HISPANIC AND EUROPEAN STUDIES PROGRAM Between Tolerance and Conflict: Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the Iberian Peninsula
Victor Farias Zurita
victor.farias@upf.edu
Office: 20-257
Presentation
Course description
This course will examine the history of Medieval Iberia from the perspective of a society characterized by an unprecedented interaction between the Mediterranean's three civilizations (Muslim, Christian and Jewish). Specifically the course will debate the historical paradigms (e.g. convivencia, tolerance vs. intolerance) frequently used to depict the cultural diversity of Iberian Peninsula's medieval experience. As well as providing a general introduction to the cultural parameters of Medieval Iberia's three civilizations, the course will highlight these societies' modes of interaction and mutual influence. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which contemporary concerns have shaped historians' depictions of Medieval Iberian societies and the dynamics of cross-faith interaction. Throughout the course the importance of local specificity (for example, the differing social and political circumstances in the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon) will be emphasized in understanding the possibilities of cultural interaction.
Method of Presentation
Lectures, discussion, visual aids. All required readings can be found in the course reading packet.
Required work and form of assessment
1) Participation and presentation (25%). An analysis of two of the sessions' readings has to be presented orally to the class. The readings to be presented are proposed by the professor and are of two kinds: Articles and Sources. Every student has to present one Article and one Source. The presentations may be done in group. A written outline of the presentation has to be delivered to the class. All the readings are mandatory for every student of the class. The readings listed for a particular session must be completed before coming to class that day. The professor may test the effective reading.
2) Essay (25%) (maximum 10 pages 12 font pitch, 1,5 space), to be presented about the required reading (Anonymous. The Mirror of Coitus. A Translation and Edition of the Fifteenth-Century Speculum al foderi, edited by M. Solomon, Madison 1990). The essay has to be delivered before the last session of the course.
3) Mid-term exam (25%), about the issues treated in the lessons and the oral presentations (Sessions 2-12).
4) Final exam (25%), about the issues treated in the lessons and the oral presentations (Sessions 14-24).
Contents of the Course
Session 1: Presentation of the course
Session 2: Introduction: Convivencia: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Iberia
Reading: Ibn Khaldun. The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History, translated by F. Rosenthal and edited by N. J. Dawood, Princeton 1970, 49-64 (Source)
Session 3: The Islamic Conquest of Iberia
Reading: "Two Accounts of the Muslim Conquest (711)", Medieval Iberia. Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, ed. O. R. Constable, Philadelphia 1997, 29-36 (Source)
Session 4: The Period of Splendour: The Umayyad Caliphate
Reading: Giffen, L. A., "Ibn Hazm and the Tawq Al-Hamama", in The Legacy of Muslim Spain. Ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi. Leiden, New York, Köln: E. J. Brill, 1992, 420-442 (Article)
Session 5: The Period of the Taifas Reading: "A Jewish Vizier Describes the Battle of Alfuente", Medieval Iberia.
Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, ed. O. R. Constable, Philadelphia 1997, 84-90 (Source)
Session 6: Al-Andalus: an Islamized Society
Reading: Marín, M., "Muslim Religious Practices in Al-Andalus (2nd/8th-4th/10th Centuries)", The Legacy of Muslim Spain, ed. S. Khadra Jayyusi, Leiden… 1992, 878-894 (Article)
Session 7: Al-Andalus: an Arabized Society
Reading: Al-Ghazali. On the Manners Relating to Eating, ed. D. Johnson-Davies, Cambridge 2000, 1-17 (Source)
Session 8: Minorities in a Muslim Society: Christians Reading: "Two Arguments in Suport of Christian Faith", Medieval Iberia.
Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, ed. O. R. Constable, Philadelphia 1997, 141-151 (Source)
Session 9: Minorities in a Muslim Society: Jews
Reading: "Three Views of Samuel and Joseph Ibn Naghrela", Medieval Iberia. Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, ed. O. R. Constable, Philadelphia 1997, 91-102 (Source)
Session 10: Sharing Cultures: the Scholars
Reading: Lenay, H., "The Stars and Human Sexuality. Some Medieval Scientific Views", Isis, 71 (1980), 127-137 (Article)
Session 11: Sharing Cultures: the Physicians
Reading: Conrad, L. I., M. Neve, V. Nutton, R. Porter, A. Wear, The Western Medical Tradition. 800 BC To AD 1800, Cambridge 1995, 93-138
Session 12: Sharing Cultures: the Poets
Reading: Roth, N., "Deal Gently with the young man. Love of Boys in Medieval Hebrew Poetry of Spain", in Speculum Vol. 57/1 (1982), 20-51 (Article)
Session 13: The Holy War
Reading: Brodman, J. W., "Municipal Ransoming Law on the Medieval Spanish Frontier", in Speculum, Vol. 60/2 (1985), 318-330 (Article)
Session 14: Midterm exam
Session 15: The Triumph of the Cross
Reading: "The Christian Conquest of Valencia", Medieval Iberia. Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, ed. O. R. Constable, Philadelphia 1997, 209-216 (Source)
Session 16: Minorities in a Christian Society: Jews
Reading: Bagby, Jr., A. I., "The Jew in the Cantigas of Alfonso X, El Sabio", Speculum, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Oct., 1971), 670-688 (Article)
Session 17: Minorities in a Christian Society: Muslims
Reading: "A Mudejar Summary of Islamic Law", Medieval Iberia. Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, ed. O. R. Constable, Philadelphia 1997, 327-329 (Source)
Session 18: A Christian Reception: Translators and Scholars in Iberia
eading: Conrad, L. I., M. Neve, V. Nutton, R. Porter, A. Wear, The Western Medical Tradition. 800 BC To AD 1800, Cambridge 1995, 139-
Session 19: Boundaries in a Christian society
Reading: Powers, J. F., "Frontier Municipal Baths and Social Interaction in Thirteenth-Century Spain", in The American Historical Review, 84/3 (1979), 649-667 (Article)
Session 20: Preaching the Truth
Reading: Burns, R. I, "Christian-Muslim Confrontation: The Tirteenth-century Dream of Conversion", R. I. Burns, Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Crusadewr Kingdom of Valencia. Societies in Symbiosis, Cambridge 1984, 80-108 (Article)
Session 21: A Persecuting Society
Reading: Wolff, Ph., "The 1391 Pogrom in Spain: Social Crisis or Not?", in Past and Present, 50 (1971), 4-18 (Article)
Session 22: Conversion and Expulsion: the Conversos Reading: "The Expulsion of the Jews", Medieval Iberia.
Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, ed. O. R. Constable, Philadelphia 1997, 352-363 (Source)
Session 23: The Guardians of Purity: the Inquisition Reading: "Heresy and Inquisition", Medieval Iberia. Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources, ed. O. R. Constable, Philadelphia 1997, 330-337 (Source)
Session 24: Conversion and Expulsion: the Moriscos
Reading: Harvey, L.P., "The Moriscos and the Hajj", in Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies), Vol. 14, No. 1 (1987), 11-24 (Article) Session 25 Final exam
Required Readings
Anonymous. The Mirror of Coitus. A Translation and Eidtion of the Fifteenth-Century Speculum al foderi, ed.M.Solomon, Madison 1990 (Essay)
Recommended Readings
Ashtor, Eliyahu, The Jews of Muslim Spain. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1973-1984
Baer, Yitzhak, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1978
Bisson, Thomas N., The Medieval Crown of Aragon. A Short History, Oxford: Clarendon, 1986
Boswell, John, The Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977
Burns, Robert Ignatius, Muslims, Christian and Jews in the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia: Societies in Symbiosis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984
Cohen, Mark R., Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, Princeton: Princeton University Press 1994
Elliott, John Huxtable, Imperial Spain 1469-1716, Harmondsworth: Penguin 1990
Fletcher, Richard A., Moorish Spain. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993
Glick, Thomas F., Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997
Harvey, Leonard Patrick, Islamic Spain 1250-1500, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990
Harvey, Leonard Patrick, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005
Hillgarth, Jocelyn N., The Spanish Kingdoms 1250-1516, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976-1978
Kamen, Henry, Spain 1469-1714: A Society in Conflict, London: Longman, 1991
Kamen, Henry, The Spanish Inquisition: An Historical Revision, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997
The Legacy of Muslim Spain, ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992
Moore, Robert Ian, The Formation of a Persecuting Society, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987
Muslims under Latin Rule 1100-1300, ed. J. M. Powell, London: Thames and Hudson, 1992
Nirenberg, David, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998
Ruiz, Teofilo F., Spanish Society 1400-1600, London: Harlow, 2001
Spain and the Jews. The Sephardi Experience 1492 and After, ed. E. KEDOURIE, London: Thames and Hudson 1992
Waines, David, An Introduction to Islam, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995
Wasserstein, David, The Rise and Fall of the Party-Kings. Politics and Society in Islamic Spain 1002-1086, Princeton: Princenton University Press, 1985Wasserstein, David, The Caliphate in the West. An Islamic Political Institution in the Iberian Peninsula, Oxford: Clarendon 1993
26-05-2006
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