Article
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
Muʿāwiya, ʿAbd al-Malik, and the Falcon of Quraysh
-
Isabel Toral
Published/Copyright:
October 12, 2023
Abstract
This study explores the potential of using one of the less-studied textual sources for the caliphal period in al-Andalus, namely, the ʿIqd al-farīd by Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih (d. 940), for an investigation of the Western Umayyad discourse of legitimacy. It focuses therein the narrative portrayals of the Eastern caliphs Muʿāwiya and ʿAbd al-Malik, generally seen as models of strong and successful Umayyad leadership, and analyzes which qualities are highlighted and downsized, of them and their opponents. A close reading of selected passages shows that the result is of high complexity and ambivalence. In literalized anecdotes peppered with sayings, poems, and foreboding dreams, the narratives feature dramatic, violent scenes and tragic plots, which emphasize the human tragedy of the protagonists in their fight for power and authority in the Islamic community. The study proposes to interpret them in the framework of a particular Andalusī anxiety (“sentiment of precarity”), which saw the Umayyad dynasty and its caliphal credentials as central warrants of unity and Muslim permanence on the peninsula.
Online erschienen: 2023-10-12
Erschienen im Druck: 2023-10-11
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
You are currently not able to access this content.
You are currently not able to access this content.
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Jere Bacharach (1938–2023)
- Thematic Focus: The Umayyads from West to East: New Perspectives
- Introduction: The Umayyads from West to East: New Perspectives
- The Battles of the Umayyads. Remembering War from West to East
- The Rhetoric of Caliphal Legitimacy. On the Use of alqāb by the Umayyad Rulers in the East
- How the Umayyads Lost the Islamic West: Contrasting Depictions of the Uprising of 122/740 by Arab Historians
- ‘Syria Rises to Receive the Caliph’: Umayyad Caliphal Titles from Cordoba to Damascus
- Between East and West: The Spoils of the Conquest as “Triggers of Memory” in Umayyad al-Andalus
- The Tombs of the Umayyad Rulers at the Rawḍa of the Alcázar of Cordoba and Their Symbolic Meaning
- Muʿāwiya, ʿAbd al-Malik, and the Falcon of Quraysh
- Other Articles
- A Glimpse into Egyptian/Syrian Elite Book Culture During the Seventh/Thirteenth Century: Booklist T-S Misc. 24.28 from the Cairo Geniza Corpus
- Drawn to Decisions: Hungarian Jewish Citizen Ignác Goldziher
- Reviews
- Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology: Administration, Justice, and Daily Life in Empires of the Mediterranean”
- Yvonne Albers, Ines Braune, Christian Junge, Felix Lang, Friederike Pannewick, Arabistik. Eine literatur- und kulturwissenschaftliche Einführung, Berlin:Springer Verlag, 2022 (Lehrbuch J.B. Metzler), IX, 307 S.
- Abdulrahman Al-Salimi and Eric Staples, eds., Oman: A Maritime History. Studies on Ibadism and Oman, vol. 9, Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2017.
- Bachtiyar M. Babadžanov, Ėpigrafičeskie pamjatniki Chorezma. Repertuar tekstov, proklamacii, kul’turnye konteksty, Tom 1, Ėpigrafika v architekturnom landšafte Chivy. Mečeti, pogrebal’nye kompleksy, medrese, dvorcy, vorota. Čast’ 1: Vvedenie, čtenie tekstov, kommentirovannye perevody, 383 pp., Čast’ 2: Illjustracii. 436 pp. / Bakhtiyar M. Babadjanov, Epigraphic Monuments of Khorezm. Repertoire of texts, meaning, cultural contexts, Volume 1, Epigraphy in the Architectural Cityscape of Khiva. Mosques, madrasas, burial complexes, courts and gates, Part 1: Introduction, texts and annotated translations, Part. 2: Plates. Wien (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) 2020. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse: Denkschriften, 542. Band. Veröffentlichungen zur Iranistik, herausgegeben von Bert G. Fragner und Florian Schwarz, Nr. 85. Studies and Texts on Central Asia, herausgegeben von Florian Schwarz, Band 3. ISBN 978-3-7001-8103-3.
- Werner Diem, Studien zu sabab in der arabischen Kunstprosa des 10.–15. Jahrhunderts. Ein Beitrag zur arabischen Lexik, Phraseologie und Stilgeschichte, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2022, (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 126), 208 S., ISBN 978-3-447-11828-6.
- Christian Müller, Recht und Historische Entwicklung der Scharia im Islam, Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East, vol. 46, 544 pp., Boston: de Gruyter, 2022, ISBN: 9783110765779.
- Carl F. Petry, The Mamluk Sultanate. A History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022, 358 pp., ISBN 9781108456999.
- Marijn van Putten, Quranic Arabic. From Its Hijazi Origins to Its Classical Reading Traditions, Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, vol. 106, Leiden: Brill 2022, i–xxi+319 pp.+bibl. and index, ISBN 978-90-04-50624-4
- Hiroyuki Yanagihashi, Studies in Legal Hadith, Studies in Islamic Law and Society, vol. 47, Leiden: Brill, 2019. xvi + 612 pp., ISBN 9789004389199.
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Jere Bacharach (1938–2023)
- Thematic Focus: The Umayyads from West to East: New Perspectives
- Introduction: The Umayyads from West to East: New Perspectives
- The Battles of the Umayyads. Remembering War from West to East
- The Rhetoric of Caliphal Legitimacy. On the Use of alqāb by the Umayyad Rulers in the East
- How the Umayyads Lost the Islamic West: Contrasting Depictions of the Uprising of 122/740 by Arab Historians
- ‘Syria Rises to Receive the Caliph’: Umayyad Caliphal Titles from Cordoba to Damascus
- Between East and West: The Spoils of the Conquest as “Triggers of Memory” in Umayyad al-Andalus
- The Tombs of the Umayyad Rulers at the Rawḍa of the Alcázar of Cordoba and Their Symbolic Meaning
- Muʿāwiya, ʿAbd al-Malik, and the Falcon of Quraysh
- Other Articles
- A Glimpse into Egyptian/Syrian Elite Book Culture During the Seventh/Thirteenth Century: Booklist T-S Misc. 24.28 from the Cairo Geniza Corpus
- Drawn to Decisions: Hungarian Jewish Citizen Ignác Goldziher
- Reviews
- Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology: Administration, Justice, and Daily Life in Empires of the Mediterranean”
- Yvonne Albers, Ines Braune, Christian Junge, Felix Lang, Friederike Pannewick, Arabistik. Eine literatur- und kulturwissenschaftliche Einführung, Berlin:Springer Verlag, 2022 (Lehrbuch J.B. Metzler), IX, 307 S.
- Abdulrahman Al-Salimi and Eric Staples, eds., Oman: A Maritime History. Studies on Ibadism and Oman, vol. 9, Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2017.
- Bachtiyar M. Babadžanov, Ėpigrafičeskie pamjatniki Chorezma. Repertuar tekstov, proklamacii, kul’turnye konteksty, Tom 1, Ėpigrafika v architekturnom landšafte Chivy. Mečeti, pogrebal’nye kompleksy, medrese, dvorcy, vorota. Čast’ 1: Vvedenie, čtenie tekstov, kommentirovannye perevody, 383 pp., Čast’ 2: Illjustracii. 436 pp. / Bakhtiyar M. Babadjanov, Epigraphic Monuments of Khorezm. Repertoire of texts, meaning, cultural contexts, Volume 1, Epigraphy in the Architectural Cityscape of Khiva. Mosques, madrasas, burial complexes, courts and gates, Part 1: Introduction, texts and annotated translations, Part. 2: Plates. Wien (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) 2020. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse: Denkschriften, 542. Band. Veröffentlichungen zur Iranistik, herausgegeben von Bert G. Fragner und Florian Schwarz, Nr. 85. Studies and Texts on Central Asia, herausgegeben von Florian Schwarz, Band 3. ISBN 978-3-7001-8103-3.
- Werner Diem, Studien zu sabab in der arabischen Kunstprosa des 10.–15. Jahrhunderts. Ein Beitrag zur arabischen Lexik, Phraseologie und Stilgeschichte, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2022, (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 126), 208 S., ISBN 978-3-447-11828-6.
- Christian Müller, Recht und Historische Entwicklung der Scharia im Islam, Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East, vol. 46, 544 pp., Boston: de Gruyter, 2022, ISBN: 9783110765779.
- Carl F. Petry, The Mamluk Sultanate. A History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022, 358 pp., ISBN 9781108456999.
- Marijn van Putten, Quranic Arabic. From Its Hijazi Origins to Its Classical Reading Traditions, Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, vol. 106, Leiden: Brill 2022, i–xxi+319 pp.+bibl. and index, ISBN 978-90-04-50624-4
- Hiroyuki Yanagihashi, Studies in Legal Hadith, Studies in Islamic Law and Society, vol. 47, Leiden: Brill, 2019. xvi + 612 pp., ISBN 9789004389199.
