“Al-bustān” congress in Murcia and Granada

The CSIC’s School of Arab Studies has organized congress titled “Al-bustān: Aristocratic estates and the construction of peri-urban landscapes in Al-Andalus and Sicily,” which highlights the importance of the estates belonging to Muslim elites in the Mediterranean. It will be held in Murcia and Granada from October 6 to 8.

For three days, numerous Spanish, Italian, German and American specialists will be discussing how Muslim elites contributed to creating an important part of Europe’s medieval landscape and culture. Similarly, they will be examining the past in these peri-urban “almunias” from a historical and archeological perspective, with emblematic examples such as the Generalife in Granada, the Castillejo de Monteagudo (Murcia) and the Genoardo de Palermo (Italy).

This scientific event will include tours and conferences given by international researchers of the highest order: historians, archeologists, art historians, philologists, architects, landscape architects, restorers, botanists, cultural managers, teachers and other professionals, aimed at members of the public interested in more in-depth analysis of peri-urban estates, given the economic relevance and value they held as symbols of ostentation and power.

With Julio Navarro, an archeologist at the CSIC’s School of Arab Studies, and the event’s scientific director, the congress aims to provide a new vision of European Islam, as well as Mediterranean and European Islamic heritage, which is of great interest for understanding medieval Europe, a very diverse place. Studying these medieval peri-urban landscapes also promotes the recovery of peripheral areas in certain urban environments today, in order to make them much more habitable, sustainable and, ultimately, more inclusive.

In Murcia, the congress will be taking place on Thursday, October 6 and Friday, October 7 at the Cultural Classroom (“Aula Cultural”) in the Cajamurcia Foundation, then ending in Granada on Saturday, October 8 at the Cuarto Real de Santo Domingo. In both cities there will be tours of the different “almunias” given by specialists, as is the case with the Castillejo de Monteagudo or the Generalife in Granada. Most notable at the conferences will be foreign experts, including Attilio Petruccioli, Fairchild Ruggles, Felix Arnold, Arianna D’Ottone, Pietro Todaro and Manfredi Leone, as well as others.

In order to make it easier for all those interested to attend and participate, the congress is being given in two different ways, with both in-person and online spaces available until September 30.

The International Congress “Al-bustān: Aristocratic estates and the construction of peri-urban landscapes in al-Andalus and Sicily” has been organized by the Laboratory of Archeology and Architecture of the City (LAAC) at the School of Arab Studies (EEA-CSIC), and is being held within the framework of the research, development and innovation project titled “Medieval ‘Almunias’ in the Mediterranean: History and conservation of peri-urban cultural landscapes,” funded by Spain’s Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Further information on the congress website