This two-year project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, explored shared modes of political legitimation across the Straits of Gibraltar from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. The aim was to replace the constraints imposed by national history writing, Moroccan and Spanish, and binary interpretations of Muslim versus Christian cultural spheres in favour of a more nuanced comparison of the development of the Marīnid and Naṣrid sultanates and their relations with Castile, Aragon and other nearby powers.
The resulting book explores how rulers make their rule palatable and appealing to their subjects or citizens. Drawing on the expertise of several international scholars, it explores how rulers in medieval Iberia and the Maghrib presented their rule and what strategies they adopted to persuade their subjects of their legitimacy.