The book, part of the «Estudios Árabo-Islámicos de Almonaster la Real» Collection, features contributions from researchers such as Irene Zarco Muñoz and Pedro Jiménez-Castillo, among other experts from various fields.
The work offers an interdisciplinary exploration of almunias, defined as historical spaces that, depending on the location and era, combined agricultural and livestock production with leisure, ceremony, crop experimentation, and the representation of power.
The eight studies included in the book approach these properties from different angles. Aspects such as royal almunias and large estates of the Islamic West, as well as rahales and rural settlements, are analyzed.
Furthermore, the terminology used in Arabic sources is examined, and the manuscript of Ḥadīṯ Bayāḍ wa-Riyāḍ, preserved in the Vatican, is used as a source for understanding these historical spaces.
