The Sacred and Profane in Islamic Cordoba

Authors

  • Janina M Safran Pennsylvania State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cist.2005.1.1.21

Keywords:

Medieval Cordoba, al-Andalus, Moorish Spain, Sacred Space, Eliadian

Abstract

This article investigates the sacred and profane in Islamic Cordoba in the ninth and tenth centuries of the Common Era to develop a distinct perspective on Muslim communal identity in al-Andalus (Islamic Spain and Portugal), and as an inquiry into how the definition of the sacred and profane in an Islamic city may be informed by, or speak to, the context of a multi-confessional society. The study approaches the sacred as a social construct with social meaning, and thus directs our view to the mundane dimensions of the sacred.

References

Aldana Garcia, Maria Jesus. Obras Completas de San Eulogio: Introduccion, Traduccion y Notas. Cordoba: Servicio de Publicaciones Universidad de Cordoba, 1998.

Alvarus, Paulus. “Vita Eulogii.” In Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina 115. Ed. J.P. Migne, 705-20. Paris: Garnier Freres, 1844-55.

Alvarus, Paulus. “Vita Eulogii.” In Corpus Scriptorum Muzarabicorum 1. Ed. Juan Gil, 330-43. Madrid: Instituto Antonio de Nebrija, 1973.

Barcelo, Miquel. “El Califa Patente: El Ceremonial Omeya de Cordoba o la Enscenificacion del Poder.” In Estructuras y Formas del Poder en la Historia. Ed. Reyna Pastor, Ian Kieniewica, Eduardo Garcia deEnterria, 51-71. Salamanca: Edicitones Universidad de Salamanca,1991.

Bell, Catherine. Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Bulliet, Richard. Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979

Christys, Ann. Christians in al-Andalus (711-1000). Richmond: Curzon Press, 2002.

Colbert, Edward P. The Martyrs of Cordoba (850-859): A Study of the Sources. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1962.

Combs-Schilling, M.E. Sacred Performances: Islam, Sexuality, and Sacrifice. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.

Dawood, N.J. The Koran with Parallel Arabic Text. London: Penguin Books, 1990.

Dodds, Jerrilynn. Architecture and Ideology in Early Medieval Spain. University Park: Penn State University Press, 1990.

Dodds, Jerrilynn. “The Great Mosque of Cordoba.” In Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain. Ed. Jerrilynn Dodds,10-25. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992.

Durkheim, Emile and Marcel Mauss. Primitive Classification by Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss. English trans. R. Needham of “De Quelques Formes Primitives de Classification: Contribution a l”Etude des Representations Collectives.” Annee sociologique 6 (1901-2). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963.

Eliade, Mircea. Patterns in Comparative Religion. Trans. Rosemary Sheed. New York: Meridian Books, 1963.

Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and Profane: The Nature of Religions. Trans. Willard R. Trask. New York: Harcourt. reprint, 1967.

Eulogius. “Memoriale Sanctorum.” In Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina 115. Ed. J.P. Migne, 731-818. Paris: Garnier Freres, 1844-55.

Eulogius. “Liber Apologeticus Martyrum.” In Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina 115. Ed. J.P. Migne, 851-70. Paris: Garnier Freres, 1844-55.

Eulogius. “Documentum Martyrial.” In Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina 115. Ed. J.P. Migne, 819-34. Paris: Garnier Freres, 1844-55.

Eulogius. “Memoriale Sanctorum.” In Corupus Scriptorum Muzarabicorum 2. Ed. Juan Gil, 363-459. Madrid: Instituto Anotonio de Nebrija, 1973.

Eulogius. “Liber Apologeticus Martyrum.” In Corupus Scriptorum Muzarabicorum 2. Ed. Juan Gil, 475-95. Madrid: Instituto Anotonio de Nebrija, 1973.

Eulogius. “Documentum Martyrial.” In Corupus Scriptorum Muzarabicorum 2. Ed. Juan Gil, 459-75. Madrid: Instituto Anotonio de Nebrija, 1973.

Felix, Ana Fernando. “Children on the Frontier of Islam.” In Conversions Islamiques: Identites Religieuses en Islam Mediteraneen/Islamic Conversions: Religious Identities in Mediterranean Islam. Ed. Mercedes Garcia-Arenal, 61-72. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 2001.

Felix, Ana Fernando and Maribel Fierro. “Cristianos y Conversos al Islam en al-Andalus Bajo los Omeyas. Una Aproximacion al Proceso de Islamizacion a traves de una Fuente Legal Andalusi del s. III/IX.” In Visigodos y Omeyas: Un Debate Entre la Antiguedad Tardia y la Alta Edad Media. Ed. L. Caballero Zoredo and P. Mateos Cruz, 415-427. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas y Consorcio de la Ciudad Monumenal de Merida, 2000.

Fierro, Isabel. “Andalusian Fatawa on Blasphemy.” Annales Islamologiques 15 (1990): 103-17.

Glick, F. From Muslim Fortress to Christian Castle: Social and Cultural Change in Medieval Spain. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995.

Grabar, Oleg. “The Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.” Ars Orientalis 3 (1959): 33-62.

Grabar, Oleg. “Notes Sur le Mihrab de la Grande Mosquee de Cordoue,” in Le Mihrab dans l’Architecture et la Religion Musulmane. Ed. Alexandre Papadoulo, Actes du Colloque International tenu a Paris en Mai 1980, 115-121. Leiden: E.J. Brill. 1988.

Granja, Fernando de la. “Fiestas Cristianas en al-Andalus.” Al-Andalus 34 (1969): 1-53; 35 (1970): 119-42.

Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1994.

Ibn ‘Idhari. al-Bayan al-mughrib fi akhbar al-Andalus w-al-Maghrib. Ed. E. Levi-Provencal and G. S. Colin. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1948-51.

Ibn al-Attar. Kitab al-watha’iq wa-l-sijillat (Formulario Notarial Hispano-Arabe). Ed. P. Chalmeta and F. Corriente. Madrid: Instituto Hispano-Arabe de Cultura, 1983.

Ibn Rushd (al-Jadd). al-Bayan wa-l-tahsil wa-l-sharh wa-l-tawjih wa-l-ta’lil fi masa’il al-mustakhraja. Ed. Muhammad Hajji. Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami, 1984-7.

Ibn Waddah. Kitab al-bida’. Ed. and Trans. M. Isabel Fierro. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1988.

‘Iyad b. Musa. Tartib al-madarik wa-taqrib al-masalik li-ma‘rifat a ‘lam madhhab Malik. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1998.

‘Iyad b. Musa. al-Shifa bi ta‘rif huquq al-mustafa. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 2000.

Kassis, H.E. “Roots of Conflict: Aspects of Christian-Muslim Confrontation in Eleventh Century Spain.” In Conversion and Continuity: Indigenous Christian Communities in Islam Lands, Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries. Ed. Michael Gervers and Ramzi Jibran Bikhazi, 154-155. Toronto: The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1990.

Khallaf, M. ‘Abd al-Wahhab. Documentos Sobre Procesos Referentes a las Communidades No-Musulmanes en la Espana Musulmana. Cairo: al-Markaz al-‘Arabi, 1980.

Khoury, Nuha N.N. “The Meaning of the Great Mosque of Cordoba in the Tenth Century.” Muqarnas 13 (1996): 80-98.

Lagardere, Vincent. Histoire et Societe en Occident Musulman au Moyen Age: Analyse du al-Mi‘yar d’al Wansarisi. Madrid: Casa Velazquez, 1995.

Maqqari. Nafh al-tib min ghusn al-Andalus al-ratib. Ed. Ihsan Abbas. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1968.

Marin, Manuela. “Learning at Mosques in al-Andalus.” In Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Their Fatwas. Ed. Muhammad Khalid Masud, Brinkley Messick and David S. Powers, 47-54. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996.

Meri, Josef. The Cult of the Saints among Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Platvoet, Jan. “Ritual in Plural and Pluralist Societies.” In Pluralism and Identity: Studies in Ritual Behavior. Ed. Jan Platvoet and Karel Van Der Toorn, 25-51. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995.

Qayrawani. al-Nawadir wa-l-ziyadat. Ed. Muhammad Hajji. Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami, 1999.

Safran, Janina M. “Ceremony and Submission: The Symbolic Representation and Recognition of Legitimacy in Tenth-Century al-Andalus.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 58 (1999): 191-201.

Safran, Janina M. “Identity and Differentiation in Ninth-Century al-Andalus.” Speculum 76 (2001): 591-597.

Safran, Janina M. “Rules of Purity and Confessional Boundaries: Maliki Debates About the Pollution of the Christian.” History of Religions 42 (2003): 208-210.

Sage, Carelton M. Paul Albar of Cordoba: Studies On His Life and Writings. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1943.

Sahnun. al-Mudawwana al-kubra l-il-imam Malik. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1997.

Smith, Jonathan Z. To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Smith, Jonathan Z. Map is Not Territory. Chicago: Chicago University Press (repr. of Brill ed.), 1993.

Snoek, Jan. “Similarity and Demarkation.” In Pluralism and Identity: Studies in Ritual Behavior. Ed. Jan Platvoet and Karel Van Der Toorn, 53-67. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995.

Wansharisi. al-Mi‘yar al-mu‘rib wa al-jami‘ al-Mughrib. Rabat: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami, 1981.

Wasserstein, David. “The Language Situation in al-Andalus.” In The Formation of al-Andalus. Part 2: Language, Religion, Culture, and the Sciences. Ed. Maribel Fierro and Julio Samso, 3-17. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998.

Wheeler, Brannon. Mecca and Eden: Ritual, Relics, and Territory in Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Wolf, Kenneth Baxter. Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Published

2007-02-04

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Safran, J. M. (2007). The Sacred and Profane in Islamic Cordoba. Comparative Islamic Studies, 1(1), 22-41. https://doi.org/10.1558/cist.2005.1.1.21