This book is a discussion of the complex events which surround the breakup of the Muslim Caliphate of Cordoba in the early eleventh century. The focus of the study concerns quite a short period of time: 1009-1031 A.D., although a wide-ranging investigation of the political structure of Muslim Spain is embarked on. A thorough narrative of the events is followed by separate discussions of some of the main groups involved in the civil wars, the Marwānids (the supporters of a legitimately-appointed Umayyad representative), the saqāliba (Slavs), the Berbers and the Christians of northern...

This important work is an historical study of the Islamic writings in Spanish and Aljamiado (Spanish in Arabic script) of the Muslim minorities in medieval Christian Spain, the Mudejars and Moriscos. On the basis of both Christian sources, such as archival documents and the writings of John of Segovia, and Islamic sources in Spanish and Arabic, this book focuses on the life and writings of Yca Gidelli (ca 1450), religious authority of the Mudejar community of Segovia (Castile). Of crucial importance for the history of Islamic Spanish literature, Yca's best-known work is a Spanish translation...

Love Songs from al-Andalus presents an updated survey of the debates concerning Andalusian strophic poetry and their Kharjas. Attention is focused on the texts themselves and their literary implications as testimonies of the multicultural and multilingual society of al-Andalus. Since languages and alphabets of the three major religions have been used, these texts are studies historically, prosodically, thematically and stylistically and are related to the three literary traditions. One of the novelties of this study is the fact that it has been based upon the most updated...