Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources (The Middle Ages Series) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812215699 ISBN 13: 9780812215694

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997

Synopsis

The documents collected here date mostly from the eighth through the fifteenth centuries and have been translated from Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Castilian, Catalan, and Portuguese by many of the most eminent scholars in the field of Iberian studies. The selections include chronicle materials, poetry, and legal and religious sources, and each is accompanied by a brief introduction placing the text in its historical and cultural setting. Arranged chronologically, the documents are also keyed so as to be accessible to readers interested in specific topics such as urban life, the politics of the royal courts, interfaith relations, or women, marriage, and the family.

For some historians, medieval Iberian society was primarily one of peaceful coexistence and cross-cultural fertilization; others have sketched a harsher picture of Muslims and Christians engaged in an ongoing contest for political, religious, and economic advantage culminating in the fall of Muslim Granada and the expulsion of the Jews in the late fifteenth century. The reality that emerges in Medieval Iberia is more nuanced than either of these scenarios can comprehend; this monumental collection offers unparalleled access to the multicultural complexity of the lands that would become modern Portugal and Spain.

About this title

About the Author:

Olivia Remie Constable is Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame and author of Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain: The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula, 900-1500.

Review:

"The editor is to be warmly congratulated for having gathered together an impressive collection of sources which should prove of great interest to specialist and nonspecialist alike."—English Historical Review

"With the assistance of a large team of acknowledged experts, Constable has succeeded in assembling a distinguished miscellany of unusual interest which deserves to be warmly and widely welcomed."—History Today

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0812215699
• ISBN 13: 9780812215694
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 456
• Editor: Constable Olivia Remie