“Encounter and Identity: Christians and Muslims in Early Medieval Italy”

FAIN: HB-288716-23

Sarah Davis-Secord
Regents of the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001)

Research and writing leading to a book about social relations between Muslims and Christians in early medieval Italy (approximately 700 – 1000 CE).

“Encounter and Identity” is a book project constructing the history of early medieval southern Italy through the lens of interpersonal encounters between Muslims and Christians. Analysis of these interactions—found in contemporary Greek and Latin texts, later Arabic ones, and archaeological evidence—provides a new perspective on the earliest Christian understandings of what it meant to be a Muslim and how Christians and Muslims could communicate across the divides of language, religion, and culture. Each cross-cultural encounter will be the focus for a full history of Muslim presence in medieval southern Italy, thus providing both a comprehensive history of southern Italy from the seventh to eleventh centuries and a reevaluation of the role of Islam in the history of early medieval Europe.