A cartography of al-Andalus’ landscape:

Mapping settlements of Muslim agricultural colonization in Europe applying GIS techniques

Above: Atlas from Kitāb Ruğğār by Muḥammad al-Idrīsī (circa 1154). Below: Detail of the atlas with representation of al-Andalus and location of Segura. This map is an interpretation and transliteration realized by Konrad Miller between 1926 and 1931 in his work Mappae Arabicae. It is based on a copy dated around 1456 in Cairo, currently in the Bodleian Library of Oxford.

This paper analyses the landscape defined by rural settlements, with Hispanic Muslim remnants built in a rammed-earth technique in a valley located in the south-eastern Iberian Peninsula. The aim of this work is to describe the different anthropic points of this particular medieval landscape to contextualize them in the historical literature and then to expose, alongside the methodological innovations applied, the main behavioural patterns found in the implantation of these establishments in order to categorize and classify them. This challenge involves using procedures that enable a macrospatial reading of the territory and measurement of the influence of landscape variables. In order to achieve this goal, an original and interdisciplinary method has been designed combining archaeological, historical, and architectural techniques alongside a multicriteria analysis developed in the geographic information systems setting. The findings provide significant knowledge about the ways in which the al-Andalus’ territory was populated, how the system of rural nodes worked, and the relationships between establishments and agricultural colonization, shedding new light on the complex palimpsest of landscape. 

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Este trabajo, escrito en inglés, analiza el paisaje definido por asentamientos rurales con restos hispano-musulmanes, construidos con la técnica del tapial en un valle situado en el sureste de la Península Ibérica. El objetivo de este trabajo es describir los diferentes puntos antrópicos de este particular paisaje medieval para contextualizarlos en la literatura histórica y exponer los principales patrones de comportamiento encontrados en la implantación de estos establecimientos con el fin de categorizarlos y clasificarlos. El desafío implica utilizar procedimientos que permitan una lectura macroespacial del territorio para medir de la influencia de las variables del paisaje. Para lograr este objetivo, se ha diseñado un método original e interdisciplinar que combina técnicas arqueológicas, históricas y arquitectónicas junto con un análisis multicriterio desarrollado en el entorno de los sistemas de información geográfica. Los hallazgos aportan un conocimiento significativo sobre las formas de poblamiento del territorio andalusí, el funcionamiento del sistema de nodos rurales y las relaciones entre asentamiento y colonización agrícola, arrojando algo más de luz sobre el complejo palimpsesto del paisaje.

Above: Measurement and quantification of variables maps: A/Euclidean distance from ancient routes; B/Location of aquifers; and C/Arable areas found with GIS tools. GIS map prepared by the authors. Below: Results of the Weighted Overlay Geo-process: the greatest value corresponds to the places that are suitable for housing residential communities and productive settlements; the lowest value corresponds to inaccessible areas, craggy settings, or other places with little surface area for housing a community. GIS map prepared by the author.

The conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by Muslims at the beginning of the eighth century was immediate, and it lasted until the end of the fifteenth century. Throughout these eight centuries, there were several important migrations to Europe by groups from Arabia, Yemen, Syria, and North Africa. Different Muslim regimes changed the Visigothic peninsular administration, which was inherited from the ancient Roman organization. At the beginning, the initial configuration was created by the Umayyads, a lineage from Syria who implemented, from 756 to 1031, a new territorial division based on provinces, or kuwar (pl. of kūra) in the Arabian language. The territorial model established from 1086 to 1146 with the Almoravids, or al-murābiṭūn — nomadic Berber clans from Sahara — was a decentralized system based on the delegation of territorial power. This kind of organization changed with the Almohads, or al-muwaḥḥidun — Berber tribes from the Atlas Mountains in the Maghreb — to a centralized structure. The Almohads’ model, established from 1146 to 1248, gave rise to an intense restructuring around the cities as centres, with the creation of an important rural network of defensive enclaves, taxation points, and housing establishments.... (more)

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Cómo citar:

Quesada-García, S. (2022). A cartography of al-Andalus’ landscape: Mapping settlements of Muslim agricultural colonization in Europe applying GIS techniques. Journal of Historical Geography, 77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2022.02.003

Descargar PDF artículo en: 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305748822000044

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