The conference will discuss the music of Al-Andalus within the framework of schools in the Maghreb region, as a form of cultural heritage belonging to both shores of the Mediterranean. As the author explains quite well, this is a type of music which moves between tradition and change, having been subject to study and activity by researchers, music groups, educational centers, thematic congresses and record label meetings on both sides of the sea. Four generations of researchers, made up of: Arabists, musicologists, ethno-musicologists, art historians, linguists, archeologists, experts on Islamic philosophy and Sufism: all have worked on Arab music from the Middle East and Al-Andalus from an interdisciplinary perspective, contributing a rich, greatly needed academic legacy.

Manuela Cortés García. Arabist, researcher, educator. A numerary member of the Andalusian Academy of History (2017) with a PhD in Semitic Philology, Arabic and Islam (UAM, 1996), and a professor at the University of Cairo and the Cervantes Institutes of Baghdad and Cairo, she is also an associate professor with the Department of Music History and Sciences. The general lines of research she has developed throughout her career have revolved around Arab music, the music of Al-Andalus, the music of the Moorish people and Andalusi-Maghrebi music in Arab document sources, as well as their relationship with humanistic and scientific disciplines. She has also completed studies on musical iconography, organology and archeo-musicology. She has authored numerous works about the history of music, such as Pasado y presente de la música andalusí  (Past and Present of Music from Al-Andalus, 1996); Música y poesía en el esplendor omeya (Music and Poetry in Umayyad Splendor, 1996); Editing, translation and study of Kunnash al-Ha’ik (1996), La música en la Zaragoza islámica (Music in Islamic Saragossa, 2016). Her latest essay, Arab and Al-Andalus music in the musicology studies on both shores of the Mediterranean, was published by Ediciones del Genal in 2018.

After the conference, at 8:30 p.m., to be held at the Casa Árabe Auditorium is the concert “Memoria de Oriente,” given by the group Zéjel, one of the most interesting musical ensembles within the scene known as the music of the Three Cultures in Spain (Tickets now on sale).