Devout Heretics

The Barghawata in Maghribi Historiography

Bibliographic Data

ID3979010
AuthorsJohn Iskander (corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume12
Issue1
Pages37-53
Publication date2007-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13629380601099484
OpenAlexW1986257448
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited13

From the mid-eighth century to at least the mid-twelfth century, a Berber people known as the Barghawata existed increasingly uncomfortably on the western fringes of North Africa. The medieval Arabic histories depict them in ways that show an increasing ambivalence towards their distinctive religious practices, eventually leading to utter condemnation. Yet these same histories preserve depictions that show that the Barghawata were not always thought of as heretics to be vanquished. The historiographic shift charted here is reflective of several dynamics. Some are broad, such as the increasingly uniform ideal of orthodoxy in the region; others are specific, such as the Marinids' quest for a legitimising ideology, which led scholars to rethink aspects of the tribal past, as well as encouraging the rulers to support the growth of madrasas in Tunisia and beyond. The Barghawata's image was increasingly reduced to a caricature, one that was subtly contradicted by the earlier sources

Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Arabic · Archaeology · Historiography · Ideal (ethics · Ideology · Orthodoxy · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Historical Studies of Medieval Iberia · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Philosophy · Psychology