During her conference, she will be analyzing the representation and regulation of women’s life in the urban space of al-Andalus based on three treatises involving ḥisba (an Islamic legal principle grounded in “enjoining good and forbidding evil”). By studying gender interaction, the management of problem spaces, as well as notions of purity, she demonstrates how ḥisba articulated a system of control that transcended the economic realm. In this regard, the limited visibility of women as economic role-players in the souk came in contrast with the intensity of the rules governing their lives in public space. Similarly, the differences between the treatises reflect diverse normative approaches to the management of the female presence, as well as the delimitation of authorities’ actions.

Adday Hernández López
With a degree in Arabic Philology earned at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2008, she received her PhD in Arabic and Andalusi Studies in 2014, specializing in the intellectual history of the medieval Islamic West and, in particular, the jurisprudence of Al-Andalus, addressing issues related to trade and economics, as well as the interactions between different religious communities. She has had several books and articles published on all of these topics.

She has worked at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) at different times, thanks to various pre- and post-doctoral contracts and fellowships, in addition to the University of Copenhagen, where she was a post-doctoral researcher for four years and studied the presence of works from Al-Andalus in Ethiopian manuscripts. She has taken part in seven research projects, five of them international, and is currently a professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, as well as heading a research group on “Christians and Muslims in Medieval Spain.”

Image: Maqamat by Al-Hariri. Illustration: Yaḥyā ibn Maḥmūd al- Wāsiṭī . Woman weaving on a loom.Paris, BnF, Arabe 5847 f.13v, Public Domain.