Al-Andalus fictionalized for television in the Arab world: (re-)viewing the historical musalsal Mulūk al-Ṭawāʾif

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present article deals with a popular 2005 Arabic historical drama television series, or musalsal, titled Mulūk al-Ṭawāʾif (The Taifa Kings), whose events take place in eleventh-century al-Andalus during what is termed the taifa period. To deconstruct the different dramatic-historical narratives generated by this musalsal, this qualitative analysis of its thirty episodes explores both the sociopolitical norms and the historical sources its script draws on. The musalsal’s representation of taifa al-Andalus is assessed for its potential function of commentary on the modern reality of the Arab world.