The Memory of Antiquity in the Islamic Context: al-Andalus and Its Uniqueness

Abstract

The study of the reception of antiquity in Islamic contexts has traditionally been analysed from binary perspectives, pointing to either destruction or occasional interest in the past. However, antiquity was a central element in the formation and consolidation of medieval Islamic societies. Al-Andalus is a case study. The sources indicate a reception process not without its contradictions and specificities: there is a recovery and reinterpretation of antiquity that reached its zenith in the 10th century, coinciding with the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba. During this period, Paulo Orosio's work was translated into Arabic, a new narrative of the pre-Islamic past was produced, written by Aḥmad al-Rāzī (d. 955), and a number of antiquities (Roman sarcophagi and statues) were reused and reinterpreted in the city of Madīnat al-Zahrā'. This documented reception process in al-Andalus is unique: it is an exceptional phenomenon due to its multifaceted nature (attested both in written sources and in material remains, linked to the construction of legitimacy, memory, and identity, and perceptible at a political and social level), transcultural aspects (antiquity is combined and reinterpreted based on other Arabic-Islamic cultural references), and its later transcendence (its legacy can be traced back to the 17th century).