How did government actually work in al-Andalus? In this episode, I discuss the kitaba, or 'art of the secretary', with Bruna Soravia. What did these secretaries (kuttab) do for rulers in eleventh-century Muslim Iberia? And how has the historiography of al-Andalus changed in recent years?

Works mentioned in the podcast:

• Umberto Bongianino, The Manuscript Tradition of the Islamic West Maghribi Round Scripts and the Andalusi Identity, forthcoming
• Umberto Bongianino, "A Rediscovered Almoravid Qurʾān in the Bavarian State Library, Munich (Cod. arab. 4)", Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 11 (2020)
• Pierre Guichard and Bruna Soravia,  Les royaumes de taifas: apogée culturel et déclin politique des émirats andalous du XIe siècle (2007)
• Bruna Soravia, 'Secretaries and the running of government', in The Routledge Handbook of Muslim Iberia, ed. Maribel Fierro (2020), pp 271-289
• Bruna Soravia, La maîtrise de l'art de la prose d'Ibn ʿAbd al-Gafūr al-Kalāʿī, forthcoming

Music: Karen Gomyo (CC BY-NC 3.0)

Image: Munich BSB Cod. arab. 4, p. 13 (CC-BY-NC 4.0)

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