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Spring Lecture Series 2001

 
Medieval Spain: Land of Three Cultures
March 19th - 22th, 2001
Woodward Hall, Room 101


 
 

The Iberian peninsula was, like most of Western Europe, subject to numerous waves of invasion in the course of late antiquity and the Middle Ages. As Visigothic rule weakened in the period after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, Iberia experienced what was probably the most significant of those many invasions: the arrival of Muslim peoples, first as invading armies and later as settlers who established their rule throughout the peninsula in the kingdom they called al-Andalus.

The Arabic rulership began with the conquest of 711, and lasted in some areas of Spain until the final achievement of the Spanish Christian Reconquest in 1492, under Ferdinand and Isabella. During those seven hundred years, the peninsula was home to three often conflicting but also intensely interactive cultures, the Islamic, the Christian, and the Jewish, whose interwoven fates during this period can still be seen in the literary and artistic legacy they left to us. Among its many cultural achievements in architecture, art, mathematics, philosophy, science, and literature, achievements that set the cultural level of medieval Spain and Portugal far above that of the rest of western Europe, the Islamic rulership also pursued a policy of remarkable religious tolerance, enabling Christian and Jewish minorities to survive and , in many cases, to flourish.

Christians and Jews were key contributors to the court life and the intellectual projects of many of the Muslim rulers, as well as to the literary and artistic activity of popular culture more broadly. A similar stance prevailed in some Christian courts, notably that of Alfonso X of Castile, whose rulers, despite their ongoing battles for territory with the Muslims, often formed cultural and even military alliances with them. In this way, the Jewish, Christian, and Arabic cultures interacted through translation, diplomacy, intellectual and artistic exchange, and in turn transmitted Arabic learning to the rest of Europe, giving an enormous boost to the progress of rationalistic and scientific thought. The abilities and traditions of medieval Iberia's three religious cultures also gave us such extraordinary achievements as the Alhambra, the Cantigas de Santa María, and the haunting music of the Sephardic Jews.

While we should not underestimate the tensions and struggles of this multifarious Iberian culture, its ability to bring different groups together productively offers an important instance of tolerance and multiculturalism in an age that is often remembered for its oppressive intolerance. That this interaction of diverse cultures was so intensely productive reminds us of what is possible in a society that is able to welcome, value, and make use of the varied contributions of its people, rather than limiting cultural participation on the basis of race or religion.


Lecture Schedule
Monday, March 19, 2001   7 PM   Woodward Hall 101
"Frontier Society in the Land of Three Religions: Medieval Spain before the Discovery of America"
Joseph F. O'Callaghan, Fordham University

Tuesday, March 20, 2001   3:30 PM   Woodward Hall 101
"Alfonso X, the Learned, and the Cantigas de Santa María: A Personal Testament"
Joseph F. O'Callaghan, Fordham University

Tuesday, March 20, 2001   7 PM   Woodward Hall 101
"Nationalism and Internationalism in the Art of Reconquest Spain" - Slide Lecture
Elizabeth Valdez del Alamo, Montclair State University

Wednesday, March 21, 2001   4 PM   Woodward Hall 101
"The Transmission of Arabic Science in Latin and Hebrew"
Thomas F. Glick, Boston University

Wednesday, March 21, 2001   7 PM   Woodward Hall 101
"Women and Musical Transmission in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Cultures"
Judith Cohen, York University

Thursday, March 22, 2001   3:30 PM   Woodward Hall 101
"Music of the Spanish Borderlands" - Lecture / Demonstration
Judith Cohen, York University

Thursday, March 22, 2001   7 PM   Woodward Hall 101
"The Royal Palaces of the Alhambra and Cultural Identity" - Slide Lecture
Eva Hoffman, Tufts University


2001 Spring Lecture Series Sponsors
Sponsored by: The University of New Mexico Institute for Medieval Studies in conjunction with the Center for Advanced Studies; College of Arts & Sciences Lecturer's Series; European Studies Program; International Programs; Religious Studies Program; University Honors Program; Women Studies Program; School of Architecture and Planning; the Departments of Art and Art History. Earth and Planetary Sciences. English, Foreign Languages and Literatures, History. Linguistics, Mathematics and Statistics, Music, Philosophy, Physics and Astronomy. Psychology, Spanish and Portuguese: the Bainbridge Memorial Slide Library; the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology; the Fleming Fund; the Luger Fund; the Shapiro and Robertson Fund:and KUNM.

This Lecture Series is supported by the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities.



Institute for Medieval Studies
University of New Mexico
2045 Mesa Vista Hall | (505) 277-2252 | medinst@unm.edu