Mini-Courses

Winter Minicourse 2012

Peaceful Coexistence?

Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Medieval Spain

With Dr. Heather Miller Rubens

What can we learn from medieval Spain? In this course we will examine the history of religious pluralism in medieval Spain, and investigate the concept of “coexistence” popularized in contemporary discussions of this so-called golden age of religious toleration. The scholarly world has long been wrestling with how to characterize the interactions of Jews, Christians and Muslims living under Muslim rule (c. 711-1492): Did the three religious communities live in harmony? Or did violence and inequality shape their interactions?

In four session meetings we will examine primary texts (in translation) documenting a few of the important encounters between the three religious communities, as well as take up the contemporary question: How does our understanding of the history of Medieval Spanish coexistence both support and/or challenge our contemporary efforts at Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue?

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