1 The most up-to-date study is Arcas Campoy, M. and Serrano Niza, D., “Ibn Ḥabīb al-Ilbīrī, ʿAbd al-Malik”, in Lirola Delgado, Jorge and PuertaVílchez, José Miguel (eds), Biblioteca de al-Andalus, 7 vols and 2 appendices (Almería, 2004–2013), III, 219–27Google Scholar, n. 509.

2 Ibn al-Abbār (d. 658/1260), al-Takmila li-Kitāb al-Ṣila: “Apéndice a la edición de Codera de la Tecmila de Aben al-Abbar”, in Alarcón, Maximiliano A. and González Palencia, A. (eds), Miscelánea de Estudios y Textos Arabes (Madrid, 1915), 149–690Google Scholar, n. 2713.

3 A good overview of the history of the Cordoban Friday mosque is found in Souto Lasala, Juan Antonio, La mezquita aljama de Córdoba: de cómo Alandalús se hizo edificio (Zaragoza, 2009)Google Scholar.

4 Susana Calvo Capilla has studied some aspects of this close connection in recent publications, among them “Analogies entre les Grandes Mosquées de Damas et Cordoue: mythe et réalité”, in Borrut, Antoine and Cobb, Paul M. (eds), Umayyad Legacies. Medieval Memories from Syria to Spain (Leiden, 2010), 281–331Google Scholar.

5 On the links between Cordoba and Medina, see Khoury, Nuha N.N., “The meaning of the Great Mosque of Cordoba in the tenth century”, Muqarnas 13, 1996, 80–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Fierro, M., “The movable minbar in Cordoba: how the Umayyads of al-Andalus claimed the inheritance of the Prophet”, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 33, 2007, 149–68Google Scholar, containing further references.

6 Meri, J., The Cult of the Saints among Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria (Oxford, 2002), 114–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar, deals with the codex of ʿUthmān as a sacred relic of the Great Mosque of Damascus and mentions the sources that locate other ʿUthmanic codices in Hims, Nisibin, Busra, Basra and Cordoba.

7 After an almost complete absence of any reference to this Almohad practice, in the space of two years four articles appeared devoted to it: Bennison, Amira, “The Almohads and the Qur'an of ʿUthmān: the legacy of the Umayyads of Cordoba in twelfth century Maghrib”, Al-Masaq 19/2, 2007, 131–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Buresi, Pascal, “Une relique almohade: l'utilisation du Coran (attribué a ʿUṯmān b. ʿAffān) de la Grande Mosquée de Cordoue”, Oriente Moderno LXXXVIII/2, 2008, 297–309Google Scholar; Buresi, Pascal, “D'une péninsule à l'autre: Cordoue, ʿUṯmān (644–656) et les Arabes à l’époque almohade (XIIe–XIIe siècle)”, Al-Qanṭara 31/1, 2010, 7–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zadeh, Travis, “From drops of blood: charisma and political legitimacy in the translatio of the ‘Uthmānic codex of al-Andalus”, Journal of Arabic Literature 39/3, 2008, 321–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Vauchez, André (ed.), Lieux sacrés, lieux de culte, sanctuaires: approches terminologiques, méthodologiques, historiques et monographiques (Rome, 2000)Google Scholar.

9 On Tinmal and the cults associated with it, see Ewert, Christian and Wisshak, J.-P., Forschungen zur almohadischen Moschee. II: Die Moschee von Tinmal, Madrider Beiträge 10 (Mainz, 1984)Google Scholar; Triki, H., Hassar-Benslimane, J. and Touri, A., Tinmal, l'épopée almohade (Casablanca, 1992)Google Scholar; Buresi, Pascal, “Les cultes rendus à la tombe du Mahdī Ibn Tûmart à Tinmâl”, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. Comptes Rendus des séances de l'année 2008. Janvier–Mars (Paris, 2008), 391–438Google Scholar.

10 Dermenghem, E., Le culte dés saints dans l'Islam maghrébine (Paris, 1954), 47–9Google Scholar; Deverdun, Gaston, Marrakech dès origines à 1912 (Rabat, 1959), 130–1, 269, 573Google Scholar, as well as de Castries, H., “Les sept patrons de Marrakech”, Hespéris 4, 1924, 245–303Google Scholar, dealing with the establishment of the official ziyāra of seven of those graves under sultan Mawlāy Ismāʿīl (1672–1727).

11 Ferhat, Halima, “Littérature eschatologique et espace sacré au Maroc: le cas de Massa”, Studia Islamica 80, 1994, 47–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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13 For a recent study dealing with another region of the Islamic world, see Azad, Arezou, Sacred Landscape in Medieval Afghanistan. Revisiting the Faḍāʾil-i Balkh (Oxford, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 There are studies devoted to specific areas and cases. To give just two recent examples: Maghribi shrines have been studied by, among others, Bulle Tuil, “Inhumation et baraka. La tombe du saint dans la ville de l'Occident musulman au Moyen-Âge (XII–XVe siècle)”, PhD thesis, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, 2011, while the cave as a sacred space has been analysed by a number of scholars in papers published in Cuadernos de Madīnat al-Zahrāʾ 7, 2010, including Jean-Pierre van Staëvel, “La caverne, refuge de ‘l'ami de Dieu’: une forme particulière de l’érémitisme au temps des Almoravides et des Almohades (Maghreb extrême, XIe–XIIIe siècles)”, 311–26.

15 Boloix Gallardo, Bárbara, Prodigios del maestro sufí Abū Marwān al-Yuḥānisī de Almería. Estudio crítico y traducción de la Tuhfat al-mugtarib de Ahmad al-Qastali (Madrid, 2010)Google Scholar, 194, 204, 255.

16 Ibn al-Kharrāṭ, Kitāb al-ʿāqiba fī dhikr al-mawt wa-mā baʿdahā, ed. ʿUbayd Allāh Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Miṣrī al-Atharī (Ṭanṭā, 1410/1990), 128.

17 On its author, see Ávila, M.L., “Ibn al-Ṭaylasān, al-Qāsim”, Biblioteca de al-Andalus, 5, 491–6Google Scholar, n.1258, and also Fierro, M., “Una fuente perdida sobre los ulemas de al-Andalus: el manuscrito del Museo Jalduní de Túnez”, Al-Qanṭara 12, 1991, 273–6Google Scholar, for a possible MS of this work.

18 Velázquez Basanta, F.N., “al-Šarrāṭ, Abū l-Qāsim”, Biblioteca de al-Andalus, 7, 345–7Google Scholar, n.1720.

19 M. Arcas Campoy and D. Serrano Niza, “Ibn Ḥabīb al-Ilbīrī, ʿAbd al-Malik”, 222b. These sources are Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (d. 544/1149), Tartīb al-madārik li-maʿrifat aʿlām madhhab Mālik, 8 vols (Rabat, 1983), IV, 141, and Ibn al-Khaṭīb (d. 776/1374), al-Iḥāṭa fī akhbār Gharnāṭa, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ʿInān , 4 vols (Cairo, 1973–77), III, 552.

20 Rodríguez López, J. and Cara Barrionuevo, L., “El fenómeno místico-religioso rural en los últimos siglos del Islam andalusí: introducción al estudio arqueológico de las rábitas alpujarreñas”, Almería entre culturas (siglos XIII–XVI) Actas del Coloquio (Almería, 19–21 April 1990) (Almería, 1990), 227–54Google Scholar; Martínez Enamorado, Virgilio and Becerra Parra, Manuel, “En torno al morabitismo en la Serranía de Ronda. Una propuesta para el análisis de sus rábitas y zawiya-s”, Takurunna 1, 2011, 1–30Google Scholar. More generally, Franco Sánchez, F. (ed.), La rábita en el Islam. Estudios interdisciplinares (Sant Carles de la Ràpita/Alicante, 2004)Google Scholar.

21 Khalid Masud, Muhammad, Islamic Legal Philosophy: a Study of Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi's Life and Thought (Islamabad, 1977), 63–4Google Scholar. For the Maghrib, see Ferhat, Halima, Le soufisme et les zaouyas au Maghreb: mérité individuel et patrimoine sacré (Casablanca, 2003)Google Scholar.

22 Calero Secall, María Isabel, “Los Banū Sīd Būna”, Sharq al-Andalus 4, 1987, 35–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Franco Sánchez, F. and Benarafa, A., “Ibn Sīd Būnuh, Abū Aḥmad”, Biblioteca de al-Andalus, 5, 337–44Google Scholar, n. 1152.

23 Remie Constable, Olivia, “Regulating religious noise: the council of Vienne, the mosque call and Muslim pilgrimage in the late medieval Mediterranean world”, Medieval Encounters 16, 2010, 64–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with reference to the charter of Chivert.

24 Constable, “Regulating religious noise”, 88.

25 Molina, Luis, “Lugares de destino de los viajeros andalusíes en el Taʾrīj de Ibn al-Faraḍī”, in Marín, Manuela (ed.), Estudios onomástico-biográficos de al-Andalus (Madrid, 1988), 585–610Google Scholar.

26 See her articles, “Zuhhād de al-Andalus (300/912–420/1029)”, Al-Qanṭara 12, 1991, 439–69Google Scholar; “The early development of zuhd in al-Andalus”, in De Jong, F. (ed.), Shiʿa Islam, Sects and Sufism. Historical Dimensions, Religious Practice and Methodological Considerations (Utrecht, 1992), 83–94Google Scholar; “Muslim religious practices in al-Andalus (2nd/8th–4th/10th centuries)”, in Jayyusi, S.K. (ed.), The Legacy of Muslim Spain (Leiden, 1992), 878–94Google Scholar.

27 Ibn Bashkuwāl (d. 578/1183), Kitāb al-ṣilafī taʾrīkh aʾimmat al-Andalus wa-ʿulamāʾihim wa-muḥaddithihim wa-fuqahāʾihim wa-udabāʾihim, ed. ʿIzzat al-ʿAṭṭār al-Ḥusaynī, 2 vols (Cairo, 1374/1955), n. 449; reference taken from Marín, Manuela, “La práctica del ribāṭ en al-Andalus (siglos III–V/IX–XI)”, in Azuar, Rafael (ed.), El ribāṭ califal. Excavaciones e investigaciones (1984–1992) (Madrid, 2004), 191–201Google Scholar, n. 38.

28 Javier Simonet, Francisco, Historia de los mozárabes de España, 4 vols (Madrid, 1983)Google Scholar (reprint of the edition Madrid, 1897–1903), I, 161 (shrine of San Torcuato in Guadix), II, 251–2, III, 615–17 (data from the Calendar of Cordoba), 620–1, 647–65 (Taifa period); the monasteries of Cordoba are dealt with in II, 328–36. On the sanctuary of Santa Eulalia in Mérida, see Cruz, Pedro Mateos and Calzado, Miguel Alba, “De Emerita Augusta a Mārida”, in Visigodos y Omeyas. Un debate entre la Antigüedad Tardía y la Alta Edad Media (Mérida, 1999) (Madrid, 2000), 143–68Google Scholar.

29 Capilla, Susana Calvo, “Les premières mosquées et la transformation des sanctuaires wisigothiques (92H/711–170H/785)”, Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez 41/2, 2011, 131–63Google Scholar, quoting Crónica de 1344, ed. Diego Catalán and María Soledad de Andrés (Madrid, 1971), 183.

30 On the Cordoban Christian martyrs, see Simonet's work and K.B. Wolf, Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain (Cambridge, 1988).

31 Calvo Capilla, “Les premières mosques”, 152. The often-told story of how the Cordoban mosque was built on the site of the church of San Vicente does not rest on archaeological evidence and is largely legendary, as already suggested by Ocaña, Manuel, “La basílica de San Vicente y la gran mezquita de Córdoba (nuevo examen de textos)”, Al-Andalus 7, 1942, 347–66Google Scholar.

32 Bashear, Suliman, “Qibla musharriqa and early Muslim prayer in churches”, The Muslim World 81, 1991, 267–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for al-Andalus, see Félix, Ana Fernández, Cuestiones jurídicas del islam temprano. La ʿUtbiyya y el proceso de formación de la sociedad islámica andalusí (Madrid, 2003), 481Google Scholar.

33 Fernández Félix, Cuestiones jurídicas del islam temprano, 483.

34 On the permeability of borders across religious divides, see Albera, D. and Couroucli, Maria (eds), Sharing Sacred Spaces in the Mediterranean: Christians, Muslims, and Jews at Shrines and Sanctuaries (Bloomington, 2012)Google Scholar; Cormack, M. (ed.), Muslims and Others in Sacred Space (New York, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Simonet, Historia de los mozárabes de España, II, 252–4; IV, 814–15, quoting a text found in Abū Ḥāmid al-Gharnāṭī (d. 565/1169) which Simonet knows through Ibn al-Wardī; another version in al-Idrīsī (d. c. 560/1164).

36 Westermarck, Edward's works (Pagan Survivals in Mohammedan Civilisation (London, 1933)Google Scholar, Ritual and Belief in Morocco (London, 1926)Google Scholar and Fahd, T., Le panthéon de l'Arabie Centrale à la Veille de l'Hégire (Paris, 1968)Google Scholar are still informative. The work by al-Labīdī (d. 440/1048) and al-Fārisī (d. around 440–50/1048–58), Manaqib d́Abu Ishaq al-Jabanyani par Abu l-Qasim al-Labidi et Manaqib de Muhriz b. Halaf par Abu l-Tahir al-Farisi, ed. Roger Idris, Hady (Paris, 1959)Google Scholar that memorializes Ifriqiyan saints has information about the cult of trees in North Africa. For a critical view of the Islamic portrayal of paganism, see Hawting, Gerald, The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam. From Polemic to History (Cambridge, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Simonet, Historia de los mozárabes de España, IV, 805. See also J.E. Salisbury, Iberian Popular Religion 600 b.c. to 700 a.d.: Celts, Romans and Visigoths (New York and Toronto, 1985).

38 Fierro, Maribel and Marín, Manuela, “La islamización de las ciudades andalusíes a través de sus ulemas (ss. II/VIII–comienzos s. IV/X)”, in Cressier, P. and García-Arenal, M. (eds), Genèse de la ville islamique en al-Andalus et au Maghreb occidental (Madrid, 1998), 65–98Google Scholar. Also by the transportation of Christian relics to the north: Simonet, Historia de los mozárabes de España, I, 161, 211–2, II, 251–9.

39 Marín, Manuela, “Ṣaḥāba et tābiʿūn dans al-Andalus: histoire et légende”, Studia Islamica 54, 1981, 5–49Google Scholar.

40 al-Ḍabbī (d. 599/1203), Kitāb bughyat al-multamis fī taʾrīkh rijāl ahl al-Andalus, ed. Codera, Francisco and Ribera, Julián (Madrid, 1884)Google Scholar, n. 687; al-Bakrī, Jugrāfiyat al-Andalus wa-Urubba min Kitāb al-masālik wa-l-mamālik, ed. al-Ḥajjī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAlī (Beirut, 1387/1968), 132Google Scholar; al-Ḥimyarī, Kitāb al-rawḍ al-miʿṭār, ed. and trans. Lévi-Provençal, E., La Péninsule Iberique au moyen age (Leiden, 1938)Google Scholar, 97 (Arabic text)/119 (French translation); Souto, J.A., “Las almacabras saraqustíes en el contexto de las almacabras de al-Andalus”, Las necrópolis de Zaragoza (Zaragoza, 1991), 49–65Google Scholar. According to the eighth/fourteenth-century chronicle Dhikr bilād al-Andalus, ed. and trans. Molina, Luis, 2 vols (Madrid, 1983)Google Scholar, 70 (ed.) and 76 (trans.), his grave was situated in the qibla of the Friday mosque just in front of the miḥrāb (see also Souto, Juan Antonio, “Textos árabes relativos a la mezquita aljama de Zaragoza”, Madrider Mitteilungen 30, 1989, 391–420)Google Scholar in what seems to be a misreading of previous reports mixed with a literary transfer from Christian funerary practices in churches.

41 al-ʿUdhrī (d. 478/1085), Tarsīʿ al-ajbār wa-tanwīʿ al-āthār, ed. al-Ahwānī, ʿA. (Madrid, 1965), 22–3Google Scholar, Spanish trans. de la Granja, F., La marca superior en la obra de al- ‘Udri (Zaragoza, 1966)Google Scholar, 11.

42 I depart from de la Granja's translation: he understood ahdāf min al-ḥijāra to mean piles of stones (“montones de piedras”). Following Reinhardt Dozy (Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, 2 vols, Leiden 1881, II, 750), I understand ahdāf to mean an undulation on a surface. There is the possibility that ahdāf refers to some sort of vertical piece of stone such as a tombstone: on tombstones in al-Andalus see Martínez Núñez, María Antonia, “La estela funeraria en el mundo andalusí”, in de la Casa, Carlos (ed.), Actas V Congreso Internacional de Estelas Funerarias (Soria 28 de abril al 1 de mayo, 1993) (Soria, 1994), 419–44Google Scholar; and Delgado Valero, Clara, “La Columna sepulcral: una forma funeraria del arte helenístico y del arte islámico”, in Arte hispano-musulmán (Madrid, 2001), 105–16Google Scholar. However, this possibility does not seem to fit well with the proposal that follows to give some visibility to the graves. I thank Luis Molina for discussing this issue with me.

43 Ragib, Y., “Structure de la tombe d'après le droit musulman”, Arabica 39, 1992, 393–403CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Leisten, Th., “Between orthodoxy and exegesis: some aspects of attitudes in the sharīa toward funerary architecture”, Muqarnas. An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture 7, 1990, 12–22Google Scholar. For the case of al-Andalus, Fierro, Maribel, “El espacio de los muertos: fetuas andalusíes sobre tumbas y cementerios”, in Cressier, P., Fierro, M. and van Staevel, J.P. (eds), L'urbanisme dans l'Occident musulman au Moyen Âge. Aspects juridiques (Madrid, 2000), 153–90Google Scholar.

44 Muḥammad ibn Waḍḍāḥ al-Qurṭubī (d. 287/900), Kitāb al-bidaʿ (Tratado contra las innovaciones), ed. and trans. Fierro, M.I. (Madrid, 1988), 110–11Google Scholar.

45 On the veneration of trees see above, n. 36, and Goldziher, Ignaz, Muslim Studies, trans. Stern, S.M., 2 vols (London, 1967–71) 2, 311–19Google Scholar; al-Ṭurṭūshī, Kitāb al-ḥawādith wa-l-bidaʿ, trans. Fierro, M.I. (Madrid, 1993), 134Google Scholar, with references to the veneration of the tree called dhāt anwāṭ.

46 On this debate, Kister, M.J. “‘You shall only set for three mosques’, a study of an early tradition”, Le Museón 82, 1969, 173–96Google Scholar; Elad, Amikam, Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship: Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage (Leiden, 1995)Google Scholar.

47 A powerful presentation of this concern can be found in Ibn Taymiyya's (d. 728/1328) Kitāb iqtiḍāʾ al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm mukhālafat aṣḥāb al-jahīm, partial trans. by Umar Memon, Muhammad, Ibn Taymīyaʾs Struggle against Popular Religion (The Hague, 1976)Google Scholar, see especially 250.

48 See, on the taʿrif bidʿa, Fierro, M.,“The treatises against innovations (kutub al-bidaʿ)”, Der Islam 69, 1992, 204–46, 226–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 Fierro, M.I., “Una refutación contra Ibn Masarra”, Al-Qantara 10, 1989, 273–5Google Scholar, quoting Ibn al-Abbār, al-Takmila li-Kitāb al-Ṣila, ed. al-Aṭṭār al-Ḥusaynī, I. (Cairo, 1375/1955)Google Scholar, n. 991; al-Maqqarī, Nafḥ al-ṭīb, 8 vols (Beirut, 1968), II, 150–1Google Scholar. The text was first translated by Asín Palacios, Abenmasarra, 36, n. 1. I am quoting here from the English translation I provided in Fierro, M., “Plants, Mary the Copt, Abraham, donkeys and knowledge: again on Batinism during the Umayyad caliphate in al-Andalus”, Differenz und Dynamik im Islam. Festschrift für Heinz Halmzum 70. Geburtstag /Difference and Dynamics in Islam. Festschrift for Heinz Halm on his 70th birthday (Würzburg, 2012), 125–44Google Scholar, at 134.

50 Hidayatullah, Aisha, “Māriyya the Copt: gender, sex and heritage in the legacy of Muhammad's umm walad”, Islam and Christian – Muslim Relations 21/3, 2010, 221–43, 238CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The house of Khadīja was also visited and readings of ḥadīth took place there.

51 Hidayatullah, “Māriyya the Copt” 223 and 235–7.

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53 Fierro, Maribel, “Madīnat al-zahrāʾ, el Paraíso y los fatimíes”, Al-Qanṭara 25, 2004, 299–327CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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55 As in the case of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico. Calvo Capilla, “Les premières mosquées et la transformation des sanctuaries wisigothiques”, as indicated above, notes that mosques were not usually built over previous churches, as these kept functioning as such.

56 Calvo Capilla, Susana, “Las primeras mezquitas de al-Andalus a través de las fuentes árabes (92/711–170/785)”, Al-Qanṭara 28/1, 2007, 143–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Juberías, Julia Hernández, La Península imaginaria: mitos y leyendas sobre al-Andalus (Madrid, 1996)Google Scholar, has collected such legends.

58 Ibn Ḥayyān (d. 469/1076), al-Muqtabas min anbāʾ ahl al-Andalus [al-Muqtabis II-2], ed. Makki, M.ʿA., (Beirut, 1393/1973), 278–9Google Scholar. This English version is based on the unpublished Spanish translation of the Arabic text made by Luis Molina.

59 Peña, Salvador and Vega, Miguel, “The Qurʾānic symbol of fish on Ḥammūdid coins: al-Khaḍir and the holy geography of the Straits of Gibraltar”, Al-Andalus Magreb 13, 2006, 269–84Google Scholar.

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62 See the reference in note 6.

63 In this passage – of which I offer a tentative translation – the slave girl seems to be cleverly suggesting a divine intervention by using theological terminology: the verb nazzaha is used in kalām to refer to God's transcendence (tanzīh) and also to refer to tanzīh al-malāʾika, the impeccability of angels. In the background, there may also be a reference to what happened to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

64 Ibn Saʿīd (d. 685/1286), al-Mughrib fī ḥulā l-Maghrib, ed. Ḍayf, Shawqī, 2 vols (Cairo, 1953–55)Google Scholar, I, 196, analysed in Garulo, T., “El humor en el Mugrib de Ibn Saʿīd”, in Toro Ceballos, F. and Rodríguez Molina, José (eds), VII Estudios de Frontera. Islam y Cristiandad. Siglos XII–XVI. Homenaje a María Jesús Viguera Molíns, Congreso celebrado en Alcalá la Real en noviembre de 2008 (Jaén, 2009), 311–30, 321Google Scholar.

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66 As shown in the study quoted in note 38.

67 Were it not for Ibn Hazm no record of the eleventh century Masarris active in Pechina with their peculiar beliefs and practices would exist: Fierro, Heterodoxia, 166-8.