Abstract
ABSTRACT Four events that took place in the medieval Islamic West (al-Andalus and North Africa west of Egypt, second/ninth–eighth/fifteenth centuries) illustrate how rulers intentionally drew clear boundaries between individuals and between groups in ways that were sometimes striking. The first case has to do with the ruler’s body, the second with the way horses were mounted in the army, and the third and fourth – less surprisingly – with clothing and naming. The rulers who strove to make boundaries clear in such cases were the ethnically Arab Cordoban Umayyads (138/756–422/1031) and the ethnically Berber Almohad/Muʾminid caliphs (524/1130–668/1269). The aim of this article is to analyse what the contexts behind the rulers’ actions, the groups affected by their decisions and the boundaries they erected reveal about their concerns and anxieties.
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