Notes on Contributors
María Luisa Ávila
is Scientific Researcher at the School of Arabic Studies (Granada), part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Her main research interests lie in the study of Arabic biographical literature, the content of which she has utilized for several research projects on Andalusi society. Among them are “El espacio doméstico en los diccionarios biográficos andalusíes” (2015), “The search for knowledge: Andalusi scholars and their travels to the Islamic East” (2002), “Women in Andalusi biographical sources” (2002), “The structure of the family in al-Andalus” (1998), and La sociedad hispanomusulmana a final del califato (1985). She has also edited a biographical dictionary, Ibn Ḥārith al-Khushanī’s Akhbār al-fuqahāʾ (1992). She currently directs the project “Prosopography of the ʿulamāʾ (scholars) of al-Andalus”, available at
Luis F. Bernabé-Pons
is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Alicante. He has focused his research mainly on Islamic minorities in Spain under Christian rule, their identity features, cultural traits, their role in the persistence of Islamic worship, as well as their image in the Christian mind. He has also studied the life and works of the Moriscos in their exile outside Spain. Among his recent works are “La vie secrète des morisques” (2017), “Musulmanes sin Al-Andalus. ¿Musulmanes sin España? Los moriscos y su personalidad histórica” (2017), “Islamic anti-christian polemics in 16th century Spain: the Lead Books of Granada and the Gospel of Barnabas. Beyond the limits of tahrīf” (2015), and “The Moriscos outside Spain: routes and financing” (with. J. Gil Herrera, 2014).
Bárbara Boloix-Gallardo
is Senior Lecturer of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Granada (Spain). Her main area of specialization is the History, Society, and Culture of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, in particular the study of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada (13th–15th centuries), and the study of women in al-Andalus and the Maghreb. She currently directs a National Research Project on “Nasrid and Merinid Women in the Islamic Societies of the Medieval Mediterranean (13th–15th centuries): Power, Identity, and Social Dynamics” (HAR2017-88117-P). On these topics she has delivered a number of papers at international conferences and prepared several publications. Among the most recent contributions are Ibn al-Aḥmar. Vida y reinado del primer sultán de Granada (1195–1273) (2017), “Beyond the ḥaram. Ibn al-Khaṭīb and his privileged knowledge of the royal Nasrid women (2014), “The genealogical legitimization of the Naṣrid dynasty (13th–15th centuries): the alleged Anṣārī origins of the Banū Naṣr” (2014), and Las Sultanas de la Alhambra. Las grandes desconocidas del Reino Nazarí de Granada (siglos XIII–XV) (2013).
Adela Fábregas García
is Senior Lecturer of Medieval History at the University of Grenada (Spain). Her research focuses on the study of the economy of the Nasrid kingdom, with particular attention on production and international trade, as well as the basis of Nasrid economic power. The results of these research interests include: “Commercial crop or plantation system? Sugarcane production from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic” (2018), the edited volume Power and Rural Communities in Al-Andalus: Ideological and Material Representations (2016), De la Alquería a la Aljama. Fundamentos de poder y organización social de las comunidades rurales de matriz islámica en Granada y Castilla (2016), “Other Markets: Complementary Commercial Zones in the Nasrid World of the Western Mediterranean (ss. XIII–XV)” (2013), and “Genoese Trade Networks in Southern Iberian Peninsula: Trade, Transmission of Technical Knowledge and Economic Interactions” (2010).
Maribel Fierro
is Research Professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC, Madrid). Her research focuses on the political, religious, and intellectual history of al-Andalus and the Islamic West, on Islamic law, the construction of orthodoxy, and on violence and its representation in premodern Islamic societies. She is the author of The Almohad Revolution. Politics and Religion in the Islamic West During the Twelfth–Thirteenth Centuries (2012), and Abd al-Rahman III. The First Cordoban Caliph (2005). She has edited Orthodoxy and Heresy in Islam: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies (2013), and The Western Islamic world, Eleventh–Eighteenth Centuries, corresponding to vol. 2 of The New Cambridge History of Islam (2010).
Allen Fromherz
is Professor of Mediterranean and Middle East History at Georgia State University (US). He is author of several books on the history of the Almohads and the Maghreb including The Near West (2016), Ibn Khaldun, Life and Times (2011), and The Almohads: Rise of an Islamic Empire (2010). He is currently the president of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies.
Alberto García Porras
is Senior Lecturer of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Granada (Spain). He has participated in several archaeological excavations and has worked on many research projects. He has written books and papers on the material culture and archaeology of late al-Andalus (5th–9th/11th–15th centuries). Among the most recent are “La península Ibérica e Italia durante la Edad Media. Un análisis de sus relaciones desde la arqueología” (2018), “La producción de cerámica en Almería entre los siglos X y XII” (2016), “Nasrid frontier fortresses and manifestations of power: the Alcazaba of Moclín cattle as revealed by recent archaeological research” (2015), “Análisis del material cerámico hallado en la Madraza” (2015), and “Rural society in al-Andalus during the late Middle Ages. Ceramics assemblages and social dynamics” (2013).
Rafael López-Guzmán
is Full Professor of Art History at the University of Granada. He has been head of the Cultural Extension Department (UGR), a member of the Andalusian Heritage and Museums Commission, and director of the Permanent Seminar of Historical Heritage of the International University of Andalucía. He was a member of the Advisory Commission of the Ministry of Education for the promotion of training and research in the social sciences, law, and the humanities. He supervised the project “El legado Andalusí” and directed the master’s degree program in Cultural Management at the University of Granada. He was also the supervisor of the international postgraduate programs “Heritage Management and Conservation” (Cuba and Colombia). He is a Correspondent Member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and the Academy of History of Cartagena de Indias. In 2014, he was awarded the Andalusian research award “Plácido Fernández Viagas” in recognition of his work in art history. Among his recent publications are “The legacy of Al-Andalus in Mexico: Mudejar architecture” (2018), “Artistic heritage and cultural relations between Andalucia and South America” (2017), Arquitectura Mudéjar: del sincretismo medieval a las alternativas americanas (2000), Arquitectura y carpintería Mudéjar en Nueva España (1992), and El Albaiycín morisco (1985–86).
Antonio Malpica-Cuello
is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Granada (Spain). He specializes in the exploitation of natural resources and its effects on settlement, territorial organization, and landscape. His recent publications include De puerto a castillo, Castell de Ferro y su territorio en época medieval (2015); La Madraza de Yusuf I y la ciudad de Granada: análisis a partir de la Arqueología (2015); Las últimas tierras de al-Andalus. Paisaje y poblamiento del reino nazarí de Granada (2014); Las ciudades nazaríes. Nuevas aportaciones desde la arqueología (2012), and Análisis de los paisajes históricos: de al-Andalus a la sociedad feudal (2009).
José Martínez-Delgado
is Senior Lecturer of Hebrew and Aramaic Studies at the University of Granada. He principally focuses on the Hebrew sciences of language in al-Andalus (lexicography, grammar, exegesis, the transmission of the biblical text, and metrics), always considering the original context in which the texts held in the Genizah came into being. The core of his research activity is the identification and publication of unknown works or works believed to be lost. He also studies Andalusi Judeo-Arab culture in its Arab-Islamic context. Among his most recent publications are Risālat al-taqrīb wa-l-tashīl de Abū l-Walīd Marwān ibn Gānah de Córdoba. Edición diplomática y traducción (with Ahmad Alahmad Alkhalaf, 2018), Un manual Judeo-Arabe de métrica hebrea andalusí (Kitāb al-ʿarūḍ al-šiʿr al-ibrī) de la Genizah de El Cairo. Fragmentos de las colecciones Firkovich y Taylor-Schechter Edición diplomática, traducción y estudio (2017), “Risālat al-Tanbīḥ by Ibn Gānah: an edition, translation and study” (2016), and “Fragments of Shelomo ben Mobarak’s Kitāb al-Taysīr in the Taylor-Schechter Collection” (2015).
Celia del Moral
is Honorary Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Granada (Spain). From 2001 to 2019 she has been the director of the Research Group “Andalusi Cities under Islam” at the same institution, and has led a National Research Project on “Ibn al-Khaṭīb and his Time.” Her field of study and teaching is Classical and Medieval Arabic literature in both the Islamic East and West, especially in al-Andalus and the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. Among her most recent publications are “El Reino Nazarí de Granada como frontera literaria y puente multicultural entre los Reinos Cristianos y el Norte de África” (2016), “Un monumento literario a la memoria de Ibn al-Jaṭīb: el Nafḥ al-ṭīb de al-Maqqarī” (2014), “Un siglo de contrastes en la poesía andalusí: Esplendor en Sevilla y oscuridad en Granada” (2013), Ibn al-Jaṭīb y su tiempo (in collaboration with Fernando Velázquez Basanta, 2012), “La literatura andalusí durante los siglos XII al XV” (2012), and “El mito de Fedra en la literatura árabe clásica oriental” (2012).
Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala
is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Córdoba (Spain). His fields of study are: Arabic literature (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim), manuscript editing, textual critics, literary criticism, and comparative semitics. Among his most recent publications are: De Córdoba a Toledo: Tathlīth al-Waḥdāniyyah (‘La Trinidad de la Unidad’): Fragmentos teológicos de un judeoconverso arabizado (in collaboration with Pedro Mantas España, 2018), “‘You brood of vipers!’ Translations and revisions in the Andalusi Arabic version of the gospels” (2018), and “Qurʾānic textual archaeology. Rebuilding the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra” (2018).
Antonio Orihuela
is Scientific Researcher at the School of Arabic Studies (Granada), that is part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). He has been main researcher of the National Research Projects I+D+i “Morisco Houses in Granada: Research and Restoration” (HUM2006-12446), “Nasrid Cities” (HUM2011-30293), and “The Medieval Walls of Almería. Chrono-typological Analysis and Scientific Dating” (HAR2015-71609-P). He is currently a member of the Advisory Technical Commission of the Council of the Alhambra and the Generalife. His main areas of expertise are: the architecture of al-Andalus (focusing on residential and military buildings), the urbanism of Granada and the other main Nasrid cities, and the restoration of monuments. He has directed the restoration projects of 20 historical buildings (palaces, houses, castles, city walls, etc.). He is the author of some 80 research articles in scientific journals and collective books, and eight books, including La Casa del Chapiz (2013), Casas y palacios nazaríes. Siglos XIII–XV (1996), and Aljibes públicos de la Granada islámica (1991).
José Miguel Puerta-Vílchez
is Arabist and Senior Lecturer of Art History at the University of Granada. He is specialized in Arabic aesthetics, and the art and architecture of Andalus. His publications include Aesthetics in Arabic Thought from Pre-Islamic Arabia through al-Andalus (2017), “La Alhambra como paraíso en el imaginario árabe” (2017), The Artistic Sense of Qurtuba (2015), “La construcción poética de la Alhambra” (2013), Reading the Alhambra. A Visual Guide to Alhambra through its Inscriptions (2011; 2nd ed. 2015), The Poetics of Water in Islam (2011), and La aventura del cálamo (2007). He has been co-director and editor of the Biblioteca de al-Andalus (9 vols., 2003–13), and curator of exhibitions like Arts and Cultures in al-Andalus. The Power of Alhambra (2013–14).
Ieva Rėklaitytė
obtained her PhD at the University of Zaragoza, Spain (2010). She specializes in medieval hydraulics, on which she has devoted several publications, focusing in particular on sanitation and everyday life in al-Andalus. Among her most significant publications so far are “Una aproximación arqueológica a la hidráulica doméstica en las ciudades de al-Ándalus” (2015), Vivir en una ciudad de al-Ándalus: hidráulica, saneamiento y condiciones de vida (2014), and “Public baths in the Roman and Islamic medieval world: some reflections on hygienic and moral issues” (2011).
Julio Samsó-Moya
is Honorary Professor at the Department of Semitic Philology of the University of Barcelona, and academic full member of the Real Academia de las Buenas Letras of Barcelona. His main area of research is medieval Arabic science, which he has developed in numerous research projects, papers at international conferences, and diverse publications. Among the most recent of the latter are: “La difusión del Almanach Perpetuum de Abraham Zacuto (Salamanca, finales del s. XV) desde Marruecos hasta el Yemen” (2013), “Dixit Abraham Iudeus: algunas observaciones sobre los textos astronómicos de Abraham ben Ezra” (2012), Les tables astronomiques del Occident musulmane (2011), and Las ciencias de los antiguos en al-Andalus (2011).
Bilal Sarr-Marroco
is a Post-doctoral Researcher at the University of Granada (Spain). He is the director of the R+D “Jóvenes Retos” Project “Settlements and Exchanges around the Alboran Sea.” He specializes in the history and archaeology of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, especially the Berber settlement in al-Andalus, the Intrabaetic Basin cities, and settlement and exchange between the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb. His recent publications include Arqueología medieval y epigrafía árabe (2015); “Et cependant les Berbères existent”. El poblamiento beréber en la Frontera Superior andalusí (2014); La Granada zirí (1013–1090) (2011); “Quand on parlait le berbère à la cour de Grenade. Quelques réflexions sur la berbérité de la taifa ziride (al-Andalus, XIe siècle)” (2016); and “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muʿāwiyya fut celui qui la fonda … Madīnat Ilbīra à travers les sources arabes écrites” (2014).
Delfina Serrano-Ruano
is PhD Tenured Researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (Madrid, CSIC). She specializes in the history of Islamic law and theology. In 1999 she published La obra de procedimientos judiciales de Muḥammad b. ʿIyāḍ. She is the editor of the volume Crueldad y compasión en la literatura árabe e islámica (2011). Her publications also include “Redefining Paternal Filiation through DNA Testing: Law and the Children of Unmarried Mothers in the Maghreb” (2018), “Judicial Procedure and Legal Practice on Liʿān (Imprecatory Oath) in Andalus” (2017), “Forum Shopping in al-Andalus” (2016 and 2017), “Bringing Arbitration (taḥkīm) and Conciliation (ṣulḥ) under the Qadi’s Purview in Maliki al-Andalus” (2016), “Custom, Almohad Legal Ideology and the Development of Mālikī Maritime Law” (2015), “Later Ashʿarism in the Islamic West” (2016), “Judicial Pluralism under the “Berber Empires” (2014), “Judaism, Forced Conversions and the Genealogy of the Banu Rushd” (2010), and “Rape in Maliki Legal Doctrine and Practice” (2007).
María Jesús Viguera-Molíns
is Honorary Professor at Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). She obtained her PhD in Semitic Philology (1973) and is currently an academic full member of the Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid) and of the Real Academia de Extremadura. Her research activity focuses on Arabic Studies in general, and on the History of al-Andalus, in particular. She belongs to numerous scientific committees and associations, such as the Spanish Real Academia de la Historia. Among her recent publications are Episodios andalusíes de Extremadura (2017); the coordination and co-authorship of four volumes of the Historia de España Menéndez-Pidal: 8.1: Los reinos de taifas (1994); 8.2: Almorávides y Almohades (1997); and 8.3 and 8.4: Reino nazarí de Granada (2000); Los manuscritos árabes en España: su historia y la Historia (2016); and Hechos memorables de Abū l-Ḥasan, sultán de los benimerines. El “Musnad” de Ibn Marzuq (1977).
Bernard Vincent
is Director of Studies at the L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. His work focuses on the modern history of the Iberian world and the relationship between Islam and Christendom in the Western Mediterranean region. Among his most recent publications are Les musulmans dans l’histoire de l’Europe (2012) and L’Islam d’Espagne au XVIe siècle. Résistances identitaires des morisques (2017).
Josef Ženka
(PhD, Prague, 2012) is Assistant Professor of Islamic history at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic). He is currently working on a book project that focuses on the idea of religious leadership in late Andalusi society examining the life and works of Nasrid chief judge Abū ʿAmr Ibn Manẓūr (d. 1483). Since 2013, he has worked extensively on Granadan/Andalusī manuscripts. His recent publications include “A Manuscript of the Last Sultan of al-Andalus and the Fate of the Royal Library of the Nasrid Sultans at the Alhambra” (2018). The other line of his research focuses on Czech-American scholar A.R. Nykl. He has edited two volumes of Nykl’s autobiography (2016 and 2017) and is completing a book on him.
Amalia Zomeño
is a Researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (Madrid, CSIC). She holds a PhD in Arabic Philology from the University of Barcelona and was postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University (1998–2000). The main topic of her research is Islamic law. She is the author of Dote y matrimonio en al-Andalus y el norte de África (2000). She is currently studying the collections of Arabic legal documents preserved in the archives of Granada in order to analyze family and gender in 9th–15th century Granada, and has written several papers on the subject. He is also the author of two catalogues of Arabic manuscripts preserved at Montserrat Abbey.