The twelfth century geographer, al-Idrisi, alludes to the presence of the so-called Qur’an 'Uthman in the great Mosque of Cordoba and a ceremony in which it was brought out and paraded daily after the Umayyads proclaimed themselves caliphs in 317/929-30. Around 552/1157, the same Qur'an appeared in the processions of the Almohads, a Masmuda Berber dynasty from the High Atlas mountains, who also claimed to be caliphs. Ibn Sahib al-Salat, al-Marrakushi and the unknown author of the Hulal al-mawshiyya who describe the Almohad parades all mention the Qur'an’s 'Uthmanic antecedents and possession by the Umayyads. Using this as a starting point, Amira Bennison explores the image the Umayyads projected in the Maghrib, and the later significance of Cordoban Umayyad prototypes to the ruling Mu'minid dynasty of the Almohads. This contributes to a larger discussion of the evolution of a paradigm of imperial power in the Islamic west and its manipulation to legitimise a succession of dynasties whose actual origins, ambitions and praxis diverged widely.

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