The series has been coordinated by Cristina Franco (IEMYRhd), Claudia Patarnello (IEMYRhd) and Alba San Juan (IEMYRhd), under the direction of Helena de Felipe (UAH) and Miguel Ángel Manzano (IEMYRhd).

The purpose of this series of conferences is to increase awareness about the history and culture of the Berber/Amazigh peoples in the Maghreb. To do so, the speakers will be addressing a range of topics, from pre-Islamic North Africa to modern-day perspectives on the Maghreb, including traditional water management, forms of worship and legends, as well as the caravan routes leading towards the Sahel. This will also include specific talks on the Berbers in Cordoba during the era of Al-Andalus and the intellectual and political relations between Al-Andalus and the Maghreb.

The event series is meant to accompany the exhibition of the same name, which can be visited at the Casa Árabe headquarters in Cordoba on the same dates from March 5 to July 2. Both the scientific information sharing and the public awareness activities hosted at the Casa Árabe headquarters in Cordoba are the result of the coordinated research project MAGNAII: “Transits and transformations in the Maghreb space and population” (TRAMAGHIS. PID2021-122872NB-C21 and DIANA. PID2021-122872NB-C22), and are funded by MICIN/AEI/13039/501100011033 and FEDER. A Way to Make Europe

PROGRAM

Thursday, March 5, 7:00 p.m. 
Event series opening
Helena de Felipe and Miguel Ángel Manzano
Opening conference: From North Africa to the Maghreb: The territory and its population, by Helena de Felipe

Wednesday, March 11
Discovering the Maghreb from the East: First geographical descriptions, first images of the distant West
Laura Gago

Thursday, March 12 
In Cordoba’s Shadow: Distribution of the Imaziguen across southern Al-Andalus under the Umayyad emirate and caliphate
Virgilio Martínez Enamorado

Thursday, March 19
Scholars straddling Cordoba and Qayrawan: The journey of knowledge
María Crego

Wednesday, March 25
Between Maghreb and Sahel: Trans-Saharan Africa, Round Trip
Marta García Novo

Thursday, March 26
Amid Desert and Oasis: The climate and water in medieval Darʿa
Claudia Patarnello and Alba San Juan Pérez

Thursday, April 23 
Between Europe and the Maghreb: Juan León Africano and the geography of the Renaissance Mediterranean.
Pedro Buendía

Thursday, June 4 
The Cultural Tradition of the Maghreb: North African legends and wonders
Cristina Franco Vázquez

Thursday, June 11
From Oases to the Coliseum: Beasts, folk images and realities of pre-Islamic Africa
Esther Sánchez Medina

Thursday, June 18
New from the Other Shore: The Umayyads and the Maghreb (eighth–eleventh centuries)
Aurélien Montel

Thursday, June 25
The Empires of the Atlas and the Construction of the Medieval Maghreb (eleventh–fourteenth centuries)
Miguel Ángel Manzano

Thursday, July 2 
The closing conference: The MAGNA II Project: a portal with content about the Maghreb 
Miguel Ángel Manzano and Helena de Felipe