Shi'ite Spain-A glimpse of an undiscovered world-Jake Organ, King

Faisal University, Al Hofuf

UNM ID: 101662259

‘Then came the Beni Hamud, the descendants of ldris, of the

progeny of 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib, who, having snatched the Khalifate

from the hands of the Beni Merwin, ruled for some time over the

greatest part of Andalus. These princes showed also great

ostentation, and, assuming the same titles that the Abbasid

Khalifs had borne, they followed their steps in everything

concerning the arrangements of their courts and persons; for

instance, whenever a munshid wanted to extemporize some verses in

praise of his sovereign, or any subject wished to address him on

particular business, the poet or the petitioner was introduced to

the presence of the Khalif, who sat behind a curtain and spoke

without showing himself, the Hajib or curtain drawer standing all

the time by his side to communicate to the party the words or

intentions of the Khalif. So when Ibnu Mokond Al-lishboni (from

Lisbon), the poet, appeared in presence of the Hajib of ldris Ibn

Yahya Al-hamyudi, who was proclaimed Khalif of Malaga, to recite

the kassidah of his which is so well known and rhymes in min (sic),

when he came to that part which runs thus-

The countenance of ldris, son of Yahya, son of Alf, son of Hamid,

prince of the believers, is like a rising sun; it dazzles the eyes

of those who look at it-

Let us see it, let us seize the rays of yonder light, for it is

the light of the master of the worlds- The Sultan himself drew the

curtain which concealed him, and said to the poet-"Look, then,"

and showed great affability to Ibn Mokena, and rewarded him very

handsomely.’

Ibn Said, Book of the Maghrib 13th Century

Introduction

If an interested observer would put the terms Shi’ite Spain into

Google they would be largely unimpressed by the results. The idea

of the ‘Golden Age of Al-Andalus’ seems tied up, in the popular

imagination, with the glories of the Ummayad Caliphate, which

though short lived, seems to speak of the majesty of Muslim Spain

and its image of tolerance, high culture and material prosperity.

The Banu Umaywiyya, so vilified in Ma’tams and Husseiniyas across

the Shi’ite Mashriq created, with the exceptional Hammunids cited

above (and, one could argue, the Almohads), a ruling culture that

was largely Malikite and proud of its strongly Sunnite heritage.

Even as late as the 16th Century we read Luis de Marmol, the

Castillian chronicler of the Alpujarran revolt of 1568-1570

describing it’s leader Don Henrando de Cordoba y Valor thus:

‘Don Hernando de Cordoba y Valor was a Morisco, a man esteemed

among those of his nation because he could trace his origins back

to the Caliph Marwan; and his forebears, according to what was

said, as inhabitants of the city of Damascus (called) Sham, had

been involved on the death of the Caliph Hussayn, son of Ali the

nephew of Muhammad.’

That de Marmol would mention this seems to suggest that this was

part of the continued narrative of Umayyad Caliphal legitimization

which would seemingly leave little room for Shi’ite influences

upon the Iberian Peninsula. However, the idea that history is

merely ‘the history of great men’ has been long discredited and

with an analysis using the many different tools of social analysis

of Medieval Spain that have risen in the last forty years, we can

begin to see a very different picture of what was occurring on a

structural level in Andalucian society. The idea of Muslim Al

Andalus being a forum for Sunni, Malikite victory ignores the

clear structural link that Medieval Iberia would have had with the

Maghreb that came under a succession of Shi’ite influences in the

early to mid-medieval period. Also, as these new tools for the

analysis of Medieval Iberia have arisen they have revealed a much

more diverse set of beliefs in Muslim society especially within

the ethnic Arab/Berber divide. A generation of, especially,

Spanish historians have sought to write this social history and

have produced some interesting observations which have changed the

framework with which we can view the Islamic religious make-up of

Medieval Iberia. Americo Castro’s idea of ‘convivencia’ as a

paradigmic lens through which to view Spanish medieval history has

lost weight as the idea of Spain’s historic uniqueness has been

picked apart and replaced with a series of much more nuanced

social and religious perspectives. However, could the term have a

new significance in an analysis of Al-Andalus as a land of a

‘convivencia’ among the unique mix of various Shi’ite strains,

Kharijism and different Sunni schools that typified Islamic Iberia

and the Maghreb as a linked entity on the extreme West of the Arab

world? In this paper I will attempt to look at routes of potential

Shi’ite influence upon the culture of Islamic Spain, and in doing

this try to draw greater significance from the influence of

Shi’ism in the early and later Medieval Maghreb. With this

established I will look at the actual evidence of Shi’ism on the

Iberian Peninsula itself, its potential legacy and what

conclusions different historians are starting to draw from this

evidence.

Literature Review

Large Scale works of History

The History of the Maghreb in the Islamic Age-Jamil Abun Nasr

The History of Medieval Spain-Joseph O’Callaghan

The History of the Maghreb, an interpretive essay-Abdallah Laroui

North Africa-A History from Antiquity to the Present-Phillip C.

Naylor

Islamic Spain-Montgomery Watt

Fas-Titus Burckhardt

Direct Source Materials

Book of the Maghreb-Ibn Said al Maghrebi

Historia de al-Andalus-Ibn al Kardabus Spanish translation by

Felipe Maillo Salgado

Kitab ash-Shifa-Qadi Iyas Original Arabic version

Academic Articles

A Community Divided: A Textual Analysis of the Murders of Idris B.

Abd Allah (D. 175/791)- Najam Haider

Moroccan dynastic shurfa'-hood in two historical contexts: Idrisid

Cult and Alawid Power-David Hart

Shurafa in the last years of Al Andalus and the Morisco period-

Mercedes Garcia Arenal

Sobre la Historia Sagrada del Norte de Africa-Mercedes Garcia

Arenal

Unity and Disunity across the Straits of Gibraltar-Various SNAP

authors

Are Shias rising in the western part of the Arab world? The case

of Morocco-Mahjoob Zweiri and Christoph Konig

Les Idrissides-Chafik T. Benchekroun

Heresy in Andalus-Maribel Fierro

Hubo Propaganda Fatimi Entre Los Kutama Andalusies?-Maribel Fierro

Beyond Convivencia-Maya Soifer

Other literature

I have read many books on this subject over the last two years

which have influenced me but that I haven’t directly quoted from,

and though I cannot mention all their names I acknowledge my debt

to these numerous authors.

Essay

In another essay, ‘The Idrisid influence on the Iberian Peninsula-

A tangled historiography’, I wrote extensively on a number of

historiographical issues around the nature and significance of the

dynasty that are seen as the ‘founders of the Moroccan State.’

Part of this is the fact that, though the Idrisids feature in all

sorts of sweeping histories of the region, there seems to be a

real lack of comprehensive research on them and their legacy. Dr

Husain Munis states that 'The Idrisid State still needs a person

who should write their history and define its role in the

development of Al-Maghrib'i. In my reading of various historian’s

treatment of this key dynasty I am struck by the lack of

acknowledgement of their Shi’ism and its significance as well as a

lack of understanding of what their Zaidism would have really

meant at that time in history. In his widely respected work on the

Medieval Maghreb Professor Jamil Abun Nasr talks of the Idrisids:

'Whereas the Rustamids and the Banu Midrar were Kharijite, the

third 'dissident' dynasty to gain power in the Maghrib during the

eighth century, the Idrisids of Fez, was Sunnite.'ii Just to show

this isn’t a misprint he later writes: 'Whereas Sunnite Islam and

Arab culture became established in the towns of Morocco during the

Idrisid period, the greater part of the countryside escaped the

influence of both.' And this is not only Abun Nasr who makes this

error, In 'North Africa-A History from Antiquity to the Present'

by Phillip C. Naylor we hear 'Idris 1st was a Sharif or a

descendant of the Prophet Muhammad but not a Shi'i '; and

H.Alemzadeh and A. Abanyah sum up some of this confusion in their

writing about the Idrisid's religion 'There exists great

controversy among historians regarding Idrisid's religion'. I have

previously argued that this confusion is down to two major

factors; firstly, a lack of real understanding of the context of

the Idrisids in terms of their links with controversies within the

8th Century Alid/Shi’ite movement and hence a misunderstanding of

their Zaidism, and secondly a lack of real historical will to

acknowledge the significance of their Shi’ism. I believe that this

second point is down to a number of factors, reliance on Sunni

chroniclers being a key but also a sense, among past historians,

that they overcomplicate the historical picture in the Maghreb and

only the work of late 20th Century historians is causing the true

picture to emerge. As I will argue later, Morocco is a country

that doesn’t easily fall into the standard categories that Western

historians and orientalists have sought to impose on the Islamic

world and this has led to distortions in the writing of its

history and its potential influence on Al Andalus. Abdallah Laroui

adds significantly to our understanding of the Idrisids in his

work, ‘The History of the Maghrib-An Interpretive Essay.’ Laroui

is an important Moroccan historian and seems to have a more whole

view of the Idrisids, he speaks of the historiographical confusion

around them in these terms: ‘The old historical texts speak of

Idris as a Mu’tazalite and Shi’ite; later writers call him

orthodox, because in the meantime the character of Shi’ism had

changed.’ This cuts to the heart of a one of the major problems of

interpretation of the Idrisids, that of Historians equating their

Zaidism with the modern idea of the term, that of an obscure group

of nominal Sh’ites that are so close to Sunnism as to make their

designation largely meaningless. However, the Zaidism of Idris was

part of a number of very living controversies that were taking

place in the time between the 6th and 7th Imams (Jaffar As-Sadiq and

Musa Al Kadhem) that would eventually lead to the different

strands within Shi’ite thought. Looking back we can see that these

different schools solidified into very diverse schools of Shi’ite

doctrine but at the time these were disputes that were effectively

taking place within a large extended family, Zaid (of Zaidism) was

an uncle of Jaffar As Sadiq and it seems likely that both Idris

and his brother grew up in Imam Sadiq’s house and under his

tutelage. A lot of information on Idris’s early life before his

flight to the Maghreb can be found in: ‘A Community Divided: A

Textual Analysis of the Murders of Idris B. Abd Allah (D.

175/791)’ By: Najam Haider in The Journal of the American Oriental

Society, July-September 2008. This work suggests that the most

likely reason for Idris’s murder was a dispute within the Zaidi

movement and that Idris represented a much more Imami (ie:

embryonic Twelver Shi’ite) strain within Zaidism. Laroui indeed

goes onto say that, ‘The typical title of Imam that Idris

conferred on himself as well as the fact that his assassination

has generally been imputed to a known Zaidite, Suleyman b.Jarir

may be regarded as further indicators of his Shi’ite leanings.’

Now, I believe that Laroui can be criticized for his lack of

distinction between the differing strands of Shi’ite thought; the

Imami, the Fatimid/Ismaili and the Zaidi but he was definitely at

the start of a new generation of historians that are taking the

Shi’ism of the Idrisids more seriously.

Now, with the definite Imami leanings of their Shi’ism being put

forward what is the significance of the Idrisid dynasty in the

Maghreb and beyond? Here we get to one of the fundamental problems

of Moroccan historiography, that of the 14th Century re-invention

of the Idrisids by the Merinid dynasty. Chafik T. Benchekroun of

the University of Toulouse wrote ‘Les Idrissides: L’histoire

contre son histoire’ and attempted to deconstruct the ‘mythical’

history of the Idrisids: ‘Nevertheless, the actual history of the

two Idrises, of the foundation of Fez and of that of the

Qarawiyyin continues to pertain to the realm of traditional

collective imagination rather than of the academic discipline of

history.’ In this sense he can be seen as a French-speaking part

of the Wansborough/SOAS school of Historians who have sought to

‘deconstruct’ Islamic history from its reliance on (what they

perceive to be) largely mythical chronicles and on source

materials that are heavily slanted. I’m not sure that I fully

agree with some of his conclusions but as a discussion document it

definitely points to the fact that any assumption about the

Idrisids must be held lightly. Laroui confirms these ambiguities

in Idrisid history: ‘'The history of this dynasty is hard to

write, chiefly because the city of Fez which it founded achieved

undisputed political primacy by the 14th C and the historians

writing at that time, most of them natives of the city, saw the

past in terms of present splendours.' With that all said there

seems to be a consensus among historians about the key role played

by the Idrisids in the Islamization of the Maghreb, Abun-Nasr

wrote: ‘'The Islamization of Morocco made such progress under

Idrisid rule.' Laroui writes conclusively: ‘Up to the arrival of

the Shi’ites (he means the Fatimids) at the beginning of the 10th

Century, the numerous dispersed heirs of Idris II carried on the

essential work of their dynasty, namely, the Islamization of the

Western Maghreb.’ He also wrote: ‘The Fatimids rose in the Maghreb

in the 10th Century and found fertile soil because of the Idrisid

proselytizing.’ I could quote numerous other historians that have

attested to a similar phenomenon but we can safely assume that the

Idrisids had an important role in the early Islamization of large

parts of the Maghreb that had not been reached by Uqba’s initial

conquering of the major urban areas.

The larger question that arises from this is what effect this had

on subsequent Moroccan history and by extension Islamic Spain?

Mahjoob Zweiri and Christoph Konig wrote a rather provocative

article in the December 2008 edition of the Journal of North

African Studies entitled ‘Are Shias rising in the western part of

the Islamic world-the case of Morocco.’ Though I wasn’t

particularly convinced of the article’s contemporary significance,

it raised some interesting points about Moroccan history and

culture. Their ultimate hypothesis that Morocco is basically a

Shi’ite country in disguise maybe going a little bit too far but

they ask some very interesting questions that had been largely

ignored by historians up to the 1970’s. They write: ‘It goes

without saying that the Idrisid dynasty as well as Fatimid

policies in Morocco had a great impact on the country's culture

and must have left a Zayid or Ismaili footprint in Morocco's

religious society.' This is, as they say, quite obvious but many

historians have not seemed to draw significant conclusions from

it. Dris Hani (who is a Moroccan Shi’ite convert) stated of

Morocco: 'It was indeed an Idrisid state with a Shiite culture

and identity.' His evidence for this as it is for others who draw

similar conclusions is that of the culture of legitimacy based on

Prophetic descent claimed by most Moroccan dynasties, in the words

of Yasin Abd Al-Salam founder of the Sufi Islamist Al-Adl wal-

Ihsan movement: 'Every dynasty which has ruled Morocco-with the

exceptions of the Almoravids and the Almohads has claimed descent

from the Prophet and followed a Shiite political model.' iii The

authors of the article go on to say: 'the Shiite Idrisids have

shaped the Moroccan culture from the very beginning to a high

degree.’ The great German orientalist Titus Burckhart writes in

his history of Fez: 'Loyalty to the family of the Prophet runs

through the History of Morocco like a Scarlet thread.' This can

largely be attributed to the, maybe somewhat mythical, position of

the Idrisids as the perceived founders of the Moroccan state. The

Moroccan work of 19th Century hagiography the Salwat al Anfas says

of the Idrisid legacy on Fez: 'One of the advantages of the city

of Fez is that so many families of shurafa are present within it

to a degree scarcely found in any other city....The shurafa are

the ornaments and stars of the world. Thanks to them, both land

and people are protected against trials and misfortunes.'

This legacy is most marked on the level of Berber, popular culture

which is a different strain from the Malikite Sunnism that claimed

ascent from the 14th Century in more elite circles. In the article

‘Moroccan dynastic shurfa'-hood in two historical contexts:

Idrisid Cult and Alawid Power’, David Hart seeks to further

analyse what has been quoted before as an important part of

Moroccan political culture, that of legitimacy based on Sharifian

descent. He writes on the role of the Idrisids in ways that will

now sound familiar: ‘'As Brignon and his co-workers have observed

in a well-known work on Moroccan history, the sultans of the first

official Moroccan dynasty known as the Idrisids (788-921 CE/172-

309 AH) are generally presented as the founders of the first

Muslim state in that country, responsible for its Islamisation and

Arabisation.' Hart also goes on to point out how Berberized the

Idrisids became within a couple of generations. Laroui also makes

this point, talking of the Idrisids, that I believe to be very

important: ‘Their Arabization, however, is much less certain, for

in the 11th Century we encounter distant Shi’ite descendants of the

Idrisids engaged in the struggle for power in Andalusia after the

fall of the Cordoba caliphate, and they were thoroughly

Berberized.’ We will look at these ‘distant Shi’ite descendants’

later on but we can see that a large part of the Idrisid legacy

was on the Berber, popular culture of Morocco and has hence

‘fallen under the radar’ in large parts of the analysis of

Moroccan history. Now, unfortunately, we come to another problem

in Moroccan historiography in both the colonial and post-colonial

period, that of the sensitivity of writing ‘Berber history’ as it

has been condemned, by post-colonialist writers’ as a French

attempt at colonial ‘divide and conquer.’ iv This is unfortunate

because, despite the undoubted use of Berber history as French

colonial apologism, the analysis of differing but intergerminating

Arab and Berber histories of the Maghreb is without doubt fruitful

and necessary. Mercedes Garcia Arenal, an important Spanish

Historian of North Africa and Islamic and Post-Islamic Spain

writes of the similar situation in Islamic Iberian studies in her

article ‘En Marruecos: Árabes, Beréberes, y hombres de religión,’:

‘La noción de Árabes y Beréberes como distinción funcional para el

estudio de la sociedad Andalusí viene siendo desde los algunos

años de capital importancia para el entendimiento de esta.’ Would

that the situation in Moroccan history be as simple? But modern

historians are making advances in this area. David Hart writing of

the work of George Drague v states: ‘Georges Drague observes that

Idrisid descendants spilled out from Fez, Wazzan and Shawan and

became heads of many of the Sufi religious orders of Northern

Morocco.’ Drague himself quotes Al Jazuli, a key figure (according

to Vincent Cornell)vi in Moroccan Sufism: 'a powerful man is such

not because of the consideration in which he is held nor of the

tribe in which he grew up. He is rather because of the nobility of

his origin as a sharif, a descendant of the Prophet of God, upon

whom may there be peace and health; and I am closer to such a

station than any other living creature! My glory existed before

time and is enveloped in silver and gold! Whoever of you sent

silver and gold, whoever you are, follow us, and you will remain

forever in the best of the perishable world and in that of the

celestial world as well.' Such notions would not be out of place

in a Bahraini Matam or Iraqi Hussainiya and so it is a surprise to

find them in the mouth of a key Berber leader in Moroccan popular

culture. Sidi bil Abbas As Sebti, an Idrisid Sharif was the

original founder of Marrakesh and Chaoen in the Rif Mountains was

also founded by an Idrisid Sharif. The influence of Sufism on

popular religious culture in Morocco has long been noted but that

a lot of its roots come from the Shi’ite Idrisids is less well

known.’ Hart in 2001 also made the unequivocal point: ‘the

Idrisids played an important role in the development of Sufism

which can be Shiism in disguise’. This is a situation that carried

on, at least to the early modern period, as Titus Burckhart

writes: 'In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries Fez was spritually

dominated by a few Shurafa families, namely the Idrisids, the

Wazzani, and Saqalli, the Fasi, the Kattani, and others, from

amongst whom many scholars, judges, and Sufi masters originated.'

So we can conclude on this topic that the Shi’ite founders of the

Moroccan state had a major subsequent influence on its culture and

history. This is twofold in that the Shi’ite Sharifian model of

political legitimacy modelled by the Idrisids has been taken up by

most subsequent dynasties, particularly the Merinids and the

modern day Alawites. Secondly, and maybe more significantly,

Sharifian descent and Shi’ite models have greatly influenced

Berber and indeed Arab Sufism which most observers acknowledge to

be the main source of popular religion in Morocco.

However, the title of this essay is Shi’ite Spain and hitherto we

have concentrated on a land mass that is on a different continent

and separated by the Mediterranean Sea from the Iberian Peninsula.

Such would have tended to be the view among historians, certainly

up to the middle of the 20th Century. So much of especially

colonial history was about defining the non-European ‘other’ and

much of early to mid-20th Century Spanish history was about

defining Spain’s uniqueness, and it’s separation from the ‘Islamic

other.’ The move against this sort of thinking was an offshoot of

the work of the hugely significant ‘Annales School’ of social

historians that arose in France in the 1920’s. A key member of

this group, Fernand Braudel (then a little known school teacher

who would go on to be a key 20th Century historian) wrote a work

that revolutionised our thinking about the Western Mediterranean

world. In a ‘Medieval Encounters’ article, which is an

introduction to a series of articles stemming from the work of the

Spain-North Africa project that seeks to bring a more integrated

scholarship between these two linked regions, entitled ‘Unity and

Disunity across the Straits of Gibraltar’, we read: ‘It was in his

1928 article that Braudel first articulated a vision of an

interconnected Mediterranean world by focusing on the aqueous

boundary between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa and

identifying it as a “frontiere insuffisante.” At first glance

there are some very obvious links between the lands that are now

called Morocco and Spain. The Spanish enclave of Ceuta carries

what, in my opinion, is a rather ironic statue of the Ummayad

Caliph Abd Ar-Rahman, whose occupation of Ceuta, provided

justification for Catholic Spain’s continued presence on the

continent of Africa. Prior to Abd Ar Rahman, Tariq Ibn Zayid

launched his invasion of the Iberian Peninsula from Tangier in 711

Ad. Furthermore, at many times in history we would have seen a

single political power ruling both sides of the straits. This

would have been the case under the Romans, but even under the pre-

Roman Carthaginians, through the Al Murabitun and the Al

MuwaHidun, the Portugese presence in the Maghreb and up to Spain’s

Northern Moroccan protectorate of the 1st half of the 20th C.

However Braudel, as a representative of the ‘Annales School’,

posited a very different type of link than that suggested by a

mutual ruling power. ‘Annales’ historians were pioneering in

seeing the flow of history as a product of longer term social

factors rather than short term political events. Braudel wrote:

"the action of a few princes and rich men, the trivia of the past,

bearing little relation to the slow and powerful march of

history . . . those statesmen were, despite their illusions, more

acted upon than actors." Braudel, and the Annales school, saw real

history as slower and much more organic: "the traditional

geographical introduction to history that often figures to so

little purpose at the beginning of so many books, with its

description of the mineral deposits, types of agriculture and

typical flora, briefly listed and never mentioned again, as if the

flowers did not come back every spring, the flocks of sheep

migrate every year, or the ships sail on a real sea that changes

with the seasons." It is this history of ships, sheep and flowers

that has been very important in re-imagining the social history of

the Maghreb in the last 40 years but also placing the organic

links between the ethnically and linguistically linked population

in the forefront of our analysis of the history of both the

medieval Maghreb as well as the Medieval Iberian peninsula. The

article we started this paragraph with states that: ‘the long

history of connections between Iberian Peninsula and North Africa

demands sustained attention today.’ This could be a reaction to,

despite Braudel’s work, Andrew Hesse’s designation of the Straits

of Gibraltar as the ‘Forgotten Frontier’ in his 1978 treatise ‘The

Forgotten Frontier: A History of the Sixteenth-Century Ibero-

African Frontier.’ The SNAP (Spain-North Africa) is part of the

school of historians who are providing this ‘sustained attention’

and showing deep organic, cultural and religious links between the

two areas that have so long been estranged through political,

educational and cultural agendas. In their own words: ‘Though

recognizing and dwelling upon the peculiarities of time and place

are of course crucial, we also connect dynamic processes that do

not necessarily fit neatly into the temporal boundaries of

medieval, early modern, or modern, nor within the spatial

confines of Iberia or North Africa that scholars and convention

have imposed on them.’ The subject of this essay, that of a

Shi’ite strain within popular religion in the Maghreb, especially

influencing Berber society and often disguised within Sufism, I

believe to be one of those ‘dynamic processes’ that have had a

bigger effect on the Iberian Peninsula that has been acknowledged,

however, recently, a few historians are starting to see evidence

of this process across the SNAP region.

Before we turn to the work of these historians, there is a key

dynasty that we have already mentioned that needs to be looked at;

the ‘distant relations’ of the Idrisids that briefly held the

Caliphal title and were the Taifa rulers of Algeciras and Malaga

for a significant part of the 11th Century, the Hammudids. This

dynasty remains a bit of a mystery and their history has not been

written in depth thus far. The quote with which we started this

essay from Ibn Said seems to give a bigger place to the Banu

Hammud than modern historians have advanced. As we quoted from

Laraoui earlier, they had become thoroughly berberized by the time

of their arrival on the Iberian Peninsula but, by all accounts,

they still held on to their Sharifian and Zaidi descent. They were

given the governorship of Algeciras, Ceuta and Tangier by the 5th

Ummayad Caliph, Sulayman II, Ibn al Hakam, because of their

support for him in his struggles for the Caliphal throne. This

allowed them to control the trade across the straits and then,

taking advantage of the confusion and conflict that marked the end

of the Ummayad Caliphate, attack and occupy Cordoba and briefly

hold the office of Caliph. Montgomery Watt in his work on Islamic

Spain speaks of them: ‘One notable dynasty was the Ḥammūdid which

before 1031 produced three claimants to the caliphate and which

ruled Malaga and Algeciras until after the middle of the century."

Though their reign did not last a long time, 50 years at most,

this was a long time by the standards of the 11th Century and they

seem to be well spoken of by contemporary chroniclers. Ibn Al-

Kardabus wrote his ‘Historia de Al Ándalus’ in 1199 AD

(Unfortunately, I could only find a Spanish translation of the

original, not the original), and though this is the sort source

material that Wansborough and his group would find difficult, due

to its attempt to draw religious lessons from the events of each

period, it has some interesting things to say about the Hammudids.

When Ibn Muyahid fled from Denia he: ‘se refugió en el estado de

los synhayies Banu Hammad cuyo rey era a la sazón Al-Nasir ibn

Alnas que le beneficio y colmo de favores.’ Furthermore, when Ibn

Sumadih fled from Almeria: ‘buscando refugio en la corte de los

Banu Hammad, donde reinaba a las sazón Al Mansur ibn Al-Nasir,

entonces residió Alli, pues Al-Mansur fue generoso con el gozo de

su privanza, hasta el punto que honraría a quienes estaban con

el’. Both these quotes suggested that the Hammudids were quite a

presence among the Taifas of, at least Southern Iberia and would

have left a large cultural and religious footprint. They were to

be a precursor to what would be over a century and a half of

Berber rule over Muslim Iberia and there support with which they

obtained power and their ability to hold power speaks of a large

‘Shi’ite Berberiyya’, the implications of which are now starting

to be explored.

Mercedes Garcia Arenal in her very informative article on strains

within popular religion, ‘Shurafa in the Last years of Andalus and

in the Morisco Period’, makes an observation on the re-discovery

of Berber history in the last forty years: ‘And in the Maghreb,

20th Century scholars such as Laruoi pioneered a more synthetic

approach to the social history of the Maghrib as a whole, turning

away from a focus on the nation-state (both trends, among other

things, encouraged a fresh examination of the role and place of

Berbers/Imazighen in the history of the Western Mediterranean).’

Mercedes Garcia Arenal is part of a new generation of, especially

Southern European historians stretching back to Levi-Provencal and

including Maribel Fierro, Thomas Glick and Patrick Cressier that

have sought to see the Western Mediterranean as an integrated

whole. In the article that we started this paragraph with she

attempts to construct aspects of popular religion in earlier

Andalus by looking at aspects of popular Morisco culture, thus

revealing a picture that is very different from the Malikism

espoused by the elite: ‘In this way, Morisco culture allows us to

have a glimpse of the survival of popular or local religion in a

way rarely allowed by the works produced by the intellectual and

religious elite of Al Andalus.’ More explicitly she juxtaposes the

religious strain of Islamic Spain’s elite: ‘The Ulama guaranteed,

in fact, the kind of strict Maliki Sunnism of which the religious

and political elite of Al-Andalus were always proud;’ with an

assertion that something that was very different was going on a

popular level: ‘I will argue that we have the evidence of a strong

prestige, even of the cult, of the Prophetic descent, in the

period of ‘late Spanish Islam’, and that this prestige is linked

to strong apocalyptic and messianic strains among the last Muslims

of Iberia and maybe to a Shi’ite strata of belief in the local or

popular form of Islam they adhered to.’ Her article looks at the

Shurafa movement in the Maghreb of the 15th and 16th Century and how

a similar movement on the Iberian peninsula could point to a

deeper embedded Shi’ism especially within Sufi popular Islam: ‘The

prestige of families claiming to be descendants of the Prophet had

been increasing in Morocco for almost two hundred years and was

bolstered by the growing cult of the figure of the Prophet

associated with the Sufis.’ This movement would have had elements

that firmly contradicted Malikite orthodoxy on both sides of the

Straits, the movement: ‘carried with it the nation that some of

the gifts of the Prophet (and even prophecy itself, a most

heterodox belief) were hereditary.’ This is a key theological

difference between Sunnis and Shi’ites as Sunnis cling to a Hadith

that states that prophet’s neither inherit or give inheritancevii

and Shi’ites quote a Quranic Ayat where Dowud passed his mantle to

Suleiman.viii Mercedes Garcia Arenal reaffirms what we have stated

about the links across the straits, especially in the area of

popular religion: ‘However, there was always constant contact

between Al-Andalus and the Maghreb, and the period did see the

initial Shadhiliyya and the Qadiriyya brotherhoods established in

Al-Andalus.’ Garcia Arenal does a good job of trying to

reconstruct popular Sufism in the Nasrid Kingdom of Gharnata

though lacking direct sources, by relying on findings from the

Morisco period. She talks about how the rising popularity of the

‘Mawlud an Nabi’ or the prophet’s birthday had been witnessed in

the Nasrid Kingdom and had raised the anger of the Ulema: ‘the

famous Mufti Al-Wansharisi (d.914/1508) includes in his Miyar

various fatwas by Andalusian scholars who severely condemn the

Mawlid celebrations of the fuqara.’ Garcia Gomezix who has looked

at the phenomenon of the Mawlid celebrations in some detail

writes: ‘Apart from a growing veneration for the Prophet, other

factors were involved in the gestation of the festival of the

Mawlid, such as Shi’ite religious and political influences.’

The article’s main argument is built around the seeming popularity

of three books among the pre-expulsion and post-expulsion Moriscos

that all had a decidedly Shi’ite flavour; Al Bakri’s Kitab al

Anwar, Kitab Nasab Rasul Allah and Kitab al Anwar an-nabawiyya fi

aba khayr al bariyya by the revealingly named Tunisian Morisco

Muhammad al-Sharif al-Husayni al Ja’fari al Mursi al Andalusi.

Talking of the second book she writes: ‘This book, as the Kitab al

Anwar, deals with the light emanating from Adam to Muhammad and

into the family of Ali, which found fertile ground among the

Shi’ites.’ The fact that this book was so popular among the

Moriscos is definitely worthy of note: ‘The book’s extraordinary

success in Iberia and among the Moriscos is worth emphasizing, for

it certainly did not enjoy the same sort of reception in the rest

of the Arabic-speaking world, where Al-Bakri’s work had come under

vehement attack from the medieval Sunnite Ulema.’ Both of the

first two works dwelt extensively on the subject of the ‘Nur

Mohammadi’ (the Shi’ite notion of a pre-existent light that was

passed through the prophets to Muhammad that was then passed on

through Fatima and Ali to the Imams and by extension, the Shurafa)

which would have caused a division in both Nasrid and Morisco

religious society: ‘the theme of the Nur Mohammadi was greatly to

the taste of the Sufis but ran the risk of being shading into what

came to be defined as Shi’ite heterodoxy.’ She constantly returns

to her observation of differing strands of elite and popular

religion in medieval Al Andalus: ‘it is a work that was also

frowned upon by Andalusi Ulama because of its challenge to the

Sunnite and Maliki orthodoxy of the Andalusian establishment, but

was popular at other levels, mainly in Sufi circles.’ Moreover,

she points out that this dwelling on the legitimacy of Shurafa

rule had potentially revolutionary implications towards the end of

Andalus: ‘we must not forget that the notion of deriving

legitimacy for the exercise of power from the lineage of the Ahl

al Bayt during the final period of al-Andalus was always opposed

to the traditional idea of Andalusian legitimacy par excellence,

which was that of the Umayyad lineage.’

In her article, she goes on to mention another work that was

directly Shi’ite that was popular in the Morisco age; Ibrahim

Taybili’s: Cronica y relacion de la esclarecida descendencia

xarifa. Indeed the translation editor of this work, J.F Cutillas:

‘considers it may have been a Maqtal for the day of Ashura,

especially because of the coverage it provides of the death of Al-

Husayn at Karbala.’ Again, this is a popular work in the Morisco

age that would have been widely condemned by Sunnite Ulema in the

wider Arab world, in the words of Garcia-Arenal: ‘so what does it

mean when the two most important works in the genealogy of the

Prophet and his family found among the Moriscos have such a

markedly Shi’ite character?’ As, I am convinced that there was a

Shi’ite strain in Andalucian popular Islam that has had a bigger

effect on Spanish popular culture than has been acknowledged, I am

a little biased in my answer to this question. However, Garcia-

Arenal initial reaction is less than hopeful: ‘It is obvious that

in order to answer these questions adequately we would need

sources and records that are completely lacking.’ But she does

seek to draw some more definite conclusions from her analysis of

Morisco culture. Firstly, this ‘Shi’ite drift’ (my words) could be

down to the embattled Morisco looking round for a culture of

Martyrdom to help them define their own experience of suffering:

‘Martyrdom was, in other words, a familiar issue for the Moriscos

and one with which they found it easy to identify.’ Secondly, the

embattled Moriscos could have been attracted to the Shi’ite

perception of ‘the Mahdi’ and she identifies the influence of the

Twelver idea of the Hidden (al Ghayb)x Iman with the idea of the

Messianic ‘El Fatimi’ who was said to be hidden (encubierto)xi. ‘El

Fatimi’ was a popular cult figure in Morisco Valencia, revealed

Twelver and Ismaili influence as well as an obvious link with the

Christian figure of ‘Santiago al Matamoros’. Thirdly, and I

believe, most significantly she posits that this clear Shi’ite

strain within Morisco Islam was the reflection of a current that

was prevalent in Andalucian popular Islam: ‘it might relate to the

influence of Sufism and the characteristic interpretation of it

that took place in the Muslim West, where there were so many

Shi’ite influences.’ And she goes onto underline what I have

stated in my analysis of Maghrebi popular culture: ‘as I have

suggested in a recent work, the Islamization of the Islamic West

was largely carried out under Shi’ite terms.’ She concludes with

what I believe to be a key and fascinating statement:

‘(describing) the period of “late Spanish Islam” as defined by

something like the survival of a local Islam as had been practised

by the rural populations of Al-Andalus and the Maghreb along the

“Middle Ages”’. This ‘local Islam’, I am convinced was very

different from what has been traditionally ascribed to Islamic

Spain and has had a big effect on Spanish popular culture that

needs to be both acknowledged and analysed.

Garcia-Arenal also mentions another book that I believe to be able

to shed light on an earlier Shi’ite strain within Sufism on both

sides of the Straits, Kitab al Shifa of Qadi Iyad. Qadi Iyad was a

prominent Maliki judge that held high position in both Ceuta and

Granada. The Mawlud an Nabi was introduced into the Maghreb by Abu

al Qasim, Lord of Ceuta, which was a key centre of the rising

Shurafa cult. Garcia-Arenal writes of the link between the

spiritual atmosphere of Ceuta and the contents of Qadi Iyad’s

book: ‘It was no coincidence that it had been in Ceuta where Qadi

Iyad (d.544/1149) had written his Kitab al Shifa, a text

identifying love of the prophet with love of his family and

descendants.’ In my personal study of the book I would not go as

far as to say that that it is as obviously Shi’ite as some of the

other books she quotes (except in a few passages) but it’s whole

subject area, veneration of the Prophet and all that pertains to

him certainly has a Shi’ite slant, and there are some parts of the

book that are quite shocking to see from the pen of a prominent

Maliki Qadi. Early on in the book he quotes the Hadith of Ibn Amr:

ه ص�لى ال�له ن� ن� ع�مر ، رواه ال�طب�ري ا� ي! ث� ع�ن� اب�� ى ح�د ار ف ت' اخ� ه ، ف� لق' ار ح� ت' ن� ال�له اخ� ال : ا. ه و س�لم ف�' ع�لي

ار ت' م اخ� ًا ، ث�� ي! ش� 'ر هم ق� ار م�ن ت' اخ� ار ال�عرب� ف� ت' م اخ� هم ال�عرب� ، ث�� ار م�ن ت' اخ� دم ف� Fا ى ن ار ب�� ت' م اخ� دم ، ث�� Fا ى ن هم ب�� م�ن

هم ي م�ن Jارن ت' اخ� م ف� ى ه�اش� ن ار ب�� ت' م اخ� م ، ث�� ى ه�اش� ن هم ب�� ار م�ن ت' اخ� ًا ف� ي! ش� 'ر ق�

This hadith is recognised by Sunni scholars (as it would

incorporate a wider understanding of Sharifian descent than the

Alid idea) but has a definite Shi’ite feel and was quoted by

http://ahlulbayth.wordpress.com/ as an example of Shi’ite ideas in

the writings of famous Sunni scholars. Though, as this stands, it

shows that the over reverence of the Prophet by this Hadith as

well as the general tone of the book would be more an example of

what modern Ibn Hanbal inspired thinkers would see as Maliki

‘bida’a’ rather than an example of major Shi’ite influence. Qadi

Iyad also goes onto say the love that makes Fatima Al Zahra

special is of a greater degree than the friendship implied in the

Prophet Ibrahim’s title ‘Ibrahim Al-Khaleel’:

س�امه' ها ، و ا� ن ن اط�مه' ، و اب�� ه' ل�ف ط�لق' ال�محي� د ا� لxiiف�' لي ه' ال�خ ع م�ن� درج� رف� ا ا� ي aن ي� ب� ب� ي dه' ال�خب ن� درج� له' ، لأ� ع م�ن� ال�خ رف� ه' ا� عل ال�محي� كkب�ره�م ج�� ب ره�م و ا� و غ

م ب!�راه�ي ا.

That he also underlines this love as extending ‘and her sons’ is

making a radical point and it is difficult to imagine that Qadi

Iyad did not see some of the implications of what he was saying.

The book reflects many Sufi ideas of the miraculous powers of the

Prophet and the power in his name and example which again, would

have real enemies today among certain Sunnite thinkers. However,

the following passage seems to suggest that these same powers were

held by members of the Ahl al Bayt and particularly Ali and

Fatima:

ها و ائ�� د دًرا ل�ع ب' ف�' ح اط�مه' ط�ب� ن� ف� ه ا� ى ال�له ع�ي ه ، ع�ن� ع�لى رض ي d!ب ن� م�حمد ، ع�ن� ا� عفر ب�� ي! ث� ج�� ى ح�د و ف

حه'ً ه ص�ف شان�� ع ي� مي ها ل�ح� ب' م�ن عرف� مر ف� ا� دي م�عهما ، ف� ع ي' ه و س�لم ل�ن ى ص�لى ال�له ع�لي ن� لي ال�ن ًا ا. هب' ع�لي وج��

در ، و ا. عب' ال�ف' م رف� م ل�ها ، ث�� ه و س�لم و ل�على ، ث�� م له ص�لى ال�له ع�لي حه'ً ، ث�� اص�ف ك!لي ا� ال : ف� ض ، ف�' ي ف ا ل�ي'

اء ال�له ها م�ا س�� م�ن

This passage is also significant in that it seems to give a

certain preference to the place of Ali and Fatima over his wives

(ie: after the death of Khadija), something that is a key point in

Sunni/Shi’ite controversy. This is also significant as it is a

Hadith of Imam Sadiq, the 6th Shi’ite Imam who was said to have

taught Ibn Malik, the titular founder of the Maliki school, but

whose Hadith would often not be seen as ‘sound’ by Sunni scholars.

He also continues to reverence Fatima Bint Al Nabi in a number of

ways but significantly by quoting this Hadith:

ها ن� ض غ� ى م�ا ا� ن ن� ض غ ى ، ي� عه' م�ن ض ها : ا. ب�� ى ال�له ع�ن اط�مه' رض ى ف� ال رس�ول ال�له ف و ف�'

To say ‘what angers her angers me’ is strong phraseology and one

can imagine that Qadi Iyad was not in sympathy with the classic

Iberian narrative of Ummayad legitimacy. Qadi Iyad also goes on to

quote Fatima’s observations of her father’s conduct in the

‘Prophet’s Mosque’ in Medina. However, his most significant

concession to Shi’ite theology is where he talks of the

‘purification’ of the ‘People of the House’ and how they are an

example to the faithful and indeed, who stands against them are

unbelievers and hypocrites:

طهب را طهرك�م ب�' ب' وب� ي dه�ل ال�ن س ا� كم ال�رخ�� ه�ب� ع�ي د د ال�له ل�ي Jري ما ب� ن� ل�ث' : ا. ر© ي س�لمه' : ل�ما ب� �Jن ن� ا� و ع�ن� ع�مر ب��

هره لف ظ�» كشاء ، و ع�لى ح� للهم ي�� خ� ا ، ف� ي ا و خ�شن اط�مه' و خ�سي م س�لمه' دع�ا ف� ب' ا� ي dب� ى ل�ك³ ف و د

ه ] كشان�� لله ي�� خ� را ، [ ف� طهب س ، و ظ�هره�م ب�' هم ال�رخ�� ه�ب� ع�ن د ا� ى ، ف� ن' aن dه�ل ب� لأء ا� ال : ال�لهم ه�ؤ� م ف�' . ث��

ال : ال�لهم اط�مه' ، و ف�' ن� و ف� ًا و ال�حشي ا و خ�سي ه و س�لم ع�لي ى ص�لى ال�له ع�لي ن� اه�له' دع�ا ال�ن ه' ال�مي� ن� Fل�ث' ا ر© اص : ل�ما ب� ي وف�' �Jن ن� ا� و ع�ن� س�عد ب��

ال على م�ولأه ، ال�لهم و ال م�ن� والأه ، و ع�اد م�ن� ع�اداه و ف�' ى ع�لى : م�ن� ك�يب' م�ولأه ف� ه و س�لم ف ى ص�لى ال�له ع�لي ن� ال ال�ن ه�لى و ف�' لأء ا� ه�ؤ�

ق' اف لأ م�ي ك³ ا. ض غ ي� aم�ن� ، و لأ ب� لأ م�و� ك³ ا. حي� ه : لأ ي� ي ف�

This is a powerful, and indeed mystical, honoring of the ‘Ahl al

Bayt’ firmly in accordance with Shi’ite theology. The passage

seems to suggest the ‘ismah’ of the ‘Ahl al Bayt’ which would

imply a very Shi’ite understanding of the Quranic ‘verse of

purification’. Maybe more controversially, it points to the

enduring significance of his family to the body of believers. Also

of importance is his quoting of the Hadith al Ghadir about Ali

being his ‘Mawla’, even if this is understood in a non-Shi’ite way

it’s a strong statement to put into a book by a Sunni jurist. He

then goes on to quote the Prophet’s prayer at the events of the

‘Pool of Khumm’ where he asks Allah to love those who love him and

be angry at those who are angry at him (Ali). There are other

quotes about members of the ‘Ahl al Bayt’ I could quote, but the

more I read Qadi Iyad’s work, the more I am convinced that, at

least in his Sufi understanding, he was significantly influenced

by Shi’ite culture and ideology. He was a chief Jurist in both 12th

Century Ceuta and Granada and a hugely important figure in both

the Maghreb and Islamic Iberia so his open espousing of clearly

Shi’ite doctrine implies a whole strain of Shi’ite influence not

only in popular culture but even among the elite. While reading

Qadi Iyad, one can imagine a world where even the spokesmen of

Maliki orthodoxy lived a life of parallel heterodox, Shi’ite

influence mystical reverence for the Prophet and his family, with

all the potential political and social implications we have

discussed. If this is the case, it would be the beginning of a

radical reconstructing of our idea of religious and social life in

12th and 13th Century Ceuta and Granada.

Before we conclude, there are two other dynasties that may have

left a ‘Shi’ite footprint’ on Medieval Iberia, the Fatimids and

the Almuwahidun. This is where, in a reverse of Annales School

analysis, the Shi’ite strain that I am suggesting was a longer-

term social factor in coming to a clearer picture of Islamic

Iberia, became, albeit briefly, important in the world of ‘high-

level politics’. The Fatimids, obviously, never set foot on the

Iberian Peninsula but they had an effect on the Maghreb and the

fear of them influenced Ummayad policy in Andalus. As I have

already quoted, Laroui says: ‘The Fatimids rose in the Maghreb in

the 10th Century and found fertile soil because of the Idrisid

proselytizing.’ They would have not only ‘found fertile soil’ but

would have certainly added to the Maghreb’s ‘Shi’ite footprint’

and one could imagine that effect being felt across the straits.

The other effect that the Fatimids would have had would have been

as an object of fear, especially among the 10th Century Ummayad

rulers. This is difficult to gauge but would slant any

contemporary Sunni chronicle’s view of Shi’ism. Laroui writes on

this theme: ‘The Fatimid threat to Islam would have coloured

chroniclers writing of pre-Fatimid Shi’ism.’ I believe that such

an attitude of fear even colours what has been written after the

Fatimid era such would have been the sense of Ummayad/Fatimid

Sunni/Shia conflict and mutual suspicion in the area as the two

powers faced each other over the Straits of Gibraltat. This would

be its own area of study but, let it suffice to say, that the

presence of the Fatimids could well have influenced and

strengthened Shi’ite tendencies in Andalus but also coloured

Chronicler’s conception to Shi’ism and the area’s Shi’ite history

to such an extent that makes researching it more difficultxiii.

Finally, the Almohads or the Al Muwahidduun were another Berber

dynasty that ruled Andalus for a period from the end of the 12th

Century until the beginning of the 13th Century. They had a very

heterodox theology but their initial inspiration Ibn Tumart was

heavily influenced by the Shi’ite ideas of the Mahdi, and a

definite Sharafism. Again, this is another enormous area of study

but their presence would have added to the Shi’ite influence on

Iberian popular religion that, it is becoming clear, was a factor

from the early medieval period.

So, in conclusion, we can see that over the last 40 years the

picture of the Maghreb and Islamic Iberia as two separated

entities that could be classed as monolithic Mailikite, Sunni

societies is well on the way to breaking down. Furthermore, we can

see it being replaced by a much more nuanced and living picture of

different strains of Islam in the differing ethnic and social

levels of Andalucian society. In this, there is increasing

evidence of a decidedly Shi’ite strain, within, though not

exclusively, the rural, Berber population. However, this is not

totally clear because, as Mercedes Garcia Arenal mentioned

earlier, we are lacking some hard evidence at key points. Maria

Isabel Fierro wrote a well-researched essay on ‘Heresy in Al-

Andalus’ and challenged some of the perceptions of Islamic Iberia

as a Malikite monolith, however, in that she doesn’t cite a great

deal of evidence of Shi’ite activity (though this is because she

focuses on extremes of heresy that would be deserving of the death

penalty). She speaks of the Andalusi Qadi al-Fakkhar (d.723/1323)

quoting Al Humaydi: ‘the names of the Prophet’s companions were

always mentioned from the minbars with due respect: in other

words, al-Andalus has always been kept free of Shi’ism.’ She also

included the rather shocking quote from an eastern author of the

4th/10th Century al-Maqadassi: ‘if they discovered a Mu’tazili or a

Shi’ite, they sometimes killed him.’ Her conclusions, maybe

because of some of these extreme methods (that she goes on to

question), are that on a political level Malikite orthodoxy was

largely preserved which is what had been largely acknowledged in

this essay. But she talks of a movement in the early medieval age

that could be a forerunner of and evidence for a large Shi’ite

tendency within Andalucian Berber society: ‘the followers of ‘Al-

Fatimi’, who rebelled during the reign of ‘Abd Ar-Rahman, were

Berbers, as were the followers of the Mahdi Ibn al-Qitt, both

these movements being influenced by Shi’ism.’ Maribel Fierro also

wrote about Fatimid activity among Andalusian Berbers in 10th

Century Iberia that I mention in the footnotes. This is not

particularly conclusive either way, but I am convinced that there

was a significant Shi’ite strain in medieval Islamic Iberia, often

within Berber society and often disguised as Sufism, and I believe

it has left its ‘footprint’ on Spanish popular culture. To do

deeper research on this question would be difficult but not

impossible. It would involve a re-analysis of Andalucian literary

culture, especially Sufi literary culture, with an eye for finding

evidence of Shi’ite influence and culture. Then there would need

to be a re-analysis of the contemporary accounts of the popular

religious rituals and activities in the pre-Nasrid, Nasrid and

Morisco ages in the light of our new understanding. Finally, it

would need an in depth research into many popular Spanish rituals

like Semana Santa for their re-interpretation based on our theory

of the Shi’ite influence on their creation. This process, I

believe would lead to the creation of a new narrative in Iberian

social and cultural history that would open a lot of new doors not

only for medieval research but also for understanding of modern

Spanish culture.

Footnotes

i This quote from Dr Husain is quoted in several discussions of the Idrisids butI still cannot find where he originally stated it.

ii Jamu Abun Nasr is maybe saying this to contrast them with the Fatimids, which would be still strange as both wouldn’t be regarded as orthodox Twelver Shi’ites.

iii And one could even argue that the Almohads, being led by a self-proclaimed Mahdi, followed elements of a Shi’ite political model.

iv Which to a certain extent is true, it was used for such purposes especially inthe case of Algeria, but there is the reality of different ethnic histories of both the Maghreb and Islamic Spain that need to be approached sensitively but nonetheless, approached.

v George Drague is a French Historian and Sociologist who wrote on Sufi spiritual life in the Medieval Maghreb.

vi Vincent Cornell is an American scholar of Islam.

vii Abu Bakr said, "The Apostle of God said, "We leave no inheritance, what we leave behind us is sadaqah."viii

Surat an-naml, 16: ‘And Solomon inherited David. He said, "O people, we have been taught the language of birds, and we have been given from all things. Indeed, this is evident bounty."’

ix Emilio Garcia Gomez was a Spanish literary historian, poet and Arabist of aristocratic descent who died in 1995.x

Al Ghayb could mean unseen or unknown in relation to Allah’s power, but it is also one of the titles to the twelfth and Hidden Imam Muhammed Al-Mahdi. xi

Encubierto is a Spanish word meaning hidden or covert.xii

Note this reference to Osama ibn Zaid re: the work of Professor Powers.xiii

Maribel Fierro wrote an interesting article entitled ‘¿Hubo propaganda Fatimi entre los KutamaAndalusies?’ that speaks into this sense of 10th Century ‘Cold-War’ type intrigue.