Abstract
The chapter considers women taken as spoils of war (ghanima) and then distributed as concubines or sold into slavery, this during the rise to power of the Almohads, the dynasty that ruled the Islamic West (the Maghrib) from 1147 to 1269 CE. The story of these women provides a unique window onto a wider political and ideological shift—the rise of the Almohad state—in which they were significant pawns. Information on Almohad concubines and female slaves also provides a close glance at the conduct of Almohad warfare that we do not find elsewhere either in primary sources or modern secondary literature. The chapter is a welcome contribution to what remains a limited body of English-language scholarship on medieval North African history.
Published Version
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