‘Abd Al-Raḥmān I: Abū l-Muẓaffar ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Mu‘āwiya b. Hišām b. ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwān al-Dājil (the immigrant), Villa of al-‘Ulyà, place of Syria between Palmyra and Damascus (Syria) 731 – 788 C. Founder and first emir Omeya of Cordoba (independent), urbanizer of the territory, organizer of the administration and armies of the emirate, poet, eloquent and ingenious speaker and man of great culture.

It is not known exactly where he was born, some say in Dayr Ḥanīna and others, like Ibn Ḥayyān (whose opinion we bow to), in al-‘Ulyà, both relatively close to Damascus. Grandson of the caliph Hišām b. ‘Abd al-Malik, reigning between 105/724 and 125/745, his father Mu’āwiya died under the reign of said caliph. His mother Rāh (Joy) was a Berber slave originally from the Nafza tribe; this North African bond explains in large part the flight to the West, where he initially tried to take over a territory or province.

Little is known of his childhood and adolescence. When the Abbasids killed the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, on 7 July 750, Abderraman was barely 20 years old. The Abbasids, eager to destroy any Umayyad suitors, proclaimed a false amnesty for the members of the ruling family; but it was violated, and the massacre of Abu Futrus took place, not far from Jaffa in Palestine, where about eighty Umayyads lost their lives, only the grandchildren of caliph Hisham who had not believed in such amnesty escaping.

Yet one by one they fell, not being spared but the young Abderraman, his two sisters, Umm al-Asbag and Amat al-Raḥmān, and his four year old son Sulaymān, and some of their faithful, including his clients Badr and Sālim Abū Šuŷā’. First, he flees towards the Euphrates, perhaps with the purpose of misleading his pursuers, before heading for the isthmus of Suez to Egypt, where his sisters have settled. Abderramán continues his flight west with his son, in the company of his most loyal clients he takes refuge in Barqa (Cyrenaica), from there he heads to Ifrīqiya (present-day Tunisia), expecting to receive a good reception from the governor of the territory, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Ḥabīb al-Fihrī -close relative of Yūsuf al-Fihrī, Vali of al-Ándalus- in his capital of al-Qayrawān. Wary, however, The ambitions of the Umayyad princes for power, as others of their own family had come to the country before, and even though he had declared himself against the change of regime and the Abbasid dynasty, He intended to take advantage of the circumstances to transform his province into an independent state and inaugurate his own dynasty. Obviously, he tried to get rid of the Emigre who, He sought refuge among the Banū Mugīṭ, clients of the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan. But, feeling insecure, he passed into the territory of the Berber Miknasas. Retired in the place of Bāra, in the midst of great difficulties he was saved by the wife of Abū Qurra Wānsūs al-Barbarī, seeking refuge in Sabra among the Berbers Nafza, The Commission has been working on a number of proposals for the creation of a new European Community.

Indeed, Abderramán was able to implement political, fiscal, administrative, institutional and military measures in al-Andalus under not easy circumstances. According to the historian P. Chalmeta, it was between 756 and 757 when the pillars of what will be for centuries the Andalusian system were set. The system was set up on a regular and stable economic basis, and money issues were launched towards the 767. The Emigrant intensified the Arabization or, better to say, the Syrianization of al-Andalus, encouraging the immigration of Umayyads and clients, which led to the rise of the Ahl Qurajah, “the people of Qurays” as a socio-economic group and the emergence of a core of client families, in which the great posts of the Andalusian military and civil administration during the emirate and the caliphate would be recruited. The fiscal, judicial and army restructuring will shape the subsequent evolution of the state of Córdoba, while its buildings will be the model followed for centuries in the Maghreb.

Logically this whole organization had a greater tax pressure affecting differently the Muslims and protected (Christians, soon Mozarabic, and Jews) which gave rise to numerous revolts of all kinds, Arabs, Berbers, neo-Cavants, etc. The uprisings were in their years of unceasing reign. The old regime’s favourites were not easily resigned to the new state of affairs. Yusuf al-Fihrī initially resided in Cordoba, but later escaped by violating his promise and rising in a rebellion in the area of Merida in 758, where he recruited an army of 20,000 men, mostly Berbers and baladids, that is, first-time conquerors; but was defeated on his way to Cordoba by the loyal governors of Seville and Morón, even with fewer troops, not more than 1,500 men, but with greater strategic fighting capabilities, something that long characterized the Syrians coming with Balj to the country in a second wave. Yūsuf then headed for the lands of Toledo, where he wandered for several months, being finally betrayed by his supporters who murdered him in 759 and sent his head to the Emir, who soon got rid of al-Ṣumayl, who had just been imprisoned, being strangled in prison the same year.

This did not prevent him from having to face successive rebellions of different kinds: On the one hand, there would be those provoked by those who had lost the preponderance of formerly and by nostalgic for the old regime, much less oppressive; On the other hand, the Yemenis who had raised the new emir did not like to be called to exercise power; on the other hand, the Berbers could not stand being relegated and, In short, others allied themselves with external enemies.

Three years after the death of the last Vali of al-Andalus, in effect, Toledo rose to the command of the chief fihrí Hišam b. ‘Urwa, who ruled on his own the ancient capital of the Visigoths. This uprising would not be quelled until 764 when the Umayyad army, commanded by Badr and Tammām b. ‘Alqama, He restored the new order. The main seditious ones were taken to Cordoba where they would be crucified. Still at the end of Abderraman’s reign, the only surviving son of Yusuf al-Fihrī, the blind Abu l-Aswad Muḥammad, rose up in Toledo against the Umayyad power; but would be defeated by the emir himself on September 11, 785.

Abderramán I also had to fight against the Yemeni Arabs or Kalbis, his early allies, Not having been rewarded for their support as they had hoped, and without being able to exercise any influence over the sovereign, they took part in quite a few conspiracies against his regime. In 763 the Arab chief al-‘Alā’ b. Mugīṭ rose against the emir in the district of Beja (southern Portugal) hoisting the black flag of the Abbasid caliphs. Provided with money and precise instructions by the caliph al-Mansūr had landed in al-Andalus with the promise of obtaining the government of the country if he succeeded in dethroning the usurper Umayyad. This attracted him not few supporters especially Yemeni, the Umayyad emir came to be besieged in Carmona, but a lucky exit gave him victory, al-‘Alā’ perished in the combat, as well as prominent leaders of the insurgency. The heads of all of them were embalmed and placed in a sack, together with the investiture diploma and the black Abbasid flag. A merchant left such a gift overnight in the market of al-Qayrawān (present-day Tunisia), the domain of the Abbasid at that time. It seems that the caliph upon hearing the news in Baghdad exclaimed: “Praise be to God, who has put the sea between me and this devil”.

Not because of that the Yemenis lost hope to shake off the yoke of the Umayyad emir and continued participating in other rebellions (Seville in 766; attempted capture of Cordoba in the absence of the emir in 774). It can be said that the Yemeni uprisings did not cease until 780.

Abderramán also had to face various Berber revolts in Santaver (province of Cuenca), in the Levant, in Coria, etc. The most important was the insurrection promoted by “el fatimí” Šaqyā b. ‘Abd al-Wāḥid al-Miknāsī in 768, who would come to dominate the region that extends between the basins of the Tagus and the Guadiana. After, from the city of Santaver took over the squares of Coria, Medellín and Mérida, settling in Sopetrán (present-day province of Guadalajara). The emir could only end this rebellion by means of treason and bribery. Saqya was killed by two of his supporters in 776. These rebellions speak so much of antagonisms racial, as of the distress of the Berbers to be relegated, having been they the first conquerors of al-Andalus.

It is noted, however, that much of the north of the peninsula and the entire quadrant of the northwest after the central system, escape the domain of Abderramán. “The first independent emir could no longer devote himself to conquering that part of the territory which had escaped him, and if he had done so he would never have founded a dynasty. It had to fight too many dissidents, while at the same time countering the centrifugal forces that threatened its alliances”. Even the Marwānīs themselves sometimes tried to dethrone him, violating the rules of hospitality and loyalty, as happened in 779-780 with the Umayyad ‘Abd al-‘Salām b. Yazīd and the emir’s own nephew, ‘Ubayd Allāh b. Aban, who paid for his boldness with their lives. Four years later, the son of his brother al-Walīd, al-Mugīra and a son of al-Ṣumayl conspired against the emir, being executed for this.

Abderramán had to secure the upper frontier of which Septimania was not part, especially its center, that is, the city of Zaragoza, whose Arab lords Husayn b. Yaḥyā al-Anṣārī and his partner Sulaymān b. Yaqẓān to avoid the dominion of the Umayyad, this second, proposed to seek help from Charlemagne, through Ibn al-‘Arābī, a notable who had broken the idea. The intervention of Charlemagne in al-Andalus occurred in May 778, without the expected results; since hoping not to find resistance in Zaragoza, He didn’t come equipped with war machines to take it. Behind its walls Husayn b. Yaḥyā al-Anṣārī who had not participated in the pacts of his adlaters with Charlemagne, knowing that they would ultimately strip him from his domains, He allied with Abderramán in deciding the resistance. Charlemagne, encountering unexpected resistance and feeling betrayed, took his country to Sulayman and Ibn al-‘Arabi, retreating through a gorge in the valley of Echo, where part of the rear of the second army “was first arrested and then annihilated”.

After the episode of the Frankish invasion the emir organized a campaign from Zaragoza in 781 and he spent to travel the lands crossed by the Franks in their retreat, with the clear purpose of restoring Andalusian hegemony over these regions, imposing tributes and forcing local magnates to hand over hostages. The areas subdued then were the Ribera, La Rioja, Navarra and Cerretania, which sources mark as land of infidels, and which, in effect, were beyond the limits of al-Ándalus, and constituted frontier lands (tagr), being outside the political-social and cultural formation of what will be al-Ándalus. Years later (782-783) Abderramán must have taken the city of Zaragoza by force, beating it with almajaneques. Its inhabitants were expelled for a few days from the city. Ḥusayn was executed, as well as his accomplices, appointing his paternal uncle ‘Alī b. Ḥamza as governor of Zaragoza to be relieved not long after.

Abderramán I had to procure money from clients and Umayyads, especially land, hence he tried to recover the state property; also, as Chalmeta points out, reduced the estates of Artoba, Witiza, from 899 or 599, to twenty, and suppressed the quasi-independent enclave of Tudmir (Teodomiro), recognized by a pact during the conquest of al-AramariaAndalus; which brought greater wealth to the emir, but also dissidence. Dissent that would be conjured up either badly or by enlisting a private army. The emir understood that if he wanted to gain a stable and independent power, he had to have a force that depended only on him. Since the victory of al-Muṣāra (138/756) who gave him the dominion of Cordoba, warned Abderraman that his Yemeni allies were plotting to assassinate him, was surrounded by a guard of 700 men recruited from his clients, Cordobeses, Berbers and even neo-Crenses; this would be the core of his elite troops. Eight years later, in order to end Hišām b. ‘Urwa uprooted in Toledo, the emir ordered to extend the permanent shifts of troops under arms for six months instead of three.

Later, in 764, after the last great Yemeni revolt was ended, he began to buy slaves (mamālik) and to recruit massively Berbers for his army, Some say that their number was forty thousand, which would lead to the decline of the traditional army, recruited within the country and its gradual replacement by mercenaries, essential in the subsequent caliphal victories of the time of Almanzor. The maintenance would lead to higher tax requirements, as well as the establishment of a system of territorial concessions (iqtā’āt).

It is obvious, on the other hand, that the transformation of a province into an independent kingdom or state brought with it demands of various kinds, such as defensive, urbanistic and sumptuous. The walls of Cordoba and other cities, especially those of the Marches or borders were repaired. Extra-urban palace residences were built (al-Rušāfa and Munyat al-Nā’ūra). The emir builds, rebuilds, structures. It is the political-administrative centre of the Alcázar of Córdoba, after the demolition and remodeling of the old dār al-imāra, the “house of command”, primitive Visigoth palace. He also erected a post house (dār al-burud) and the urbanization and distribution of markets. Finally, the emir erected the building which, after successive extensions, due to its later architectural influence, would be the most important in al-Andalus’ history. Indeed, in the year 785 was built the first mosque aljama, on the site of the basilica of San Vicente (This one was demolished after the purchase of half of it, which had been in Christian hands since the time of the conquest) spending on its construction the figure of eighty to one hundred thousand gold dinars.

Abderramán I’s reforms were many and of uneven scope, without it being possible to specify the dates and modalities of their implementation. It seems certain that there was an administrative redistribution, creating a series of provinces or coras, from what used to be a single province. It is certain that during his reign the urbanization and arabization of al-Andalus intensified and that its buildings and many of its administrative measures would be imitated, The European Community has a long tradition of being a leader in the field of education.

Ibn Rušd: Abū l-Walīd Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Aḥmad b. Rušd al-Qurṭubī. Called Al-Ŷadd (the grandfather). Cordoba, 450 H./1058 C. – 520 H./1126 C. Muslim jurist and theologian.

Studied jurisprudence, theology, prophetic traditions, grammar, language and literature with Abū Ŷacfar Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Rizq al-Umawī al-Qurṭubī, Muḥammad b. Faraŷ Ibn al-Ṭallā’, Abū Muḥammad b. cAlī al-Gassānī al-Ŷayyānī; Abū Marwān cAbd al-Malik b. Sirāŷ, Abū cAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Jayra Ibn Abī l-cĀfiya al-Umawī al-Ŷawharī y Abū l- cAbbās Aḥmad b. cUmar b. Anas Ibn al-Dalā’ī al-cUḍrī.

Ibn Rušd did not undertake the study-extension trip to the East; However, this did not prevent him from gaining a thorough knowledge of Islamic law and other Islamic religious sciences which made him a renowned jurist, The most outstanding of its time, both in al-Andalus and in the Maghreb.

Leaving aside the fact that al-Andalus would have been placed on a par with the East in the teaching of Islamic religious science, the reasons why he did not travel to the East could be the same as why he did not make the pilgrimage to Mecca, He considered that in their time the Andalusians and the Magrebites were not obliged to perform this rite in the absence of plausible possibilities of doing so without risk for their lives and their goods.

His career had a prominent political and social projection through the judiciary, legal advice at both public and private levels, and education. The public aspect of his activity, however, caused him some problems.

On a date which it is not possible to specify exactly, Ibn Rušd and other jurists ruled that, according to the legal doctrine of the school of Mālik b. Anas in al-Andalus, the sales of properties usurped or acquired in an unlawful manner had to be cancelled, even if they were carried out on behalf of the Treasury and even if these sales were old. Transactions of this type had been made by both relatives of the kings of taifas deposed by the Almoravids in Seville, Almería and Córdoba, as governors appointed by the Almoravids after their conquest of al-Andalus. Other city jurists such as Abū l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥamdīn were of the opinion that the implementation of this ruling would seriously harm the interests of the people. Indeed, the people rose up against Ibn Rušd and those who had ruled like him, but Ibn Ḥamdīn managed to placate them in return, apparently that Ibn Rušd and those who had spoken like him would publicly retract.

In 511/1117 the Almoravid emir cAlī b. Yūsuf b. Tāšufīn appointed him supreme judge of Cordoba. He held the office for four years, after which, according to his own testimony, he asked the emir to relieve him so that he could devote himself entirely to the writing of his works. According to other sources, it was his involvement in the uprising of the Cordobeses against the Almoravid garrison of the city between the years 513/1119 and 515/1121 that prompted him to abandon the judicial.

The departure from the judiciary did not imply a withdrawal from public life, but instead Ibn Rušd remained active as a mufti member of the city’s advisory council; for a time he also directed the prayer in the mosque aljama of Cordoba and to pronounce the sermon on Fridays, which, according to his biographers, He did nothing but increase his excellence and his position.

One of his principal disciples, the cIyāḍ kādi, highlights the high position our jurist attained before the Almoravid emir, who sought his advice on matters of great importance. He issued numerous opinions at the request of the political authorities, but also and as was proper to the role of the magistrate, in response to questions put to him by other judges, his disciples and, in general, Muslims who approached him on a personal basis, as people used to entrust him with the important matters that concerned them. A good part of these opinions are preserved and show to what extent the prestige as jurist achieved by Ibn Rušd was justified, Their fetuses can be taken as true models in their genre.

Of all his public actions, perhaps the one that had the most impact was the intervention before the Almoravid emir after the campaign of Alfonso I of Aragon for al-Andalus lands in 519/1125 and that, although it did not translate into any territorial gain for the Christian, it showed the weakness of the Almoravid military defenses. Given the help that some Andalusian tributary Christians had given to the Aragonese monarch, the situation of the rest of their coreligionists who still remained in al-AragoneseAndalus was seriously threatened. In the face of this very hectic panorama, in the spring of 520/1126 Ibn Rušd considered it advisable to travel to Marrakech to inform the emir of what happened and advise him to expel the tributaries who, breaking the pact under which they lived in al-Andalus, had given aid to Alfonso I against the Muslims. The emir agreed to what Ibn Rušd proposed and issued an order to all regions of al-Andalus to deport tributaries to Meknes, Salé and other areas on the African shore of the Strait. The emir took advantage of Ibn Rušd’s visit to consult him about the increasingly pressing threat from Ibn Tumart, the leader of the Almohad movement who would eventually dislodge the Almoravids from power. Ibn Rušd advised him to strengthen the walls of Marrakech, advice which was heeded by the emir. The works began in the same year and were completed early next. At the end of the year 520/June 1126 Ibn Rušd returned to Cordoba.

Entre sus discípulos destacan el cadí cIyāḍ; Ibn Baškuwāl; al-Zāhid Abū l-cAbbās Aḥmad Ibn cAbd al-Malik b. cAmīra; Abū Ŷacfar Aḥmad b. Aḥmad b. Aḥmad al-Azdī; Abū l-Ḥaŷŷāŷ al-Ṯagrī; Ibn Sacīd al-Awsī, conocido como al-Qantirāl; Abū l-Walīd b. al-Dabbāg, para el cual el maestro cordobés fue el mejor jurista de al-Andalus; Muḥammad b. Sacāda quien, upon arrival at Fez transmitted the works of the master and therefore can be considered as one of the agents of reception of his work in the Maghreb; Abū l-Ḥasan Muḥammad b. Abī l-Ḥusayn, known as Ibn al-Wazzān (d. 543/1148), who compiled the fetuas of Ibn Rušd; and his own son, Abū l-Qāsim Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Ibn Rušd, (d. 563/1167), who also served in the Cordoba judiciary and was one of the main transmitters of his father’s work. A estos discípulos se puede añadir a Abū Bakr Ibn al-cArabī; Abū l-Walīd b. Jayra; Abū Bakr b. Maymūn; cUmar b. Wāŷib; Abū l-Ḥasan b. al-Nicma; Muḥammad b. Aṣbag al-Azdī, y otros.

As for his personality, his closest biographers describe him as a very religious man, modest, of few words and great righteousness, yet easy to deal with, He was a man of great profit to his private and fellow men, whose company he frequented and a man who kept his commitments.

In Jumada II of 520/July 1126, as a result of the exhaustion that the trip to Marrakech caused him, Ibn Rušd fell ill and died four months later on the night of Sunday 11 of DayQacada of 520/28 November 1126. He was buried in the cemetery of al-cAbbās, located east of Cordoba and where his ancestors were also buried. His son Abū l-Qāsim, the father of the famous philosopher Averroes, prayed the funeral prayers for him. As it corresponded to his prestige, a great crowd is said to have accompanied his coffin to the cemetery and composed numerous elegy in his honor, elegy that, according to the biographers, They did her justice.

Ibn Rušd carried out a work of authentic renewal of the doctrine of the legal school to which he belonged through commentaries on earlier collections of jurisprudence such as that of the Andalusí al-cUtbī. This work was known by the name of its author, al-cUtbiyya, and also as al-Mustachrajah and had apparently fallen into disuse. Ibn Rušd made a commentary on it which is probably his greatest work: Kitāb al-Bayān wa-l-taḥṣīl wa-l-šarḥ wa-l-tawŷīh wa-l-taclīl li-masā’il al-cUtbiyya, también conocido como Kitāb al-Bayān wa-l-taḥṣīl li-mā fĪ l-mustajraŷa min al-tawŷīh wa-l-taclīl, cuyos veinte volúmenes han sido cuidadosamente editados por M. Ḥaŷŷī. The structure of this work and its transmission in later authors has been studied by A. Fernández Félix, who has also used its content to analyse the process of al-IslamAndalus. The reasons that led Ibn Rušd to compose the work entitled al-Muqaddamāt li-awā’il kutub al-Mudawwana are opposite to those that prompted him to compose the Bayan. Al-Muqaddamāt is a commentary on the Mudawwana, a compendium of mālikí jurisprudence prepared by the Tunisian jurist Saḥnūn, which, contrary to what happened with cUtbiyya, had become the fundamental reference of Andalusian jurists of the Almoravid period, It was therefore essential to clarify those passages of the work that created confusion in those who used it. Of the Muqaddamāt there are two printed editions. Its prologue has been translated together with that of the Bayān by A. Fernández Félix. Both works reached such prestige that according to some biographer, not even the founder of the Mālikí school, Mālik b. Anas, had been able to produce anything like it. Both represent the process of revision to which mālikí jurisprudence was subjected in the 12th century in systematic application of the methodological criteria imposed by the science of foundations of law. As a result of this effort, the apparent contradiction between maxims applicable to the same legal case was explained, the grounds on which opinions were based, which were believed to come from the prudent judgement of the founding jurists of the school and not from recognized sources of law, Qur’an and prophetic tradition, and rejected opinions that could not be argued on this basis. As a good conocedor of the causes that gave rise to the disagreements held among Muslim jurists, Ibn Rušd revised the contents of the “Book on problematic traditions” de al-Ṭaḥāwī en su Tahḏīb Kitāb Muškil al-āṯār li- l-Ṭaḥāwī y elaboró un resumen de la obra titulada Kutub al-mabsūḍa fī ijtilāf aṣḥāb Mālik, which dealt with doctrines and divergences of the companions of the founder of the Mālikí school, and which had been composed by Yaḥyà b. Isḥāq b. Yaḥyà (m. 293/905 or 303/916), grandson of the introducer of the Maliki doctrine in al-Andalus. This work is not preserved.

Ibn Rušd was not only aware of the need to clarify obscure aspects of legal works that made his consultation difficult for jurists of later generations but The Commission’s proposal for a Council Directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the carriage of goods by road is also designed to summarize the essential aspects of this doctrine in order to facilitate its application in practice. Within this section we can include his Fuṣūl fī l-fiqh al-mālikī or Extracts on mālikí jurisprudence, of which a copy is kept in Tamagrut, and its Mujtaṣar fī l-fiqh or Compendium of Islamic legal doctrine from which at least two manuscript copies are preserved.

His mastery of hereditary law is attested by the writing of an Introduction to the theme entitled al-Muqaddima fī l-farā’iḍ, from which several copies are preserved. Relevant aspects of this doctrine, such as the possibility of excluding an heir from succession, were dealt with in his Kitāb fī-hi “Ḥaŷb al-mawārīṭ” and in his Summary of the Summary of the Work “al-Ḥaŷb” (the exclusion of an heir from succession) according to the doctrine of Mālik b. Anas, founder of the legal school to which Ibn Rušd belonged.

He also composed legal works on various subjects such as his Work on ritual sacrifices (Ḍābā’iḥ), his Book on the fifth [of the spoil] (Kitāb al-jums), of which a copy is preserved in the library of the Escorial, his Book on the Atonement (Kitāb al-kaffāra), of which a copy is also preserved in the library of the Escorial. His book on how to retrieve prayers that could not be performed in time or were performed incorrectly (Kitāb tarqīc al-ṣalawāt), kept in the library of Tamagrut, and a work on ritual ablution (wuḍū’) of which a copy exists in Marrakech.

It also preserves a Profession of faith (cAqīdat al-iman) and is attributed the composition of numerous texts on various Islamic religious sciences (aŷzā’ kaṯīra fī funūn min al-cilm mujtalifa) y una Fahrasa o repertorio de maestros y obras estudiadas con ellos.

His intense activity as a jurisconsult is reflected in his Fatāwà, a collection of legal opinions issued by Ibn Rušd al-Ŷadd, gathered by his disciples and of which there are two editions. As part of this collection has been published his Epistle on the legal status of the properties of unjust rulers who acquired them illicitly and of those acting as them (Risāla fī ḥukm amwāl al-’alama al-wulāt al-muctadīn wa-man kāna fī macnā-hum)which seems to take up the content of the fatwa that Ibn Rušd issued annulling the sale of properties usurped or acquired by illegal means and that provoked the wrath of the people of Cordoba.

Many of these fetuas are transmitted in original version and retain the names of persons, places and dates involved in each case. They are therefore not only a major legal source but also provide valuable information for the study of the political, social and economic history of the Islamic West.