Āmirī

The patronymic al-ʿĀmirī taken by the deceased may support our suspicion that he belonged to a family of some means linked to powerful circles or which enjoyed some sta-

134 Carmen Barceló


tus within it, given that the name suggests familial ties with a descendent of the ancient Banū ʿĀmir, tribes or clans associated to the Northern and Southern Arabic peoples and of course to the Umayyad Quraysh clan by way of their ancestor ʿĀmir ibn Luʿayy.

As for the descendants of these peoples in al-Andalus, we can cite the case of ʿĀmir ibn ʿAmr al-Qurashī al-ʿAbdarī, who lived in the capital when it was ruled by the last governor on behalf of the Eastern caliphs, Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Fihrī (r. 129–138 H/ 747–756 CE). This Quraysh man (d. 137 H/755 CE), whose complete biography was written by Ibn al-Abbār (Ḥulla, 2: no. 186), founded a cemetery to the west of Cor-dova whose name was given to one of the city’s gates (bāb ʿĀmir) (Figure 3). Another individual of the same Umayyad Quraysh lineage, ʿĀmir ibn Wahb, who arrived in al-Andalus during the conquest and whose descendents settled in Corbalán (Zaragoza) according to the Jamhara written by famed historian Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456 H/1064 CE), also bore the surname of al-ʿĀmirī (Terés 1957, 1: 85).

In the thirteenth century, Granada was home to a line of Fuqahā’ scholars origi-nally from Guadix and known as Banū Masʿada al-ʿĀmirī. This patronymic, which they attributed to ancestors in the ʿAdnān de Qays b. ʿAylān, brought fame to one member of their family, the qadi Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 699 H/1300 CE), author of a commentary of the celebrated al-Mustaṣfā de al-Gazālī (Al-Zubayr 1991b, 2: 1103).

Still, these ʿĀmirid tribes are not referred to as such in the comprehensive account of Northern and Southern Arabs that had settled in al-Andalus written by Ibn Ḥazm (Terés 1957); this has led to the author to seek out another origin of the name that the deceased used as a nisbah. This search involved a study of other Cordovan groups and any references to this patronymic other than those associated to the clan names of ancient Arabs.

A freedman of al-Mansur

The search for one such group leads directly to someone named Fatūḥ or Fattūḥ, father of the deceased, who may have been a slave (mawlā) of al-Mansur, related to the family of the Umayyad general through a connection via a walā’ or client (Crone EI2, 6: 881–882). This suspicion is based on the widespread use among manumitted slaves who joined the Andalusi Umayyad khāṣṣa of fictitious relatives/relations, with respect to some member of the court (as can be seen in the name al-Jaʿfarī) or the caliphs. These fictitious relations have been found to exist in the palatial spheres of the capital (Meouak 1991–1992 and 1999, 212–218).

Students of art and architecture of the Cordovan Caliphate will be familiar with the names of Jaʿfar b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nāṣirī (m. 360 H/970 CE), the ḥājib of al-Hakam II and his assistant who supervised the expansion of the Aljama Mosque, and Durrī b. al-Ḥakam al-Mustanṣirī, commissioned by the Caliph himself to supervise the ivory work at the palace of Cordova. Jaʿfar and Durrī, who were manumitted slaves (mawlā), were “fictitious” sons of the first and second Caliph, and bore the honorific title of their patrons which served as a patronymic referring to their lineage (al-Nāṣirī, al-Mustanṣirī).

Let’s now turn to the name mentioned on the ivory vessel dating from 359 H/969–970 CE (V&A Museum, inv. n. 368–1880), which referred to the individual in charge



of the work and known as Ziyād b. Aflaḥ al-Nāṣirī, whose lineage directly links him to the Caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III al-Nāṣir. He is known as Ziyad b. Aflah b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān in chronicles of the time and was thought to be a high palace official dur-ing the Caliphate of al-Hakam II. He also served as chief of the police (ṣāḥib al-shurṭa), cavalry and mercenary forces (ṣāḥib al-khayl wa-l-ḥasham) under the Caliph in 363 H/914 CE (Meouak 1999, 197 no. 6).

The deceased’s ancestral name or nasab, “son of Fattūḥ b. Muḥammad al-ʿĀmirī”, further supports the idea that his family was somehow linked to the court of al-Man-sur. In connection to this hypothesis, we shouldn’t attribute this name to the famed Cordovan general and the ḥājib of Hishām II—Abū ʿĀmir Muḥammad b. Abī ʿĀmir—as indicated by all the chronicles of this period and in particular the one written by Ibn ʿIdhārī al-Marrākushī (Ibn ʿIdhārī, Bayān, 1951, 2: 253). In some written records of al-Andalus, after the year 1013, which saw the start of the Civil War (Fitna), the patro-nymic al-ʿĀmirī is directly linked to his family, which had installed itself as the only governors of the Levant region of the peninsula.

Written records of all kinds (chronicles, inscriptions, literary works) also link this name to the slaves freed (mawālī) by al-Mansur, some of which managed to seize power over some Umayyad provinces after the Fitna, as in the case of Mujāhid (Denia), Khayrān (Almeria, Murcia), Mubārak and Muẓaffar (Valencia), Labīb and Muqātil (Tortosa), and even Sābūr of Badajoz, who, in reality, was a domestic servant of Fā’iq, the great fatā of al-Hakam II (Wasserstein 1985, 83–98).

In light of the above, I believe that it is plausible that the father of the deceased boy to whom this tombstone is dedicated was named Fattūḥ, a diminutive that connects him to the domestic servants and slaves who worked for al-Mansur, much in the same way that his ancestral name (nasab) and patronymic (nisbah) point to similar origins.

The work of the ‘Āmirīd freedmen

The deceased father’s freedman status confirms the family’s prominent social posi-tion. The ʿĀmirids, individuals linked to the dynasty of al-Mansur, occupied posi-tions of responsibility within the state administration and the Umayyad military. For instance, an Arabic inscription on the bridge of Toledo which was translated into Spanish in the thirteenth century mentions a certain Khalaf b. Muḥammad al-ʿĀmirī. The summarized content of this translation was commissioned by the King Alfonso X the Wise in 1259 on a funerary stone and the inscription was also “repaired” in 1575 by order of Felipe II under the supervision of the corregidor, or the mayor of the city, Juan Gutiérrez Tello. The translation of this Arabic inscription is as follows:

la pvente de Toledo que ovo fecha Halaf fijo de Mahomat Alameri alcayd de Toledo por mandado de Almançor AboAamir Mahomat fijo de AbihAmir alguazil de amir almomenin Hyxem e fue acabada en era de los moros que andava a esse tiempo en CCC e LXXXVII annos (Rodríguez et al. 2000, 39).

[the bridge of Toledo which dates {to the time} of Halaf, son of Mahomat Alameri mayor of Toledo under the orders of Almançor AboAamir Mahomat son of AbihAmir visir of amir almomenin Hyxem and was completed in the time of the Moors in the year CCC and LXXXVII]

136 Carmen Barceló


In other words, this inscription commemorates a monument built in 387 H/997–998 CE—just 13 years after the inscribed epitaph under study was produced.

The figure named in the Spanish text, “Halaf fijo de Mahomat Alameri, alcayd de Toledo” (Halaf, son of Mahomat Alameri mayor of Toledo) could be identified as the individual with the same name (Khalaf) cited in an inscription produced in 377 H/987–988 CE. The latter appears on a marble font commissioned by al-Mansur and located in the palace of al-Zāhirah (bi-qaṣr al-Zāhirah). The outer edge of the font is lined by an inscribed band which says that it was made in Cordova. I have already mentioned this piece, which is at the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid. The inscription also states that Khalaf was al-fatā al-kabīr al-ʿāmirī who supervised the work (ʿalā yaday), although today only a portion of the inscription remains: al-fatā ...r al-ʿāmirī (Ocaña 1970, no. 27).2

Another individual who bore the patronymic al-ʿĀmirī and who held the title of fatā kabīr was Zuhayr b. Muḥammad. At this point I would like to emphasize that the way in which these two figures are named in our sources are the same as the name cited on the epitaph under study: b. Muḥammad al-ʿĀmirī. The Zuhayr mentioned above was responsible for coordinating the work (ʿalā yaday) on the famous Leyre Chest (Museum of Navarre, Pamplona), dating from 395 H/1004–1005 CE. He super-vised the work of Faraj and his pupils for the son of al-Manṣūr, the ḥājib Sayf al-dawla ʿAbd al-Malik, as cited by the inscription, which appears on the front side of the chest lid (Lévi-Provençal 1931, no. 204; Navascués 1964; Ocaña 1970, 43–44, Table 29).

Until his death in battle in 429 H/1038 CE, this same Zuhayr governed Murcia and Almeria on succeeding to the title after the death of Khayrān (r. 1014–1028), another well-known ʿĀmirid slave (Wasserstein 1985). This Zuhayr was also appointed gov-ernor of Jaén, Baeza and Calatrava by Ḥammūdid al-Qāsim, (Navascués 1964, 202). B. Muḥammad al-ʿĀmirī also supervised the work (ʿalā yaday) on another relevant ivory piece, the box from the Cathedral (Sé) of Braga (Portugal) which today is part of the Cathedral’s treasury. The lower front edge of the box lid bears an inscription con-veying good wishes and wishing a long life for the ḥājib Sayf al-dawla. Although the name of the patron or the date of the piece have not survived, there seems to be some agreement among scholars that it was commissioned by ʿAbd al-Malik b. al-Manṣūr sometime after 1004—when he adopted the title of Sayf al-Dawla—but before 1007, when he claimed the name of al-Muẓaffar after defeating Sancho García in a battle.

The work that was delegated to these Amirids included the guarding and custody of a castle and soon after the supervision of workshops where works of ivory, marble or weapons were produced. It is not possible at this point to determine the exact duties carried out by the father of the deceased Jumʿa.

Fattūḥ, a freedman of the Amirid court

It is interesting to note that the tombstone of one of these individuals or members of their family should survive and that information on other similar figures are found in

2. It is unlikely that this Khalaf was the same Khalaf al-ʿĀmirī who engraved his name on five beams of Cordova’s Great Mosque in the way of a “personal trademark” (Rodríguez et al. 2000a, 364, 367, 372, 373, 375 nos. B18, D17, F31, G27, H31; Souto 2002, 333).



inscriptions and epigraphic elements on a variety of artistic or ethnological objects, which shows just how wealthy figures these individuals were, as well as the power they exerted over public life in Cordova. The appearance of these names, which are followed by their status as freedmen or slaves of the Caliph on artistic objects, has led many scholars to assume that they were “workers” or “artists,” an assumption that doesn’t correspond to other data from written sources in the form of chronicles or inscriptions.

In effect, the names of freedmen which are not mentioned in chronicles appear in inscriptions on architectural elements found in the extension of the Aljama Mosque in Cordova, which was carried out by al-Ḥakam II and al-Mansur; these are also seen in the buildings constructed on behalf of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III in the archaeological site at Madīnat al-Zahrā’ (Cordova); in engraved ivory pieces, and even painted or drawn on the “green and violet” pottery made during the period of the Caliphs. Still, many of these epigraphic texts bear only a single proper name which could refer to the supervisor of the work or any kind of artisan: carver (naqqāsh), marble carver (rakhkhām), metal smith (ṣā’igh), etc. On occasion, after the proper name, the inscrip-tion may indicate that the worker was an ʿabd belonging to someone whose identity is further confused by the pronoun (hu); this could be their patron, which we assume to be the caliph, although this is not explicitly stated in the inscriptions on the pieces.

Among the deciphered names on marble works found at Madīnat al-Zahrā’, none can be linked to Fattūḥ. These works are numerous and varied, but they all men-tion those working in the so-called “Salón de ʿAbd al-Raḥmān” (the Hall of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān) and adjacent areas under the supervision of Jaʿfar, Shunayf, Badr b. Aḥmad and his son. Nor is the name of Fattūḥ found on carved pieces produced for the Alcázar and the extension of the Aljama Mosque. The other names cited in these inscriptions are: Aflaḥ, Aflaḥ al-Farrā’, Bāshir, Durrī, Faraj, al-Farrā’, Fatḥ, Ḥakam, Khalaf, Khayra, Naṣr, Saʿāda (Souto 2010). The same is true for the artists working for Caliph al-Hakam; here the only names that are mentioned are Aflaḥ, Aḥmad b. Fatḥ, Badr, Badr al-rakhkhām, Fatḥ al-naqqāsh, Fatḥ al-asīr, Ghālib b. Saʿd, Muḥammad b. Saʿd, Naṣr, Ibn Naṣr, Muẓaffar, Rashīq, Ruzayq,3 Saʿd, Saʿd al-kabīr, Saʿīd b. Fatḥ, Saʿīd al-aḥmar, Sukkar, Ṭarīf (Martínez Núñez, 1995, 141–144).

For some experts, the appearance of the same name on many types of objects indi-cates that they were produced under a direct supervisor of a workshop that produced works for the caliph and not a single, multitalented artisan, for although there may be some instances of the same names being cited with different spellings, “the coin-cidences are too numerous to support this explanation” (Martínez Núñez 1995, 143). Many of them are described as being a fatā or someone appointed by the Caliph and are cited as such in the inscriptions; others are also referred to as being abd; and even mawlā on occasion. The majority of these names seem to correspond to the deci-phered names found on metalwork (Badr, Ṭarīf); ivory (Faraj, Khayr, Miṣbāḥ, Rashīd, Saʿāda); bronze thimbles (Aṭraf, Durrī, Rashīq); and even names painted on pottery: Giṭrīf, Jābir, Nāṣir, Maysūr, Mubārak, Ṭafr, Wāthiq, Rashīq (Barceló 2004b, 143 n. 33). These were probably the names commonly given to slaves or freedmen and therefore appear repeatedly on pieces such as these, often coinciding.

3. Translated as “Zarīf (?)” by Martínez Núñez (1995, 112 fig. III).

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As far as our Fattūḥ is concerned, perhaps we can hazard comparing him to another freedman: the fatā Durrī b. al-Ḥakam al-Mustanṣīrī, who was appointed treasurer (khāzin) by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān in 351 H/962 CE. On this date, Durrī owned a property which he planned to give as a gift to al-Ḥakam II in 362 H/973 CE. The Caliph and his son Hishām attended the feast hosted by Durrī to celebrate the transfer of the munya or country property to the Caliph, on the day the fatā was to be named admin-istrator of the area, or wakīl. The country property was called al-Rummānīya for its proximity to the al-Rummān creek near Cordova (now known as Guadarromán). When Hishām II succeeded to the Caliphate, Durrī was appointed governor of Baeza (Jaén) where a tablet commemorating the construction (from 962 to 976) of a mosque tower (ṣawmuʿa) can be found. This tablet inscription contains his name, the surname al-aṣghar and his position as fatā and mawlā of al-Ḥakam (Fernández Puertas 1976).4 (Ibn ʿIdhārī al-Marrākushī Bayān 1951, 2: 262–263; Lévi-Provençal 1931, 187 n 2 n. 196; Meouak 1999, 215–216).

As noted by Ocaña (1984, 376–377, 381) when identifying the al-Rummānīya property in the Moroquil archaeological site (which was mistakenly believed to be the al-munya al-ʿāmirīya of past chronicles), it is this same Durrī al-ṣaghīr who supervised (ʿalā yaday) the production of the ivory box (pyxis) in 353 H/964–965 CE of the Zamora Cathedral (MAN, inv. n. 52113) and who also oversaw (ʿalā yaday) the production of another box (undated) on behalf of Hakam II (V&A, inv. n. 217–1865). The name Durrī, in this instance a servant (ʿabd) of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III, was also woven into a ṭirāz, or deco-rated linen, which states that it was woven under his direction (ʿalā yaday) in 330 H/ 941–942 CE (Souto 2010, 215). His surname does not appear on the cloth, but it is clear that it referred to another person with the name of Durrī who served the Caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥmān who was known as the Elder (al-akbar) or the Old One (al-kabīr) to distinguish him from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān the Younger (al-aṣghar) or the Little One (al-ṣaghīr) whom we are referring to in this section (Fernández Puertas 1976, 214). The use of the appella-tions “the elder”and “the younger” is a reflection of the Arabic custom in distinguishing two individuals with the same name, as in the case of the honorific title al-Manṣūr b. Abī ʿĀmir al-akbar (al-Mansur) and al-aṣghar, his grandson, the governor of Valencia.

That generation of servants to the Caliph al-Hakam, Durrī included, would see their lives cut short with the arrival of Hishām to the Caliphate. Others who were able to escape from the capital or those who resided in the provinces when the Fitna broke out had enough time to relocate the trappings of the good life from the Umayyad and Amirid courts to their small Taifa principalities.

It is impossible to calculate the number of servants working for the Caliph, for the administrative workload must have been enormous. Some of the activities described by Ibn Bassām (Dhakhīra 1979, 1: 1: 51)—listed in duplicate to cover work at both the Cordovan palace (the Caliph’s residence) and at al-Zāhira (where al-Manṣūr lived)—included inheritances [mawārīth al-khāṣṣah], textile-weaving [ṭirāz], construction [al-mabānī], military equipment [al-asliḥa wa-mā tajrī majrāhā], the drawing-up of doc-uments and accounting [kitābat al-taʿaqqub wa-l-muḥāsaba], mercenaries at the ser-vice of both residences [ḥasham] and inns [quṭūʿ bi-l-nāḍḍ wa-l-ṭaʿām]. One chronicle

4. Archaeological Museum of Jaén, marble fragment (0.23 m x 0.40 m x 0.05 m).



recounts how al-Mansur expelled more than 800 slaves [ṣaqāliba] from the Cordovan palace, which gives us an idea of the difficulty and complexity of identifying individ-uals and the devotion to duty on the part of the court freedmen—devotion certainly felt by Fattūḥ as well.

Funerary inscriptions, including our marble slab of the V&A, have provided us with information about a number of personalities, but another piece includes some new data not found in published records. The piece in question is the epitaph of Shafīʿ, Almanzor’s fatā kabīr and mawlā, which was discovered in Seville (Seville Archaeo-logical Museum, Spain, inv. n. REP00257). According to Lévi-Provençal (1931, 43–46, n. 30bis), Shafīʿ probably entered into service with the Ḥammūdids of Malaga as a result of the sacking and pillage of Cordova by Catalonian Christian and Islamic Berber armies in 400 H/1010 CE. This tombstone offers valuable details not found in other sources: that the freedman died in battle near Triana, which today is a heavily-populated district of the Andalusian capital, in 412 H/1022 CE.

Other valuable information is provided by the inscription on the tombstone of ʿ Abd al-Dāʾim ibn Aflaḥ al-Jaʿfarī. In all likelihood he was the son of an Umayyad mawlā, as revealed by his patronymic which is associated with Caliph al-Hakam II, his fatā and ḥājib Jaʿfar or the princess mother Ṣubḥ, also named Jaʿfar (Meouak 1991–1992). The epitaph states that he died in Badajoz and was buried in Cordova at the Quraysh cemetery (Ocaña 1952, n. 8, 387–388). Literary sources situate this burial ground in El Arrabal (maqbarat al-rabaḍ), near the Marwanid mausoleum, of the Umayyad Cali-phate (Zanón 1989, 88–89; Pinilla 1997, 194–196).

Using the data provided thus far, we can tentatively conclude that Umayyad freed-men were laid to rest next to their masters, as were all the women of the Umayyad household, regardless of whether they were freedwomen or not. But in the case of al-Mansur, who was buried outside Cordova, it is not known where his two sons ʿAbd al-Malik and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān were interred. That is, we do not know if there was an Āmirid family crypt, thus it is impossible to determine where their freedmen were buried in Cordova.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the editors as well as to other friends and colleagues who have dis-cussed these ideas with me or sent helpful and thought-provoking comments on the first draft of this paper, especially Ana Labarta who first brought this piece to my attention and who also provided me with valuable comments on the onomastics of al-Andalus. I am indebted to Mariam Rosser-Owen for passing on valuable informa-tion on the piece, including images and other data on the history of its acquisition by the Victoria & Albert Museum.

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Epitaph of an ‘Āmirī (Cordova 374 H/985 CE)

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