Book excerpt: Case study of Córdoban aristocratic estates during the Umayyad dynastic period (756-1031), synthesizing archaeological evidence unearthed from the 1980s up to 2009 with extant works of Andalusi art and architecture as well as evidence from medieval Arabic texts; incorporating material and insights from the fields of agricultural, economic, social and political history; and offering a fuller picture of secular architecture and social history in the caliphal lands and the Mediterranean.