Blurb:

The present chapter has a two-fold aim: to discuss, in archaeological and historical terms, how gender can be performed and enacted in Islamicate societies; and to put the focus on women and their position within these societies. The study of women in al-Andalus is inlaid with multi-layered signifiers that influence gender performance beyond religion, including ethnicity, or coexistence with non-Muslim populations. In trying to go beyond the image of Islamicate women as ‘Other’, this chapter will study how hegemonies of femininity were created and encoded, taking a closer look onto domestic spaces, as well as the written sources.