Description:
These case studies link genealogical knowledge to particular circumstances in which it was created, circulated and promoted. They stress the malleability of kinship and memory, and the interests this malleability serves. From the Prophet's family tree to the present, ideas about kinship and descent have shaped communal and national identities in Muslim societies. So an understanding of genealogy is vital to our understanding of Muslim societies, particularly with regard to the generation, preservation and manipulation of genealogical knowledge.
Brief description: Helena de Felipe is Lecturer at the Universidad de Alcalá (Arabic and Islamic Studies). Her publications include Identidad y onomástica de los bereberes de al-Andalus (CSIC, 1997) and, co-edited with F. Rodríguez Mediano, El Protectorado español en Marruecos: Gestión colonial e identidades (CSIC, 2002). She is the author of articles and book chapters on Berbers in the medieval period and the Spanish-Moroccan relationship in the colonial period.
Review Quotes: "Sarah Bowan Savant and Helena de Felipe have collected an excellent series of chapters in this volume, which considers the diverse role that genealogy has played and the uses it has been put to in Muslim societies...The articles collected here move across a wide geographic area of the Muslim world. Syria, Iran, al-Andalus, the Maghreb and other regions are considered. The chronological range of the articles is also considerable, going from the very first decades of Islam to the close of the twentieth century. By providing such a broad spectrum, the book has quite a lot to offer to the reader and allows for an extensive comparison of the notions of genealogy and the uses to which it has been put." -- Stephen Donnachie, Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean