Defining Boundaries: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Islamic Iberia

FAIN: FA-50088-04

Janina M. Safran
Penn State (University Park, PA 16802-1503)

The project is to complete research for a book examining Muslim, Christian, and Jewish relations in Islamic Iberia from the 8th-11th centuries. This period encompassed political change as well as social and cultural transformation expressed in, and propelled by, acculturation to Arabic-Islamic language and norms, interfaith marriage, and conversion to Islam (and some conversion to Christianity). Based largely on contemporary Arabic chronicles, biographical dictionaries, and legal-religious texts, the book elucidates the dynamics of communal identity and differentiation in this context and demonstrates how political and religious authorities, and individuals and families, articulated, contested, and negotiated communal boundaries. The study will thus demonstrate how politics, society, culture and religion in Islamic Iberia were defined by competitive pluralism, providing a more vital understanding of the period and the processes of change, and investing with analytical meaning certain conventional representations such as "Islamic tolerance" and "convivencia".

Associated Products

Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Islamic Iberia (Book)
Title: Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Islamic Iberia
Author: Janina M. Safran
Abstract: Al-Andalus, the Arabic name for the medieval Islamic state in Iberia, endured for over 750 years following the Arab and Berber conquest of Hispania in 711. While the popular perception of al-Andalus is that of a land of religious tolerance and cultural cooperation, the fact is that we know relatively little about how Muslims governed Christians and Jews in al-Andalus and about social relations among Muslims, Christians, and Jews. In Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus, Janina M. Safran takes a close look at the structure and practice of Muslim political and legal-religious authority and offers a rare look at intercommunal life in Iberia during the first three centuries of Islamic rule. - from the publisher.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/defining-boundaries-in-al-andalus-muslims-christians-and-jews-in-islamic-iberia/oclc/835981062&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat entry
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780801468018
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Prizes

The Premio del Rey Prize for Spanish History and Culture CE 500-1516
Date: 10/22/2014
Organization: American Historical Association
Abstract: Biennial prize for a distinguished book in English in the field of early Spanish history.

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