This is a research paper, rooted in the sources we have read in class, but with the option to do additional, external research. The first draft of this paper should be 6-8 pages and need not be entirely complete (i.e. you can note “add section about X here”). After receiving feedback on your draft, you will continue working on it and will submit it a final paper of 10 pages on May 15.
It’s a research paper based on your interests towards any of the topics related to Al-andalus and teachings we’ve done. 3 primary sources required.
For context of the work we’ve done in class, this is a description of the class: Al-Andalus, as Spain and Portugal were known in Arabic during their period of Muslim rule
from 711-1492, was one of the longest-lasting sites of encounter between medieval Jews,
Christians and Muslims. This class focuses on the cultural history of this encounter. We will
consider medieval written sources, including chronicles, poetry, treaties and diplomatic
documents. Alongside these texts, we will examine objects including ivories, metalwork,
ceramics, and silks, as well as architecture including synagogues, mosques, churches and
palaces. Oftentimes, political and religious texts deal with religious difference polemically, even
as poetry and material culture betray a fascination with the artist or patron’s ostensible enemies.
Our discussion will focus particularly on the different perspectives written and material sources
provide, and will analyze how scholars have addressed these challenges. We will also examine
the people, ideas, goods and technologies that successively transformed al-Andalus and its
neighbors, and will discuss to what extent al-Andalus should be seen as exceptional, in the
context of Europe and of the broader Islamic world.
We begin the class with the end of the Visigothic period and the arrival of the first Muslim
armies on the Peninsula in 711, and end with the aftermath of the expulsion of the Jews and the
conquest of Nasrid Granada in 1492. Our discussion will focus on close analysis of texts, objects
and spaces ranging from apocalyptic Beatus manuscripts produced by Mozarab Christians under
Islamic rule to the new bilingual poetic forms produced under the Berber Almohad regime. We
will also read sources produced by historians, art historians and scholars of literature and
critically analyze their arguments. We close the course with a discussion of the ways in which al-
Andalus has been understood and deployed in the modern period, by figures from Newt Gingrich
to the Madrid bombers.Al-Andalus, as Spain and Portugal were known in Arabic during their period of Muslim rule
from 711-1492, was one of the longest-lasting sites of encounter between medieval Jews,
Christians and Muslims. This class focuses on the cultural history of this encounter. We will
consider medieval written sources, including chronicles, poetry, treaties and diplomatic
documents. Alongside these texts, we will examine objects including ivories, metalwork,
ceramics, and silks, as well as architecture including synagogues, mosques, churches and
palaces. Oftentimes, political and religious texts deal with religious difference polemically, even
as poetry and material culture betray a fascination with the artist or patron’s ostensible enemies.
Our discussion will focus particularly on the different perspectives written and material sources
provide, and will analyze how scholars have addressed these challenges. We will also examine
the people, ideas, goods and technologies that successively transformed al-Andalus and its
neighbors, and will discuss to what extent al-Andalus should be seen as exceptional, in the
context of Europe and of the broader Islamic world.
We begin the class with the end of the Visigothic period and the arrival of the first Muslim
armies on the Peninsula in 711, and end with the aftermath of the expulsion of the Jews and the
conquest of Nasrid Granada in 1492. Our discussion will focus on close analysis of texts, objects
and spaces ranging from apocalyptic Beatus manuscripts produced by Mozarab Christians under
Islamic rule to the new bilingual poetic forms produced under the Berber Almohad regime. We
will also read sources produced by historians, art historians and scholars of literature and
critically analyze their arguments. We close the course with a discussion of the ways in which al-
Andalus has been understood and deployed in the modern period, by figures from Newt Gingrich
to the Madrid bombers.
from 711-1492, was one of the longest-lasting sites of encounter between medieval Jews,
Christians and Muslims. This class focuses on the cultural history of this encounter. We will
consider medieval written sources, including chronicles, poetry, treaties and diplomatic
documents. Alongside these texts, we will examine objects including ivories, metalwork,
ceramics, and silks, as well as architecture including synagogues, mosques, churches and
palaces. Oftentimes, political and religious texts deal with religious difference polemically, even
as poetry and material culture betray a fascination with the artist or patron’s ostensible enemies.
Our discussion will focus particularly on the different perspectives written and material sources
provide, and will analyze how scholars have addressed these challenges. We will also examine
the people, ideas, goods and technologies that successively transformed al-Andalus and its
neighbors, and will discuss to what extent al-Andalus should be seen as exceptional, in the
context of Europe and of the broader Islamic world.
We begin the class with the end of the Visigothic period and the arrival of the first Muslim
armies on the Peninsula in 711, and end with the aftermath of the expulsion of the Jews and the
conquest of Nasrid Granada in 1492. Our discussion will focus on close analysis of texts, objects
and spaces ranging from apocalyptic Beatus manuscripts produced by Mozarab Christians under
Islamic rule to the new bilingual poetic forms produced under the Berber Almohad regime. We
will also read sources produced by historians, art historians and scholars of literature and
critically analyze their arguments. We close the course with a discussion of the ways in which al-
Andalus has been understood and deployed in the modern period, by figures from Newt Gingrich
to the Madrid bombers.Al-Andalus, as Spain and Portugal were known in Arabic during their period of Muslim rule
from 711-1492, was one of the longest-lasting sites of encounter between medieval Jews,
Christians and Muslims. This class focuses on the cultural history of this encounter. We will
consider medieval written sources, including chronicles, poetry, treaties and diplomatic
documents. Alongside these texts, we will examine objects including ivories, metalwork,
ceramics, and silks, as well as architecture including synagogues, mosques, churches and
palaces. Oftentimes, political and religious texts deal with religious difference polemically, even
as poetry and material culture betray a fascination with the artist or patron’s ostensible enemies.
Our discussion will focus particularly on the different perspectives written and material sources
provide, and will analyze how scholars have addressed these challenges. We will also examine
the people, ideas, goods and technologies that successively transformed al-Andalus and its
neighbors, and will discuss to what extent al-Andalus should be seen as exceptional, in the
context of Europe and of the broader Islamic world.
We begin the class with the end of the Visigothic period and the arrival of the first Muslim
armies on the Peninsula in 711, and end with the aftermath of the expulsion of the Jews and the
conquest of Nasrid Granada in 1492. Our discussion will focus on close analysis of texts, objects
and spaces ranging from apocalyptic Beatus manuscripts produced by Mozarab Christians under
Islamic rule to the new bilingual poetic forms produced under the Berber Almohad regime. We
will also read sources produced by historians, art historians and scholars of literature and
critically analyze their arguments. We close the course with a discussion of the ways in which al-
Andalus has been understood and deployed in the modern period, by figures from Newt Gingrich
to the Madrid bombers.
I will also include readings we’ve done.