Restricted access to foreign training forced Spanish Muslims into vernacular legal manuals

Evidence

In Spain, most villages of Muslims had their own alfaqu´ı as their guide, it would seem, not only in strictly legal matters. Such lawyers at this period might well have studied outside Valencia, and there are records of travel permits being given for study in Granada, Tunis, and elsewhere. As the century wore on, such training became increasingly difficult and dangerous to arrange (hence, no doubt, the demand for the “do-it-yourself” manuals in the vernaculars mentioned in chapter 5). — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 455

Categorization

• XREF: The scarcity-driven vernacular ‘do-it-yourself’ manuals parallel how restricted access to formal institutions in the diamond trade generated private substitutes.