2015-2016 academic year
PENINSULAR KINGDOMS IN THE MIDDLE AGES (22249)
Degree: Bachelor in Humanities
Course: third and fourth course
Trimester: Third trimester
Number of credits ECTS: 5 credits
Hours of study: 125 hours
Language or languages of instruction: English
Professor: Linda G. Jones
Class time: TO BE ANNOUNCED (TBA) Room: TBA
Office hours: TBA Edifici Jaume I, rm. 20.267
Email: [email protected]
1. Course Description
This course has two main objectives. First of all, it intends to study the social, cultural, intellectual, and political history of the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages from the perspective of the three monotheistic communities that inhabited and interacted with each other in the territory. The period covered will stem from the Visigothic kingdoms in the fifth century through to the final expulsion of the Jews in 1492 and the Moriscos from the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal in the early sixteenth century. However the course is not intended to provide a linear history of the peninsular kingdoms but rather to explore the characteristics that made the Iberian Muslim and Christian kingdoms "frontier societies" whose multiculturalism and religious pluralism were virtually unprecedented in medieval Europe. Students will do close readings of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim primary sources in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the dynamics and the complexities of the interactions among these communities and to understand how and why their interactions changed over the centuries, culminating in the expulsions of the Jews and the Moriscos. The second course objective will be to compare, critique, and debate the diverse scholarly positions on topics that have greatly influenced the historiography of the Iberian Kingdoms, especially the concepts of the "reconquista" and "convivencia" among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, as well as the more recent attempts to suggest alternative models to explain the nature of the relations among the three monotheistic communities, such as "coexistence" or the so-called "conveniencia or convenience principle."
2. Course objectives
2.1. General skills
The ability to think historically
The ability to analyze and synthesize primary historical texts and to relate them to their historical and social context
Oral and written communication skills according to academic criteria
The ability to undertake research using academic historical methods
The skills required to work autonomously and in a group
The ability to appreciate and normalize the cultural diversity of human beings throughout history
2.2. Specific objectives and skills
The ability to identify and critique the diverse scholarly positions regarding theories, such as "convivencia," which have conditioned the historiography of the Iberian kingdoms
Acquire and improve the skills of textual commentary; the ability to interpret and analyze Jewish and Muslim as well as Christian primary source texts
The capacity to articulate and discuss the specific themes discussed during the course
3. Program of study and readings *
* [Most of the readings will be posted on Moodle (Aula Global). Some may also be accessible online through the Internet. The schedule of the reading assignments will be posted on Moodle. Readings designated as "texts" are primary historical sources. The professor preserves the right to make any necessary changes in the program.]
Program
Session 1: Introduction to the course. The historiography of medieval Iberia:
"convivencia," "coexistencia," or "conveniencia"?
Session 2: The Visigoth kingdoms. Competing Christianities; the Jews and the Visigoths (6th to 8th centuries)
Session 3: Overview of the history of Islam and the Islamic Expansion in the Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula; Christian reactions
Session 4: "The Ornament of the world." The making of al-Andalus: Arabization and Islamization. The Umayyads of Cordoba (756 to 1031)
Session 5: Religious and ethnic minorities in al-Andalus: Convivencia and its limits.
Session 6: Seminar 1: Debating Convivencia: The "Golden Age" of Sephardic Jewry. The Mozarabs and Mozarabism. The Cordoban martyrs' movement
Session 7: Christian Iberia. The first centers of resistance: Asturias, León, Pamplona, Aragon, Cataluña. The frontier and the expansion of the Christian kingdoms
Session 8: The fall of the Umayyad caliphate, the emergence of the Taifa Kingdoms. The Almoravids and the Almohads
Session 9: Religion, politics, and society in Christian Iberia. The Cluniac movement. The
pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela; Santiago "Matamoros"
Session 10 Seminar 2: The "Reconquista" and the Iberian Crusades: Military, political, and cultural aspects
Session 11: The Kingdom of Castile-León in the aftermath of the conquests of Fernando III; Alfonso X of Castile and the Schools of Translation of Toledo (13th c)
Session 12: The Crown of Aragon in the aftermath of the conquests of Jaume I of Aragon; Cultural and political developments
Session 13: Dominicans, the Franciscans, and the Thirteenth-Century Dream of Conversion.
Muslim and Jewish responses. The Barcelona Disputation of 1263
Session 14: Morerías and juderías: Mudejar and Jewish minorities in the Christian
kingdoms
Session 15: Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Women in Medieval Iberia
Session 16: The kingdom of Nasrid Granada. Religion, society, and culture; relations with the Christian kingdoms
Session 17: The Catholic Monarchs and the new Hispanic Kingdom. The Inquisition
Session 18: The Fall of Granada; the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal; the voyages of Christopher Columbus
Session 19: The end of convivencia? Review for final examination
4. Grade distribution. In order to pass the course students must obtain at least 5 out of 10 points in the global grade:
4. 1. Attendance and active participation (10%)
Students are expected to attend class regularly and to carefully do all the assigned readings BEFORE class. Attendance will be taken on a regular basis and students who are absent from five classes will received a failed grade for attendance. Each class will consist of formal lectures as well as group discussions of the assigned readings and students should be prepared to lead the discussion of the text and to answer questions.
4.2. Seminars (40%) There will be two seminar sessions. Attendance and active participation in both seminars are required. In each seminar we will discuss various assigned readings, which will be posted on Moodle (Aula Global). Students must read all the assigned texts beforehand, bring them to class, and be prepared to discuss, ask, or respond to questions, and to critique the texts in class.
The grade for each seminar will be based on the sum of the grade for the student's oral presentation (non-recoverable) and a written assignment, making a total of two written exercises. Detailed instructions will be posted on Moodle. The typed papers must be handed in to me in class exactly one week after the seminar. Papers sent by email will NOT be accepted. Late papers and papers of students who failed to attend the seminar will be severely penalized.
4.3. Book / article / exhibition review (20%) A review of a scholarly book, journal article, fiction novel, or museum exhibition treating one of the themes of the course. Specific instructions will be posted on Moodle.
4.4. ** CHOOSE ONLY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING ASSIGNMENTS **
[No extra credit will be received for doing both]
4.4.a Research paper using primary source text analysis (30%)
The essay will be based on your analysis of a primary source text of your choice, which reflects some aspect of Jewish, Christian, and/or Muslim relations in the Iberian kingdoms. The paper should put forward a coherent argument about the relations between religious communities, and the evidence from your primary source text should be used to support your argument. Specific instructions will be posted on Moodle.
OR
4.4.b. Final take-home examination (30%) will be composed of questions directly related to the class lectures and to the readings and the digital and audiovisual resources assigned for each lecture and seminar. Specific instructions and the due date will be announced in class and posted on Moodle.
Correct grammar and spelling (in English, Catalan, or Spanish) will be taken into consideration in the evaluation of all written assignments.
4.5. Make-up policy. The make-up ("recuperació") of the course will take place during the month of July and will be available only to those students who have failed part or the entirety of the course. Obligatory assignments that were not completed and handed in during the regular session will receive a grade of "No presentat" and will NOT be recoverable. Students will be allowed to recover only those obligatory works for which they received a failed grade. Students are not allowed to use the make-up option in order to improve a passed grade already received.
The make-up of the book, journal, or museum exhibition review and of the final examination will follow similar criteria to those during the ordinary session. The oral presentation portion of the seminar grade and the attendance and participation grade are not recoverable.
5. Bibliography and Digital Resources
In addition to the dossier, digitalized texts and audiovisual resources will be posted on the course website (accessible through the "Aula Global") with the denomination "Obligatory Reading" or "Obligatory Viewing" for each session of class. Students are expected to do the assigned reading or viewing activities before coming to class. Recommended readings and study resources will also be available on Moodle. The complete schedule of readings and activities assigned for each session will be posted on Moodle (Aula Global).
5.1 Basic Working Bibliography
I. Primary source texts (selected)
Alfonso X, Rey de Castilla (1221-1284), Cantigas de Santa María (Electronic resource: Santa Fe: El Cid Editor, 2004)
The Oxford Cantigas de Santa Maria Database: http://csm.mml.ox.ac.uk/index.php?p=bib_list&order=date&dir=DESC
Alfonso X Rey de Castilla (1221-1284), Las siete partidas (Electronic resource: Santa Fe: El Cid Editor, 2004)
Anonymous, Romance of Abenamar. Trans. Robert Soulkev. In Hispanic Anthology: Poems Translated from the Spanish by English and North American Poets, collected and arranged by Thomas Walsh (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1920)
Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain. Translated with notes and introduction by Kenneth Baxter Wolf (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999)
The Chronicle of Alfonso the Emperor. Translation of the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris, with study and notes by Glenn E. Lipskey. Ph.D. Dissertation (Evanston IL: Northwestern University, 1972)
The Chronicle of James I of Aragon. Translation of the Libre dels feyts esdevenguts en la vida del molt alt senyor En Jacme, lo Conqueridor with index and notes, trans. John Forster. Available online at the Library of Iberian Resources: http://libro.uca.edu/chronicleofjames/chronicle.htm
Ibn Amira al-Makhzumi, Kitab Ta'rikh Mayurqa. Crònica àrab de la Conquesta de Mallorca. Ed. Muhammad Ben Ma'mar, trans. N. Roser Nebot and G. Rosselló Bordoy (Palma: Universitat de les Illes Baleares, 2008)
Ibn al-Khatib, Foco de antigua luz sobre La Alhambra. Desde un texto de Ibn al-Jatib en 1362, study and transl. by Emilio Garcia Gómez (Madrid: Instituto Egipcio de Estudios Islámicos, 1988)
Ibn al-Jatib, Historia de los reyes de la Alhambra (Al-Lamha al-badriyya. Resplandor de la luna llena acerca de la dinastía nazarí, ed. and trans. Emilio Molina López (Granada: Escuela de Estudios Árabes, 2011)
Ibn Tufayl, Muhammad, Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzan: A Philosophical Tale. Trans., intro. and notes by L. E. Goodman (Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2009)
Lagardère, Vincent, Histoire et société en Occident musulman au Moyen Âge: Analyse du Mi'yār d'al-Wanšarīsī (Madrid: CSIC, 1995)
Llull, Ramón, Blanquerna. Edition by Albert Soler (Barcelona: Barcino, 1995)
al-Makkari, Ahmed ibn Mohammed, The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain (London: Royal Asiatic Society Books, 2002)
Martorell, Joanot and Marti Johan d'Galba, The White Knight: Tirant lo Blanc. Trans. by Robert S. Rudder (The Project Gutenberg eBook, 2012) http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/378/pg378.html
Poema del mio Cid / The Lay of the Cid. (English translation online at: http://omacl.org/Cid/cantarI.html )
Ramon Muntaner, Chronicle. Trans. by Lady Goodenough (Cambridge, Ontario: Parenthesis Publications, 2000)
Remie Constable, Olivia, ed. Medieval Iberia. Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources (Philadelphia, 1997)
Sánchez-Albornoz, Claudio, La España musulmana: según los autores islamitas y cristianos, 2 vols. (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1973)
The Usatges of Barcelona: The Fundamental Law of Catalonia. Trans. and intro. by Donald J. Kagay (Print Edition: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994)
The Visigothic Code (Forum iudicum). Ed. and trans. by S.P. Scott (Print edition: Boston Book Company, 1910)
de Zurita, Jerónimo, Anales de Aragón, vol. 1 (Zaragoza: Institución "Fernando el Católico", CSIC, 1967)
Various primary source texts are available on Internet websites:
The Medieval Sourcebook at Fordham University
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.asp
The Library of Iberian Sources
II. Secondary sources
* The principal textbooks for the class will be Stanley G. Payne, A History of Spain and Portugal, 2 vols., vol. 1 (Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin, 1973) and Anwar Chejne, Muslim Spain: Its History and Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1974) Payne's book is available online at The Library of Iberian Resources Online: http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/spainport1.htm
The English version as well as the Spanish translation of Chejna's work, Historia de España musulmana (Madrid: Catedra, 1980) will be available on reserve in UPF Ciutadella library. The reading assignments will be indicated on the Aula Global.
Additional sources for reading or consultation:
Arié, Rachel, L'Espagne musulmane au Temps des Nasrides (1232-1492), 2nd ed. (Paris: De Boccard, rpt., 1990)
Arié, Rachel, Historia y cultura de la Granada nazarí (Granada: Universidad de Granada, 2004)
Barkai, Ron, El enemigo en el espejo. Cristianos y musulmanes en la España medieval (Madrid: Ediciones Rialp, 1984, rpt., 2007)
Barrios, M. and García-Arenal, M. (eds.), Los Plomos del Sacromonte: invención y tesoro (Valencia: Universidad de Valencia et al, 2006)
Baxter Wolf, Kenneth, "Convivencia in Medieval Spain: A Brief History of an Idea," Religion Compass 3, no. 1 (2009): 72-85
Beinart, Haim, The Sephardi Legacy, 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magness Press, 1992)
Bishko, Charles Julian, Studies in Medieval Spanish Frontier History (London: Variorium Reprints, 1980)
Boswell, John, The Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century (London: Yale University Press, 1977)
Brodman, James W. Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain: The Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic Frontier (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986)
Castro, Américo, España en su historia: cristianos, moros y judíos (Barcelona: Grijalbo Mondadori, 1996, rpt., 2001)
Catlos, Brian A., "Contexto y conveniencia en la Corona de Aragón. Propuesta de un modelo de interacción entre grupos etno-religiosos minoritarios y mayoritarios," Revista d'Historia Medieval 12 , pp. 259-268
Chazan, Robert, "The Barcelona 'Disputation' of 1263: Christian Missionizing and Jewish Response," Speculum 52, no. 4 (Oct., 1977): 824-842
Christys, Ann, Christians in al-Andalus, 700-1000 (London; Surrey: Curzon Press, 2002)
Dillard, Heath, Daughters of the Reconquest: Women in Castilian Town Society, 1100-1300 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984)
Fletcher, Richard A., Saint James's Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmírez of Santiago de Compostela (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984)
Fletcher, Richard A., The Quest for El Cid (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989)
Fromerz, Allen, "North Africa and the Twelfth-century Renaissance: Christian Europe and the Almohad Islamic Empire," Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 20, no. 1 (January 2009): 43-59
García-Arenal, Mercedes, "Religious Dissent and Minorities: The Morisco Age," The Journal of Modern History 88 (2009): 887-920
García de Cortázar, F., Atlas de Historia de España (Barcelona: Planeta, 2005)
García Fitz, Francisco, "La Reconquista: un estado de la cuestión," Clio & Crimen 6 (2009): 142-215 (Aula Global)
García Sanjuán, Alejandro, La conquista islámica de la Península Ibérica y la tergiversación del pasado. Del catastrofismo al negacionismo (Madrid: Marcia Pons Historia, 2013)
Glick, Thomas, Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages (Princeton, 1979; rpt. Leiden: Brill, 2005)
Glick, Thomas F. and Oriol Pi-Sunyer, "Acculturation as an Explanatory Concept in Spanish History," Comparative Studies in Society and History 11, no. 2 (April, 1969): 136-154
Haliczer, Stephen, "The Castilian Urban Patriciate and the Jewish Expulsions of 1480-92," American Historical Review 78 (1973): 35-58
Harvey, L. P., Islamic Spain, 1250 to 1500 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990)
Historia de España dirigido por Ramón Menéndez Pidal (various editors) Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 1908-2001)
Manzano Moreno, Eduardo, "¿Realmente invadieron los árabes Hispania?" http://blogs.elpais.com/historias/2014/02/invasionhispania.html
Maravall Casesnoves, José Antonio, El concepto de España en la Edad Media (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, 1997)
Marcus, Jacob. The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, 315-1791 (New York: Union of American Congregrians, 1938)
Nirenberg, David. Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996 )
Nirenberg, David, "What Can Medieval Spain Teach Us about Jewish-Muslim Relations?" CCAR Journal: A Reform Jewish Quarterly (Summer, 2002): 17-36
Powers, James F. A Society Organized for War: The Iberian Municipal Militias in the Central Middle Ages, 1000-1284 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988)
Raphael, David (ed.), The Expulsion of 1492 Chronicles: An Anthology of Medieval Chronicles Relating to the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal (North Hollywood, California: Carmi House Press, 1992)
Ray, Jonathan. "Whose Golden Age? Some Thoughts on Jewish-Christian Relations in Medieval Iberia," Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations 6 (2011): 1-11
Ray, Jonathan. The Jew in Medieval Iberia: 1100-1500 (Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2011)
Ray, Jonathan. The Sephardic Frontier: The Reconquista and the Jewish Community in Medieval Iberia (Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 2006)
Safran, Janina M. The Second Umayyad Caliphate. The Articulation of Caliphal Legitimacy in al-Andalus (Cambridge: Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs, 2000)
Soifer, Maya, "Beyond Convivencia: Critical Reflections on the Historiography of Interfaith
Relations in Christian Spain," Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies,1:1 (2009):19- 35 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17546550802700335
Soyer, Francis, Persecution of the Jews and Muslims of Portugal; King Manuel I and the End of Religious Tolerance (1496-7) (Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2007)
Viguera, María J. (ed.), La mujer en al-Andalus. Reflejos de su actividad y categorías sociales (Madrid and Sevilla, 1989)
Vose, Robin, Dominicans, Muslims and Jews in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Wasserstein, David, The Rise and Fall of the Party Kingdoms: Politics and Society in Islamic Spain (1002-1086) (Princeton: University of Princeton, 1985)
Useful Internet Resources
http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/spain.html
http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Medieval_Spain
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.asp
Ballandalus https://ballandalus.wordpress.com/
David A. Wacks, "Research and Teaching on Medieval Iberian and Sephardic Culture" http://davidwacks.uoregon.edu/
The Medieval Jewish Resource Directory:
http://jewishhistory.huji.ac.il/internetresources/historyresources/medieval.htm
Vauchez, André, ed. Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. Available online through the UPF library. http://www.oxford-middleages.com/ LOGIN?sessionid=9dfdb60dc31b63861d63534a24738cb6&authstatuscode=400
6. Methodology
The course is designed in the form of lectures and seminars, which students are required to attend. Attendance and active participation in class and especially in the seminars is necessary in order to acquire the knowledge and the skills described above and to receive full credit for the course (see "Grade distribution").
7. Schedule of activities
The complete schedule of readings and activities assigned for each session will be posted on Moodle (Aula Global).