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.
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