One of the rhetorical strategies deployed by Arab and Muslim feminists, from the end of the nineteenth century until the present, has been to ground feminist claims in episodes from Islamic history. This strategy casts feminism as an essential part of the Islamic tradition, rather than a challenge to it. Al-Andalus has figured prominently in these efforts to articulate an indigenous or “authentic” Arab or Muslim feminism, independent from the history of feminist movements in Europe and the United States. This paper will explore recent attempts to imagine al-Andalus as a place of exceptional freedom and creativity for Arab and Muslim women. The paper will focus on Radwa ‘Ashur’s Granada Trilogy (Egypt, 1994-1995) and Farida Bourquia’s film "Zaynab, The Rose of Aghmat" (Morocco, 2014). ‘Ashur’s trilogy narrates the saga of a family of Granadan Muslims, from the time of the Christian Reconquest of Granada until the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609. The saga centers on the women of the family, who fight to preserve the Arabic language and the practice of Islam in the face of oppression and violence from the new Christian occupiers. ‘Ashur’s female characters are not mere keepers of tradition; they are, instead, writers, thinkers, and resistance fighters, who embody the cultural splendor of al-Andalus and also hold out the promise of a future return to that splendor. Bourquia’s film, Zaynab, also places a female protagonist in a position of political empowerment. The film narrates the life of Zaynab al-Nafzawiyya, an eleventh-century Berber princess from Aghmat, in southern Morocco. Zaynab married Yusuf b. Tashfin, one of the founders of the Almoravid dynasty, which helped to unify the Maghrib and to bring al-Andalus under its rule. The film depicts Zaynab as a political counselor and military strategist who played an indispensable role in the creation of modern Morocco and the political unification of the Maghrib and the Iberian Peninsula. The film seeks to counter the predominant Arab-centered narrative of Andalusi history by placing Moroccans – and, in particular, Moroccan Berbers – at the center of Andalusi politics. It also emphasizes Zaynab’s expertise in botany in order to draw attention to the contributions that Muslim women made to science in the medieval Mediterranean world.