The Christianization of Islamic Landscapes in Premodern Europe

FAIN: FEL-262743-19

Thomas W. Barton
University of San Diego (San Diego, CA 92110-8001)

Preparation of a book on the reestablishment of two bishoprics in southern Catalonia after the end of Muslim rule in 12th-century Spain and the complex Christianization efforts in these contested multi-ethnic territories.

This NEH fellowship would fund a twelve-month research leave to support the completion of my third monograph. The first comparative study in any language of the creation and long-term development of the Catalonian dioceses of Tortosa and Lleida from territories that were captured from Muslim rule in the mid-12th century, this book will address a void in the scholarship on the ecclesiastical dimensions of ethno-religious interactions and the territorial struggle between Christian and Muslim-ruled states within premodern Europe The project will show how divergent, highly localized experiences of diocesan construction in the 12th century would cast long shadows over the respective administrations of these episcopal sees. I have already written six out of eight chapters and would use the entire twelve months to complete the final two chapters, revise the manuscript, and begin seeing the manuscript through the production process with Cornell, Pennsylvania, or Pennsylvania State University Press.