The door of the caliph in the Umayyad al-Andalus: from the conceptualization to the articulation of ceremonial (10th-11th centuries).

Doctoral thesis in History presented at the University of Lisbon in 15th July, 2020. Supervised by Professor Hermenegildo Fernandes and Professor Hugh Kennedy

Abstract

The main purpose of the dissertation is the conceptualization of the court, palace and ruler of the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus (929-1031). The Western terminology still plays a normative role in the representation of foreign courts, determining concepts that fit poorly into chronologies and traditions with their own dynamics, hierarchies and specificities, which is the case of the Muslim courts. Far from being the paradigm of court society, the Western court model consists of a case amongst many. Not complying with the Western model and terminology does not mean we are not before a real court society, as in fact the medieval Muslim court model testifies. Such model is discussed in the light of a courtly common language to the Mediterranean and Eastern societies of the tenth and eleventh centuries.