Power and patronage of Islamic institutions in the Maghreb (13th–15th centuries): cultural and political factors

Abstract

The article examines a historical retrospective of the administrative, cultural, and intellectual relationship between the post-Almohad dynasties of the Maghreb (the Marinids, Abdalwadids, and Hafsids) and the traditional Muslim educational institutions of North Africa. The reasons and characteristic features of the processes of reproduction of religious scholarship in the Maghreb are investigated in the light of the military and political events that accompanied the expansion of the Almohad state. The historical and cultural background of cooperation and rivalry between the major universities of the region and the Sultan’s/Emir’s court is shown. The author traces the dynamics of the geography of “sacred knowledge” in North Africa and proves that it correlates with the financial and economic activity of the states that arose on the ruins of the Almohad political project. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the multifaceted activities of madrasahs, which served as leading urban learning centers, had significant libraries and had highly professional teachers of Islamic spiritual disciplines. Tribal and intellectual ties between the military and political elite of the Maghreb and the teaching staff of new educational institutions have been studied.

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