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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 514: Borders, Community, and Identity in Medieval North Africa

Tuesday 7 July 2020, 09.00-10.30

Organiser:Andrew Marsham, Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:Caroline Goodson, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
Paper 514-aReligious and Social Boundaries in 10th-Century Ifriqiya
(Language: English)
Aslisho Qurboniev, Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies University of Cambridge
Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Religious Life, Social History
Paper 514-bSainthood and Social Boundary Crossing in Medieval North Africa
(Language: English)
Amira Bennison, Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Religious Life, Social History
Paper 514-cHow to Fight against the Corruption of a Frontier Society?: A Reformist Movement of Religious Scholars in Late Medieval Morocco
(Language: English)
Tomoaki Shinoda, Department of Islamic Studies, University of Tokyo
Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Religious Life, Social History
Abstract

The three papers in this session address social and religious boundary formation in North Africa between the 10th and 15th centuries. Qurboniev analyses community networks in 10th-century Qayrawan where Jews, Christians, Ismailis, and Malikis coexisted and where 'mixtures of Arab tribes, Persians, Berbers and Greeks' (Ya‘qubi) resided. Bennison argues that the 11th and 12th centuries were the period when indigenous Maghribis finally breached the socio-cultural boundary keeping them out of the Arab-Islamic scholarly class by using narratives of charisma and direct communion with God. Shinoda discusses a 15th-century social reform movement started by religious scholars in Morocco in response to Portuguese conquests.