The Medieval Spains: Antiquity to the New World



The Medieval Spains: Antiquity to the New World

Spring 2008 -- Jeff Bowman -- HIST xxx

Of all the lands from the west to the Indies, you, Spain, O sacred and always fortunate mother of princes and peoples, are the most beautiful. Rightly are you now the queen of all provinces, from which not only the west but also the east borrows its shining lights. You are the pride and ornament of the world, the more illustrious part of the earth . . .

-- Isidore of Seville, c. 560-636.

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This course traces the history of the Iberian peninsula during the Middle Ages. The history of medieval Spain differed dramatically from the rest of Europe. For over 700 years, the peninsula was divided between Muslim and Christian rule. During different periods, large numbers of Christians lived under Muslim rule, and large number of Muslims under Christian rule. Most major cities also had long-established Jewish communities. As a result of multiple superimposed migrations and invasions, Spain was the most ethnically and religiously diverse part of Europe. The interaction between these different groups ranged from fruitful cooperation and tolerance, on the one hand, to virulent persecution, on the other. This course explores the rich, but volatile, relations between different ethnic and religious groups while placing Spain’s history in the context of its relations with other regions. To understand the dynamic, and sometimes, violent societies of medieval Spain, one must appreciate the shifting patterns of economic, political, and cultural ties which linked the peninsula to Europe, north Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Americas.

Course Requirements

One historiographic paper (5-7 pages) 20%

One primary source analysis (5-7 pages) 20%

One research paper and in-class presentation

20-25 pages, due December 11 40 %

Your research paper is not due until the end of the semester. But throughout the term, you will be responsible for preparing a number of preliminary exercises and assignments related to your final paper. These exercises will help you find a topic, identify relevant primary sources, assess those sources critically, formulate a historical argument, and pursue that argument persuasively and elegantly. These assignments (noted on the syllabus below) will be handed in with your final paper. Your timely, thorough, and engaged completion of preparatory assignments will be considered in grading the final paper.

Paricipation 20%

Attendance is mandatory. After two unexcused absences, a student’s grade will drop rapidly and irrevocably. Students must have completed the assigned readings by class time. Energetic, frequent, and thoughtful participation in discussion is a vital element of this seminar and constitutes a significant portion of your grade.

Weekly Readings Assignments

September 2: Introduction

September 9: Visigothic Spain

O’Callaghan, A History of Medieval Spain, 17-88

Constable, Medieval Iberia, nos. 1-5

A. T. Fear, Lives of Visigothic Fathers

Jocelyn Hillgarth, “Ireland and Spain in the Seventh Century”

P. D. King, Law and Society in Visigothic Spain

Santiago Castellanos, La Vita Sancti Aemiliani de Braulio

September 16: The Coming of Islam

O’Callaghan, A History of Medieval Spain, 89-190

Constable, Medieval Iberia, nos. 6-8

Thomas Glick, “Convivencia: An Introductory Note,” in Convivencia

K. B. Wolf, Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain

September 23: The Caliphate of Córdoba

Thomas Glick, Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages

Constable, Medieval Iberia, nos. 9-16.

Raguel, “The Martyrdom of Saint Pelagius”

E. Lévi-Provençal, L’Espagne musulmane aux X siècle

Jessica Coope, “Religious and Cultural Conversion to Islam in Ninth-century Córdoba”

September 30: Almohads, Almoravids, and Christian Kingdoms

O’Callaghan, A History of Medieval Spain, 191-305.

David Wassertein, The Rise and Fall of the Party Kings

Constable, Medieval Iberia, nos. 18, 19, 32-35, 37

Jessica Coope, “Religious and Cultural Conversion to Islam in Ninth-century Córdoba”

*** 5-page paper due ***

October 7: The Cid

O’Callaghan, A History of Medieval Spain, 331-57.

The Poem of the Cid

J. Duggan, The ‘Cantar de mio Cid’: Poetic Creation in its Economic and Social Contexts

R. Menéndez Pidal, La España del Cid

Dwayne Carpenter, “Social Perception and Literary Portrayal,” in Convivencia

October 14: The Reconquista

O’Callaghan, A History of Medieval Spain, 358-381.

Constable, Medieval Iberia, nos. 22, 25-31, 38-42.

Julie A. Harris, “Mosque to Church Conversions in the Spanish Reconquest”

James F. Powers, A Society Organized for War: The Iberian Municipal Militias

October 21: Sefarad

Constable, Medieval Iberia, nos. 17, 24, 36, 47

Benjamin Gampel, “Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Medieval Iberia”

Raymond P. Scheindlin, “Hebrew Poetry in Medieval Iberia”

Thomas Glick, “Science in Medieval Spain: The Jewish Contribution . . .”

From S. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society

From Y. Baer, A History of the Jews of Christian Spain

From E. Ashtor, The Jews of Moslem Spain

*** One-paragraph paper topic due ***

October 28: Christian Rule I

Joseph O’Callaghan, The Cortes of Castille León, 1188-1350

The Usatges of Barcelona

T. Bisson, Tormented Voices: Power, Crisis and Humanity in Rural Catalonia, 1140-1200

Ramon Abadal i Vinyals, Del Visigots als Catalans

November 4: Christian Rule II

O’Callaghan, A History of Medieval Spain, 382-521-548, and read either c. 23, 24, or 25

Robert I. Burns, The Crusader Kingdom of Valencia

Constable, Medieval Iberia, nos. 49-55.

Mark Meyerson, “Slavery and Social Order”

*** One-page paper proposal due (5 copies) ***

November 11: Al-Andalus in the Later Middle Ages

Constable, Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain

Jerrilyn Dodds, “Mudejar Tradition and the Synagogues of Medieval Spain,” in Convivencia

Hugh Kennedy, Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus

*** Introductory paragraph of final paper due (5 copies) ***

November 18: Disputation and Violence

Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages

Constable, Medieval Iberia, no. 59, 60

Philippe Wolff, “The 1391 Pogrom in Spain: Social Crisis or Not”

Doctor Illuminatus: A Ramon Llull Reader

Video, The Disputation

December 2: 1492, Muslim Granada and the Expulsion of the Jews

O’Callaghan, A History of Medieval Spain, 655-76.

Constable, Medieval Iberia, nos. 56-59, 61-65.

Henry Kamen, “The Mediterranean and the Expulsion of Spanish Jews in 1492”

Américo Castro, España en su historia

*** Research Presentations ***

December 9: The New World

Las Casas, Destruction of the Indies

The Laws of Burgos

From Bernal Diaz, The Conquest of New Spain

Todorov, The Conquest of America

Patricia Seed, Ceremonies of Possession

Additional Bibliographic Help

Europe in the Middle Ages

The Dictionary of the Middle Ages

The Cambridge History of Medieval Europe

Sidney Painter and Brian Tierney, Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 300-1475

Edward Peters, Europe and the Middle Ages

Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conqest, Colonization, and Cultural Change, 950-1350

Spain in the Middle Ages

Roger Collins, Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 400-1000

Bernard Reilly, The Medieval Spains

Angus MacKay, Spain in the Middle Ages: From Frontier to Empire, 1000-1500.

Jocelyn Hillgarth, The Spanish Kingdoms

Thomas Glick, Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages

P. H. Harvey, Muslim Spain, 1250-1500

A Concise History of Portugal

Jews in Medieval Spain

Schlomo Goitein, A Mediterranean Society

From Iberia to Diaspora: Studies in Sephardic History and Culture

Jane Gerber, The Jews of Spain

Yom Tov Assis, The Golden Age of Aragonese Jewry

Linder, Jews in the Legal Sources of the Early Middle Ages

Islam and al-Andalus

John Boswell, The Royal Treasure

Salma Khadra Jayyusi, ed., The Legacy of Muslim Spain

David Wasserstein, The Taifa Kingdoms

Kenneth Baxter Wolf, The Martyrs of Cordoba

Montgomery Watt, A History of Islamic Spain

James M. Powell, ed., Muslims Under Latin Rule, 1100-1300

Literature

Maria Rosa Menocal, The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History

Raymond Scheindlin, Wine, Women, and Death: Medieval Hebrew Poems on the Good Life

Ross Brann, The Compunctious Poet : Cultural Ambiguity and Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain

James Monroe, Hispano-Arabic Poetry: A Student Anthology

The Poem of Fernan Gonzalez

Libro de Buen Amor

A Few Sources in Translation

Norman Stillman, ed., The Jews of Arab Lands

The Conquest of Lisbon

Christians and Moors in Spain, 3 volumes

The Chronicle of San Juan de la Pena

Hyam Maccoby, ed., Judaism on Trial : Jewish-Christian Disputations in the Middle Ages

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