This book focuses on the conceptualization of the court, palace and ruler of the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus.

Elsa Cardoso is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and the Near East (ILC) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Lisbon in 2020. From April 2021 to March 2022, she was a postdoctoral fellow of the German DFG Center RomanIslam at the University of Hamburg. Her research focuses on the history of Islam and the history of al-Andalus. She has worked and published on the court, diplomacy and ceremonial of the Umayyads of Cordoba, considering a comparative perspective within the Mediterranean. She is also developing her research on the historiography of al-Andalus, as well as on the history of the Gharb al-Andalus.

1. Introduction / 2. Sources and State of the Art / 3. Concepts / 4. A Ceremonial Common Language in the Mediterranean: Rituals of Court in a Comparative Perspective / 5. Conclusion / Images