Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies Understanding the Past

Genealogy is one of the most important and authoritative organising principles of Muslim societies. From the Prophet's family tree to the present, ideas about kinship and descent have shaped communal and national identities. An understanding of genealogy is therefore vital to our understanding of Muslim societies, particularly with regard to the generation, preservation and manipulation of genealogical knowledge.This book addresses the subject through a range of case studies that link genealogical knowledge to particular circumstances in which it was created, circulated and promoted. They stress the malleability of kinship and memory, and the interests this malleability serves.

Sarah Bowen Savant is a historian of religion and an Associate Professor at the Aga Khan University's Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London. Her publications include The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran: Tradition, Memory, and Conversion (Cambridge University Press, 2013), as well as book chapters and journal articles treating early Islamic history and historiography.

Helena de Felipe lectures in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Universidad de Alcalá. Her publications include Identidad y onomástica de los bereberes de al-Andalus (CSIC, 1997) and, co-edited with F. Rodríguez Mediano, El Protectorado español en Marruecos: Gestión colonial e identidades (CSIC, 2002). She is the author of articles and book chapters on Berbers in the medieval period and the Spanish-Moroccan relationship in the colonial period.

Introduction
Sarah Bowen Savant and Helena de Felipe

Part I: The Generation of Genealogical Knowledge

Keeping the Prophet's Family Alive: Profile of a Genealogical Discipline
Kazuo Morimoto

Techniques of Genealogical Forgery and Procedures of Genealogical Verification in Pre-Modern Muslim Societies
Zoltán Szombathy

The Genealogy of Power and the Power of Genealogy in Morocco: History, Imaginary and Politics
Zakaria Rhani

Part II: Empowering Political and Religious Elites

Berber Leadership and Genealogical Legitimacy: The Almoravid Case
Helena de Felipe

Ways of Connecting with the Past: Genealogies in Nasrid Granada
Maribel Fierro

Embarrassing Cousins: Genealogical Conundrums in the Central Sahara
Judith Scheele

Part III: Genealogy as Source for Writing History

Was Marwan ibn al-Hakam the First "Real" Muslim?
Fred Donner

Genealogy and Ethnogenesis in al-Mas'udi's Muruj al-dhahab
Sarah Bowen Savant

Genealogical Prestige and Marriage Policy among the Ahl al-Bayt: The Case of the al-Sadr Family in Recent Times
Raffaele Mauriello

About the Contributors
Index