Amira K. Bennison – författare

How do rulers make their rule palatable and appealing to their subjects or citizens? Drawing on the expertise of several international scholars, this volume explores how rulers in medieval Iberia and the Maghrib presented their rule and what strategies they adopted to persuade their subjects of their legitimacy. It focuses on the Nasrids of Granada and the Marinids of Morocco, who both ruled from the mid-13th century to the later 15th century. One of the book's central themes is the idea that the ways in which these monarchs presented their rule developed out of a common political culture that straddled the straits of Gibraltar. This culture was mediated by constant transfers of people, ideas and commoditities across the straits and a political historiography in which deliberate parallels and comparisons were drawn between Iberia and North Africa. The book adopts this approach to challenge a tendency to see the Iberian and North African cultural and political spheres as inherently different and, implicitly, as precursors to later European and African indentities. While several chapters in the volume do flag up contrasts in practice, they also highlight the structural similarities in the approach to legitimation deployed by the Nasrid and Marinid dynasties in this period. The volume is divided into several sections, each of which approaches the theme of legitimation from a fresh angle. The first section contains a introduction to the theme as well as analyses of the material and intellectual background to discourses of legitimation. The next section focuses on rhetorical bids for legitimacy such as the deployment of prestigious genealogies, the use of religio-political titles, and other forms of propaganda. That is followed by a detailed look at ceremonial and the calculated patronage of religious festivals by rulers. A final section grapples with the problem of legitimation outside the environs of the city, among illiterate and frequently armed populations.

This volume is an inter-disciplinary endeavour which brings together recent research on aspects of urban life and structure by architectural and textual historians and archaeologists, engendering exciting new perspectives on urban life in the pre-modern Islamic world. Its objective is to move beyond the long-standing debate on whether an ‘Islamic city’ existed in the pre-modern era and focus instead upon the ways in which religion may (or may not) have influenced the physical structure of cities and the daily lives of their inhabitants. It approaches this topic from three different but inter-related perspectives: the genesis of ‘Islamic cities’ in fact and fiction; the impact of Muslim rulers upon urban planning and development; and the degree to which a religious ethos affected the provision of public services. Chronologically and geographically wide-ranging, the volume examines thought-provoking case studies from seventh-century Syria to seventeenth-century Mughal India by established and new scholars in the field, in addition to chapters on urban sites in Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Central Asia. Cities in the Pre-Modern Islamic World will be of considerable interest to academics and students working on the archaeology, history and urbanism of the Middle East as well as those with more general interests in urban archaeology and urbanism.

This volume is an inter-disciplinary endeavour which brings together recent research on aspects of urban life and structure by architectural and textual historians and archaeologists, engendering exciting new perspectives on urban life in the pre-modern Islamic world. Its objective is to move beyond the long-standing debate on whether an ‘Islamic city’ existed in the pre-modern era and focus instead upon the ways in which religion may (or may not) have influenced the physical structure of cities and the daily lives of their inhabitants. It approaches this topic from three different but inter-related perspectives: the genesis of ‘Islamic cities’ in fact and fiction; the impact of Muslim rulers upon urban planning and development; and the degree to which a religious ethos affected the provision of public services. Chronologically and geographically wide-ranging, the volume examines thought-provoking case studies from seventh-century Syria to seventeenth-century Mughal India by established and new scholars in the field, in addition to chapters on urban sites in Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Central Asia. Cities in the Pre-Modern Islamic World will be of considerable interest to academics and students working on the archaeology, history and urbanism of the Middle East as well as those with more general interests in urban archaeology and urbanism.

This book investigates the importance of waging jihad for legitimacy in pre-colonial Morocco. It counters colonial interpretations of the pre-colonial Moroccan sultanate as hopelessly divided into territories of 'obedience' and 'dissidence' by suggesting that state-society warfare was one aspect of a constant process of political negotiation. Detailed analysis of state and society interpretations of jihad during the critical period of the French conquest of Algeria clearly shows this process at play and its steady evolution in the context of increasing European pressure, which culminated in the imposition of the French protectorate in 1912.

The first combined history of two of the great Islamic empires of the 10th-13th centuriesAfrican invaders of Spain? Berber nationalists who destroyed the convivencia between Muslims, Christians and Jews? Or key contributors to the maturation of Islamic society in the Maghrib?The Almoravid and Almohad empires ruled substantial parts of the Maghrib and al-Andalus between the 10th and mid-13th centuries. This is the first survey of the rise and fall of these two hugely powerful empires whose rule fostered the emergence of the Islamic society which endured, in Morocco especially, until the early 20th century. Amira K. Bennison focuses on these dynasties from a positive perspective, placing them in their proper context of medieval Mediterranean and Islamic history.Key Features:*Places the Almoravids and Almohads within the broader sweep of Islamic history*Presents chapters on politics, society, economy & trade, religion & knowledge and art & architecture*Includes 50 illustrations: maps, genealogical tables, photographs, plans and diagramsKeywords: Almoravid, Almohad, Empire, the Maghrib, al-Andalus, Mediterranean.From the APF:This is the first book in English to provide a comprehensive account of the rise and fall of the Almoravids and the Almohads, the two most important Berber dynasties of the medieval Islamic west, an area that encompassed southern Spain and Portugal, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The Ṣanhāja Almoravids emerged from the Sahara in the 1050s to conquer vast territories and halt the Christian advance in Iberia. They were replaced a century later by their rivals, the Almohads, supported by the Maṣmūda Berbers of the High Atlas. Although both have often been seen as uncouth, religiously intolerant tribesmen who undermined the high culture of al-Andalus, this book argues that the eleventh to thirteenth centuries were crucial to the Islamisation of the Maghrib, its integration into the Islamic cultural sphere, and its emergence as a key player in the western Mediterranean, and that much of this was due to these oft-neglected Berber empires.

The first combined history of two of the great Islamic empires of the 10th-13th centuriesAfrican invaders of Spain? Berber nationalists who destroyed the convivencia between Muslims, Christians and Jews? Or key contributors to the maturation of Islamic society in the Maghrib?The Almoravid and Almohad empires ruled substantial parts of the Maghrib and al-Andalus between the 10th and mid-13th centuries. This is the first survey of the rise and fall of these two hugely powerful empires whose rule fostered the emergence of the Islamic society which endured, in Morocco especially, until the early 20th century. Amira K. Bennison focuses on these dynasties from a positive perspective, placing them in their proper context of medieval Mediterranean and Islamic history.Key Features:*Places the Almoravids and Almohads within the broader sweep of Islamic history*Presents chapters on politics, society, economy & trade, religion & knowledge and art & architecture*Includes 50 illustrations: maps, genealogical tables, photographs, plans and diagramsKeywords: Almoravid, Almohad, Empire, the Maghrib, al-Andalus, Mediterranean.From the APF:This is the first book in English to provide a comprehensive account of the rise and fall of the Almoravids and the Almohads, the two most important Berber dynasties of the medieval Islamic west, an area that encompassed southern Spain and Portugal, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The Ṣanhāja Almoravids emerged from the Sahara in the 1050s to conquer vast territories and halt the Christian advance in Iberia. They were replaced a century later by their rivals, the Almohads, supported by the Maṣmūda Berbers of the High Atlas. Although both have often been seen as uncouth, religiously intolerant tribesmen who undermined the high culture of al-Andalus, this book argues that the eleventh to thirteenth centuries were crucial to the Islamisation of the Maghrib, its integration into the Islamic cultural sphere, and its emergence as a key player in the western Mediterranean, and that much of this was due to these oft-neglected Berber empires.

This book investigates the importance of waging jihad for legitimacy in pre-colonial Morocco. It counters colonial interpretations of the pre-colonial Moroccan sultanate as hopelessly divided into territories of 'obedience' and 'dissidence' by suggesting that state-society warfare was one aspect of a constant process of political negotiation. Detailed analysis of state and society interpretations of jihad during the critical period of the French conquest of Algeria clearly shows this process at play and its steady evolution in the context of increasing European pressure, which culminated in the imposition of the French protectorate in 1912.