Describing the Ruin: Writings of Arabic notaries in the last period of al-Andalus

Authors

• María Dolores Rodríguez Gómez

Abstract

This article analyses a series of Arab notarial documents from the fifteenth century, with the aim of studying the damage and defects that were observed in some buildings in the city of Granada and making an inventory of them. The
material comes from the main archives of Granada (the Archives of the University of Granada, the Archives of the Cathedral of Granada, the Municipal Historical Archives of Granada, etc.). The majority of these manuscripts are written in Arabic, and some still remain unpublished. The damages were primarily caused by disrepair or even a total lack of drainage system, overlapping construction of outbuildings, visual intrusion, smoke, or proximity to sources of pollution (e.g. baths, stables, bakeries, latrines). In most cases, they resulted in buildings falling into a state of complete ruin. This research provides new information that could be taken into account in future studies of Islamic architecture and urbanism, and it is a clear example of notarial Andalusi practice in the fifteenth century, especially with regard to the use of very specific language in their records.