Description:
Through an examination of the structure and practice of Muslim political and legal-religious authority, a rare look at intercommunal life in Iberia during the first three centuries of Islamic rule.
Brief description: Janina M. Safran is Associate Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University.
Review Quotes:
[This book's] special genius is its deliberate juxtaposition of the idea of predetermined boundaries between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in al-Andalus with the reality of their perpetual negotation and renegotiation by jurists in light of changes in the historical conext.... For an older generation of Iberianists like me, who originally operated under the assumption that the Arabic sources of early medieval Spain--in marked contrast to the Latin ones--had little to offer on the subject of dhimmis and their relationship to the dominant community, the work of Safran has proved especially eye-opening.
--Kenneth Wolf "H-Catholic"