The Muslim inheritance system is one of the most complex matters in Islamic law. In the Middle Ages, one of the most dangerous moments for the family fortune was the compulsory transfer of properties after a relative’s death. According to the professor of Medieval History of the Universidad de Granada and coordinator of the conference “Women, family and lineage in the Middle Ages” held in the Faculty of Humanities”, “Muslim women usually receive half than their male relatives. The daughter inherits half than her brother, the widow is entitled to receive a quarter of her husband’s properties and, if she has no children, an eighth, whereas the husband receives half of the fortune of his wife if they have no children and a quarter if they do.”
As regards collateral relatives, according to the study of Professor Carmen Trillo, they play a main role in inheritance. “We can see it in a Mudejar document found in Malaga, –Carmen Trillo says– where the Nazari tax system remained. For instance, when a daughter is the heiress, the king receives half of the properties of the deceased, but if the heir is a brother of the father, an uncle or a paternal cousin, included the third-degree, the state does not receive anything. It is understood that the family includes such degree of kinship. In some places the concept of family includes the great-grandfather’s descendants, who usually coincide with the alive relatives. However, the memory of the ancestors is more distant”.
The professor, who also referred in the conference –in which prestigious professors and experts on Medieval History took part, such as Jack Goody, Reyna Pastor, Enric Porqueres i Gené, Mª Carmen Pallares, María Isabel del Val, María Teresa López, José Luis Martín and J. A. González Alcantud with more than 180 participants—to the internal structure of Nazari rural world and took a long time over the way in which farmhouses worked and how they were transformed in the Middle Ages, says that “the path of evolution of the Islamic world is different to that established for the Western Christian world: It is slower, especially in the rural world; sometimes, the economic and social structures preserve characteristics of their Medieval past.”
Carmen Trillo is a professor of the Field of Medieval History in the Department of Medieval History and Historiographic Sciences and Techniques of the Universidad de Granada. She has participated in numerous research projects and has published several books: “The Alpujarra. History, Archaeology and Landscape. Analysis of a territory in the Middle Ages”. County Council of Granada. “The Alpujarra before and after the Castilian conquest”. Universidad de Granada. “Water and landscape in Granada, an inheritance of Al-Andalus”. County Council of Granada.
According to the professor and researcher, her research group “Toponymy, History y Archaeology of the Kingdom of Granada”, supervised by Antonio Malpica Cuello, “we have always considered the importance of the solidity or weakness of the groups of family names to explain history. In the case of Al-Andalus, Pierre Guichard warned in 1976 in her work Al-Andalus, that the strength of family names forced the State to come to an agreement with the tribes, the family groups and the clans.”
Further information: Prof Professor Carmen Trillo San José
Department of Medieval History and Historiographic Sciences and Techniques. Universidad de Granada. Phone numbers: 958 243653 / 629 829707
E-mail: ctrillo@platon.ugr.es
