Veiled Men of the Desert. Perceptions of the Ṣanhāğa Face-Muffler in the Medieval Islamic West
In this paper, I trace shifts in the perception of the face-muffler employed by the men of the North African tribal group of the Ṣanhāğa in medieval sources from al-Andalus and the Maghreb. The men of the Ṣanhāğa traditionally wear a face-muffler or "veil" that covers the lower half of the...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | Italian |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2020
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| In: |
Occhialì
Year: 2020, Volume: 7, Pages: 33-47 |
| Further subjects: | B
Almoravids
B Face-muffler B Ṣanhāğa B Veil B Almohads |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this paper, I trace shifts in the perception of the face-muffler employed by the men of the North African tribal group of the Ṣanhāğa in medieval sources from al-Andalus and the Maghreb. The men of the Ṣanhāğa traditionally wear a face-muffler or "veil" that covers the lower half of their face, as it continues to be the custom among the Tuareg community, for instance (Keenan, 1977; Rassmussen, 2010), whereas the women go about unveiled. In an Islamicate context, such as the medieval Maghreb, the "masculine veil" of the Ṣanhāğa stands in a particular position. First noted by Arab geographers as some sort of anthropological curiosity, it was later employed by a rival tribal group, the Maṣmūda, in order to delegitimize the political rule of the Ṣanhāğa during the Almoravid period, accusing them of effeminacy. |
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| ISSN: | 2532-6740 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Occhialì
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