Nawal, daughter to a Christian slave (Erundina) sold to the House of Amin-Am (mother of the Umayyad princess Wallada Bint al-Mustafki), forges a great friendship with Princess Wallada. Educated at the School of Scribes, specializing in manuscript illumination, she develops an artistic side that is acknowledged even in the Christian kingdom of León, where she will gets the opportunity to work on a royal commission: organizing the scriptorium and gaining first-hand knowledge about life in a Christian monastery. Reflecting on the prejudices that Christians and Jews harbor towards Muslims, and vice versa, Nawal witnesses the political changes, the brilliance of the poetic gatherings at Wallada’s house, the palace intrigues, the religious intransigence, the mix of love and jealousy, etc., even between Princess Wallada and Ibn Zaydun. 

Opening to the public on the date of November 18, at the Biblioteca Viva de al-Ándalus in Cordoba, is an exhibition of 78 drawings by the author, inspired by some of the characters in the work, at places and in emotional situations she encountered.  

Cristina F. Barcala (Montevideo, Uruguay) is the daughter of Spanish emigrants. With a university degree in Fine Arts from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, she also studies piano and Spanish dance. A teacher in the baccalaureate Arts program, she has exhibited and worked at various locations in Spain and abroad, including the Cultural Moussem of Asilah (Morocco), the Contemporary Art Biennial in Baghdad, the International Meeting of Engravers at the MAC in Madrid, etc. She was also selected by Cajasur Artists for ‘92: a travelling exhibition throughout Spain, and she was a finalist in the Air Force painting competition, as well as winning the Rosa Sensat Award for Teaching Research (Barcelona). A book illustrator, she has also had the novels “Ataurique” (2015) and “El mantón de la Fornarina” (2017) published.

María Jesús Viguera Molins (El Ferrol, A Coruña, 1945) has been a member of Spain’s Royal Academy of History since February of 2015. A tenured professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the Universidad Complutense (Madrid) from 1983 to 2015, the university where she has run the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies for more than 12 years, she has been the director of the journals “Anaquel de Estudios Árabes” and “Hesperia. Culturas del Mediterráneo.” Her main lines of research are the history of Al-Andalus, the historiography and contexts of Spanish Arabism, and the history of Arab manuscripts in Spain.