Living on the Douro Frontier: Towards a Social History of the Border through Archaeology and Legal Sources from al-Andalus
A large part of the historiography dedicated to the Douro frontier has focused on the study of fortifications and military campaigns carried out in this territory, which was considered a no-man’s-land until the late 20th century, where two political forces — al-Andalus and the Astur-Leonese kingdom — conducted their incursions. Although debates about the “Reconquista” and “depopulation” are now considered outdated, much work remains to be done regarding the study of landscape transformation in the northern ṯagr al-awsāṭ, as well as the analysis of the type of society that developed there between the 8th and 11th centuries and the relationships established between the new conquerors and the pre-existing indigenous population.
The archaeological analysis of fortifications reveals different scales of territorial control, ranging from the local level — linked to the domination of pre-existing settlements — to the supra-local level, where fortifications were organized into hierarchical networks along the Douro’s various valleys. Moreover, the use of legal and wisdom sources from al-Andalus — such as the work of al-Utbī (d. 255/869), which describes the formation of Islamic society in al-Andalus, or that of Ibn Baskuwāl (d. 578/1183), who compiled fatwas up to the Almohad period, along with the ṭabaqāt (a biographical genre chronicling the lives of ulama and scholars) — enriches our understanding of life on the Douro frontier. These testimonies document cases of converts who trafficked weapons, ulama who practiced ribāṭ in border fortifications, and revered scholars respected by both Christians and Muslims between the late 8th and late 11th centuries.
