Published in The Middle Ages and the Crusades

Keywords: Keywords: Ğihād, Holy-War, Islam, Ribāṭ, Spirituality.

At the beginning Ğihād was in Islam a militaristic spirit that articulates a defence of the religion, or what is the same, of the Muslim State, by means of arms. When in the first century of the Hegira it becomes impossible to continue the expansion of the Islamic State, the Ribāṭ was articulated as a substitute for Ğihād. It involved the internalization of the same spirituality, now understood not as a collective and official precept, but as individual command and internal fight. We revise the data from Arab sources about the Ribāṭ and its performance in the building known as rābiṭa. The function of these buildings, historiography, juridical frame, religious life and the economy related to the rābiṭa-s are explained. Toponymic traces and material vestiges of the rābiṭa-s at the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, especially those found in Guardamar del Segura are explained as well.