ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the representation and perception of the Islamic caliphal court as a labyrinthine and vanishing space that housed an invisible caliph. It examines some passages of the Vita Iohannis abbatis Gorziensis. The chapter explores how the Islamic court developed between the ninth and tenth centuries as a result of a change in court ceremonial practices, focusing on the caliphal court of al-Andalus. The eunuchs contributed actively to the construction of a vanishing court, but in al-Andalus, caliphs never reached the level of seclusion of the Abbasid and Fatimid caliphs. The Vita Iohannis abbatis Gorziensis, written by the monk John of Saint Arnulf at the end of the tenth century, provides the most complete description of an Islamic court in a Latin source in the early Middle Ages. The eunuchs contributed actively to the construction of a vanishing court, but in al-Andalus, caliphs never reached the level of seclusion of the Abbasid and Fatimid caliphs.
