The Wolf King : : Ibn Mardanīsh and the construction of power in al-Andalus / / Abigail Krasner Balbale.

• Superior document: Medieval societies, religions, and cultures
• VerfasserIn: Balbale, Abigail Krasner,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca : : Cornell University Press,, 2022.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Medieval societies, religions, and cultures.; Cornell scholarship online.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (361 pages)
• Notes: Also issued in print: 2022.

This book explores how political power was conceptualised, constructed, and wielded in 12th-century al-Andalus, focusing on the eventful reign of Muhammad ibn Sad ibn Ahmad ibn Mardansh (r. 1147-1172). Celebrated in Castilian and Latin sources as El Rey Lobo/Rex Lupus and denigrated by Almohad and later Arabic sources as irreligious and disloyal to fellow Muslims because he fought the Almohads and served as vassal to the Castilians, Ibn Mardansh ruled a kingdom that at its peak constituted nearly half of al-Andalus and served as an important buffer between the Almohads and the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. Through a close examination of contemporary sources across the region, the book shows that Ibn Mardansh's short-lived dynasty was actually an attempt to integrate al-Andalus more closely with the Islamic East-particularly the Abbasid caliphate.

Table of Contents

1. Caliph and Mahdī: The Battle over Power in the Islamic Middle Period -- 2. Rebel against the Truth : Almohad Visions of Ibn Mardanīsh -- 3. Filiative Networks : Lineage and Legitimacy in Sharq al-Andalus -- 4. Material Genealogies and the Construction of Power -- 5. Vassals, Traders, and Kings : Economic and Political Networks in the Western Mediterranean -- 6. Resistance and Assimilation after the Almohad Conquest -- 7. The Reconquista, a Lost Paradise, and Other Teleologies -- Postscript : Medieval Stories, Modern Anxieties -- Bibiography -- Index.