Maribel Fierro

A useful starting point for an exploration of the rule of Abd al-Rahman III, arguably the most important single ruler in the history of al-Andalus, and the first to claim the title of caliph. Maribel Fierro provides a concise political biography of the man and his reign, together with the broad gist of historiographical interpretations of Abd al-Rahman over the years. Given the relative lack of Anglophone scholarship on him, this will be a point of reference for many. However, the lack of either footnotes or endnotes is frustrating, and I found the structure a little unclear and Fierro’s tendency not to explain why certain pieces of information were significant to be unhelpful.… (meer)