S1013 A Unique Multiethnic Society: Medieval Spain

The collective presence of Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Iberian Peninsula is very nearly a unique phenomenon in medieval European history. Only thirteenth-century Sicily can claim a similar mélange, but its tricultural society falls short of its Iberian counterpart in both intensity and permanence. Given that Jews, Muslims, and Christians shared Iberian soil for nearly seven centuries \'—Jewish-Christian relations go back even further, at least to the third century C.E. – it is not surprising to discover that each group sought to portray the other two in accordance with its own religious traditions and in response to contemporary political demands.\r\n

Because literature both reflects and determines our perception of reality, it has often been pressed into dual service as witness and as propagandist. Literary depictions, whether of individuals or of groups, often reveal stereotypes, which in turn derive from myriad historical and cultural circumstances. Medieval polemicists, for instance, employed any means at their disposal to combat their opponents\' errors, at the same time that they sought to fortify their coreligionists\' faith. In these verbal conflicts, the most disparaging, uninformed, and one-sided depictions were considered legitimate means of exposing the foolishness of the enemy\'s beliefs and the intrinsic malevolence of his character.

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Medieval Jewish, Muslim, and Christian authors bequeathed to later generations a rich legacy of reciprocal literary portrayals. Christians, for example, generally depicted Jews as their inveterate theological enemies, while they often cast Muslims as a military menace. The Jewish-Christian conflict harks back to early rivalries between the two religions, which were already bitter at the time of the Council of Elvira (ca. 300), and became ever more acute as Christianity sought to extend its religious and political hegemony. With regard to Muslim-Christian relations, Christians viewed the invasion in 711 under T?riq ibn Ziy?d as both a religious and a military threat; as a result, the reconquista often assumed the guise of a crusade to extirpate the Muslims. For nearly seven centuries Iberian Christians strove to consolidate their authority over the Muslims—their military adversary—and the Jews—their theological foe—and the literature they composed during this time bears witness to their attitudes and their efforts.

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Teaching and evaluation methods

\r\nThe class will be conducted along the lines of an interactive seminar designed to foster cooperation and shared learning. Students will be expected to prepare their readings for discussion, and the professor will initiate each discussion by asking a series of questions related to both the specific and general topics of the class. Occasionally, students will be asked to prepare questions in writing ahead of time. Each student will be expected to lead one class discussion, although this can also occur by forming a team of two.