The Rubb: the Almohads or the promoters of the marvellous

Abstract

The Almohad caliphs imported the Abbasid and Umayyad models of government from al-Andalus, which they sought to implement while adapting them. This included the prohibition of the ancient communal use of cooked wine (anzīr) in favour of consumption by the ruling elite. In doing so, the sources account for this inflection by using a vague and ambiguous Arabic term, rubb, which does not necessarily refer to an alcoholic drink. Nevertheless, in a ceremonial context it was probably a kind of cooked wine. In this way, the Almohad rulers wanted to be the promoters of the marvellous and the only ones to create an earthly Eden, going so far as to have rivers of rubb dug. In accordance with the Koranic meaning of paradise, they wanted the evocation of their palace to be associated with the rubb; this resulted in the caliphs giving the name of Bāb ar-Rubb to one of the gates of the aulic complex of Marrakech, the beating heart of the Almohad dynasty.