Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval and Early Modern Spain: Interaction and Cultural Change

by Mark D. Meyerson (Editor), Edward D. English (Editor)

Overview

The essays in this interdisciplinary volume examine the social and cultural interaction of Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Spain during the medieval and early modern periods. Together, the essays provide a unique comparative perspective on compelling problems of ethnoreligious relations.

Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval and Early Modern Spain considers how certain social and political conditions fostered fruitful cultural interchange, while others promoted mutual hostility and aversion. The volume examines the factors that enabled one religious minority to maintain its cultural integrity and identity more effectively than another in the same sociopolitical setting.

This volume provides an enriched understanding of how Christians, Muslims, and Jews encountered ideological antagonism and negotiated the theological and social boundaries that separated them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268087265
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	08/31/2000
Series:	Notre Dame Conferences in Medieval Studies , #8
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Mark D. Meyerson is professor of history at the University of Toronto. He is the author of The Muslims of Valencia in the Age of Fernando and Isabel: Between Coexistence and Crusade (1991), Jews in An Iberian Frontier Kingdom (2004), and A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain (2004).

Edward D. English is executive director of the medieval studies program and adjunct associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Reading and Wisdom: The De Doctrina Christiana of Augustine in the Middle Ages (University of Notre Dame Press, 1995).

Mark D. Meyerson is Associate Professor of History and Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto and the author of The Muslims of Valencia in the Age of Fernando and Isabel: Between Coexistence and Crusade (1991).

Edward D. English is Visiting Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of Reading and Wisdom: The De Doctrina Christiana of Augustine in the Middle Ages (University of Notre Dame Press, 1995).

What People are Saying About This

Olivia Remie Constable

This important collection spans both the medieval and early modern period, illuminating the ongoing complexities and subtleties of relations between Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Spain from the ninth to the seventeenth centuries. These sixteen essays, together with an excellent introduction by the editors, go beyond easy definitions of convivencia and provide nuanced discussion of the historiography and issues raised by shifting ethnoreligious power structures, intellectual interaction, and social identity in the Iberian Peninsula.
— (Olivia Remie Constable, Associate Professor of History, University of Notre Dame)

Teofilo F. Ruiz

An insightful and innovative collection of articles, Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval and Early Modern Spain offers to scholars in the field and to the general reader some of the most exciting -methodologically as well as historical- perspectives on the interactions among different religious groups in Iberia. Many of the articles in this book build on the pioneer work on the last decade and advance our knowledge of these topics to new and exciting levels.
— (Teofilo F. Ruiz, Professor of History, UCLA)

Benjamin R. Gampel

An excellent collection of essays on the complex interactions between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in medieval and early modern Spain. This volume will further highlight the competitive and, at times, harmonious relations between the three religions in the Iberian Peninsula.
— (Benjamin R. Gampel, The Jewish Theological Seminary)

Editorial Reviews

"The fifteen papers published in this book with an introduction by Mark Meyerson and an epilogue by Jocelyn Hillgarth were originally presented at a conference held at the University of Notre Dame early in 1994. One of the objects was to cover as wide a period as possible in order to avoid 'artificial' boundaries such as the accession of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1474 or the fall of Granada, the expulsion of the Jews and the conquest of America in 1492. The subjects treated consequently range from the ninth to the seventeenth century." —Heythrop Journal

“This is an excellent book for scholars interested in . . . the interaction between different groups in medieval multicultural societies, particularly on the subtle issue of how identities and religion work and the images and attitudes that communities create for their own and others' consumption.” —Al-Masaq

“[A]ll the essays in this book make important contributions to their specific research fields. [D]elightful reading.” —The Sixteenth Century Journal

“The scholarship is impressive, and the volume as a whole makes it abundantly clear that the study of cultural interaction in the Iberian peninsula is thriving.” —Islam and Christian Muslim Relations

“These essays build on recent scholarship and this volume will be read with profit by a wide range of scholars in diverse fields of study.” —Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher