BIBLIOGRAPHIES 277
(b) The VlSigothie Period
Most of the recent general histories of the peninsula in this period (Bl) have sections
relevant to these areas. The L,ves of the Fathers of Merida, the most substantial
historiographical work produced in the Visigothic kingdom, which is a source of great
value on the history of one of its major towns, has at last been given a new and critical
edition that takes account of all the extant manuscripts: A. Maya Sanchez (ed.), Vitas
Sanetorum Patrum Emeretensium, which is vol. 116 of the Corpus Christianornm Series Latina
(Turnholt, 1992). For a helpful short study of one special component of Visigothic
society see O. Perez Sanchez, El ejercito en la soeiedad visigoda (Salamanca, 1989). For
good regional studies there are a number of items relating to the south-east of the
peninsula. Amongst these should be noted F.S. Ventura, Hispania meridional entre Roma
y el Islam: economia), soeiedad (Granada, 1990), and the articles in Begastri (Murcia, 1984)
and A. Gonzalez Blanco (ed.), Del Conventus Carthaginiensis a la Chora de Tudmir (Murcia,
1985), being volumes 1 and 2 respectively of the occasional series Antigiiedad y Cristianismo.
On the Visigothic settlement in the peninsula there has been a re-examination of one
of the classic cemeteries in G. Ripoll, La Necropolis visigoda de El Carpio de Tajo (Toledo)
(Madrid, 1985). There are substantial sections on the Visigothic period in each of the
volumes of proceedings of the conferences on medieval archaeology: Aetas del I Congresso
de Arqueologia Medieval Espmiola (5 vols Huesca, 1986); Arqueologia Medieval Espmiola, II
Congresso (3 vols, Madrid, 1987); III Congresso de Arqueologia Medieval Espanola (2 vols,
Oviedo, 1989), with more to come. A special issue was devoted to Visigothic pottery in
Boletin de Arqueologia Medieval, 3 (1989). A late Visigothic village site near Lerida promises
to offer one of the most interesting of all archaeological perspectives on this period.
The site report awaits publication, but there is a taste in P. de Palol, El Bovalar (Seras;
SeKria) (Lerida, 1989).(c) The Umayyad State
A recent study of the conquest is that of J. Vallve, Nuevas ideas sOUre la eonquista arabe de
EsjJaria: toponimia y onomastiea (Madrid, 1989). Stimulating but slightly ideosyncratic is
the same author's 'Espalla en el siglo VlII: ejercito y sociedad', Al-Andalus, 43 (1978),
pp. 51-112. In general this journal and its successor Al-Quantara should be followed for
much of the recent work on the early Islamic period in Spain. For artistic and archaeo-
logical topics there is also the Cuadernos de Madinat al-Zahra. P. Guichard, Tnbus arabes
et u"'beres en Al-Andalus (Paris, 1973), with a Spanish translation Al-Andalus (Barcelona,
1976) remains an important study of the Arab settlement and the role of the Berbers;
although perhaps not critical enough of the Arab sources. A substantial general survey
will be found in M.C. Hernandez, El Islam de Al-Andalus: historia y estructura de su realidad
social (Madrid, 1992). On the administrative divisions of Al-Andalus see A. Arjona Castro,
Andalucia musulmana: estructura politlca-administrativa (2nd ed., Cordoba, 1982), and J.
Vallve, la division territorial de la Esparia musulmana (Madrid, 1986). There are a series of
genealogical and biographical studies in the six volumes of Estudios onomastico-biograficos
de Al-Andalus, by various editors (Madrid, 1988-94). For an attempt at a demographic
survey of AI-Andalus in the late Umayyad period see M.L. Avila, La sociedad hispana-
musulmana alfinal del Califato (Madrid, 1985). The Umayyad caliphate as a naval power
is studied in J. Lirola Odgado, El poder naval de Al-Andalus en la ppoca del Califato Omeya
(Granada, 1993). For towns and town life the classic work is that of L. Torres Balbas,
whose numerous articles are brought together in the seven volumes of his OUra Dispersa
(Madrid, 1981-3). His systematic study is Ciudades Hispano-musulmanas (2nd ed. Madrid,
1985). The proceedings of a conference on Islamic towns, including several items relevant
to Spain, will be found in La Ciudad islamica (Zaragoza, 1991).
Regional studies and treatments of individual settlements are now numerous. Amongst
those to be noted on Toledo and its region areJ. Porres, Historia de TulaYiula (71I-I085)
(Toledo, 1985), C. Delgado, Toledo isltimico (Toledo, 1987), and the symposium Toledo