Structures of Settlement in Gharb al-Andalus

Code: HIS10572M

10 ECTS

Duration: 15 weeks/280 hours

Scientific Area: History

Teaching languages: Portuguese

Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese, French, Spanish

Regime de Frequência: B-learning

Sustainable Development Goals

Educação de qualidade - Assegurar a educação inclusiva, e equitativa e de qualidade, e promover oportunidades de aprendizagem ao longo da vida para todos.

Learning Goals

The goal i to introduce students to topics of settlement structures in the Islamic world with special focus on Mediterranean al-Andalus. The aim of this course is that students understand and contextualize models of land use in a diachronic perspective and acquire the methodological tools necessary for a critical reflection on the processes that marked the relationship between population, political organization / management and exploitation of resources.

1. Sources for the study of Islamic settlement.
2. Population changes in Late Antiquity and the in the Islamic period.
3. Territorial organization and administrative structure.
4. The city as a structural element of Islamic society
5. Structures of rural settlement in al-Andalus.
a. The Hisn and other fortified structures
b. The Alcarias
c. Villages
d. The munias

Teaching Methods

The methodology of teaching is based on lectures and theory / practice with the use of audiovisual, cartographic and iconographic resources, as well as the study of concrete material realities.
The evaluation will be done in group work, with readings and individual projects, that will - later - be presented and discussed in class.