The Door of the Caliph

Concepts of the Court in the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus

Elsa Cardoso (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

280 Seiten

2023
Routledge (Verlag)
978-1-032-20715-5 (ISBN)

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This book focuses on the conceptualization of the court, palace and ruler of the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus. Western terminology still plays a normative role in the representation of foreign courts, determining concepts that fit poorly into chronologies with their own dynamics and specificities, which is the case of Muslim courts. While Court Studies is a well-developed field for modern Western societies, Muslim medieval courts lack a consistent field of research.

Sources elaborate a specific terminology for medieval Muslim court societies. In the specific case of the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus, the court is usually articulated as Bāb Suddat al-Khalīfa (“The door of the Sudda of the caliph”) – a reference to the symbology of the main city gate of Cordoba – or simply as Bāb. Bāb Suddat al-Khalīfa became the most emblematic concept to name the Umayyad palace and its society, which will be additionally interpreted in the framework of the performance of ceremonial. The strong conceptualization of the Umayyad court of Cordoba was highlighted through the articulation of ceremonial, as the mis-en-scène of the conceptualization, expressed by gestures, insignia and hierarchies.

The preliminary comparative perspective with the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus, the ‘Abbasid and Fatimid Caliphates and the Byzantine Empire further discusses the Umayyad Andalusi model in relation to other dynasties. While this book focuses on the Umayyad conceptualization and articulation of ceremonial, this model will be discussed within the Mediterranean and Eastern framework of the 10th and 11th centuries, which broadens the interest of the book to other fields of research.

Elsa Cardoso is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and the Near East (ILC) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Lisbon in 2020. From April 2021 to March 2022, she was a postdoctoral fellow of the German DFG Center RomanIslam at the University of Hamburg. Her research focuses on the history of Islam and the history of al-Andalus. She has worked and published on the court, diplomacy and ceremonial of the Umayyads of Cordoba, considering a comparative perspective within the Mediterranean. She is also developing her research on the historiography of al-Andalus, as well as on the history of the Gharb al-Andalus.

1. Introduction / 2. Sources and State of the Art / 3. Concepts / 4. A Ceremonial Common Language in the Mediterranean: Rituals of Court in a Comparative Perspective / 5. Conclusion / Images

Erscheinungsdatum	17.07.2023
Reihe/Serie	Studies in Medieval History and Culture
Zusatzinfo	29 Halftones, black and white; 29 Illustrations, black and white
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	680 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
ISBN-10	1-032-20715-9 / 1032207159
ISBN-13	978-1-032-20715-5 / 9781032207155
Zustand	Neuware