HNRS-270 | Islamic Spain-Global

Full Title: Islamic Spain

Topic Description:

How did Islamic Spain transmit Classical and Arabic knowledge to medieval Europe, and did this “seed” the Renaissance? Is medieval Spain an example of religious tolerance we can use today? For over 700 years, Islamic peoples controlled parts of Spain. During Europe’s medieval period, Islamic Spain’s cities were glittering, sophisticated beacons of a world where Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived together, translated Europe’s lost Classical treasures back from Arabic into Latin, and introduced Europe to Arabic advances in science, math, agriculture, and the arts. Islamic Spain also fascinates our increasingly globalized world since it seems to be a rare example of coexistence among the world’s three principal monotheistic religions—what the Spanish call convivencia, “living together.” We will focus on two larger historiographical questions about Islamic Spain: its role in transmitting Arabic knowledge to Europe and the example it may—or may not—present of religious tolerance.

Counts as Global? No

Topic Approved: December 2015