The European history of Islam
Primary Sources
Constable, Olivia Remie, Medieval Iberia, Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources (Philadelphia, 1997), 39, The Christian Conquest of Seville, 2 accounts, pp. 217-222.
Task
Come with an example of something (architecture / art) that represents the European history of Islam
Core readings
Kennedy, H., Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus (Routledge, 1966), Chapter II, The Nasrids of Granada’, pp. 273-304. (Course Extracts).
Safran, Janinina, Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus, Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Islamic Iberia (Cornell, 2015), Introduction, pp. 1-34. (Course Extract).
Further readings
Heather Ecker, Caliphs and Kings: The Art of Islamic Spain (Washington, 2004).
Boone, James L., Richard Hodges, Lost Civilization: The Contested Islamic Past in Spain and Portugal (Bloomsbury, 2013).
Key Questions
• When does Islam arrive in Europe? When does it end?
• In what ways has the history of Spain been influenced by the history of Islam (think of language, culture, ideas, architecture, art, law)
- How did people experience the transition of power from the Muslims to the Christians?
- How were spaces transformed? Legally, physically, religiously?
- What roles did space play?
- What kind of boundaries are discussed in the Safran article?
Historiographical theme: landscapes