99913 - Muslims and Christians in the Mediterranean : Histories and Relations (1) (LM)

Course contents

By revisiting both well-known and lesser-known cases of interaction between Muslim and Christian individuals in the Islamic Mediterranean (1200–1400), this course aims to question the usefulness of confessional categories as a consistently effective analytical tool for interpreting diverse histories of interreligious relations. The objective is not to deny the relevance of religious affiliation, but rather to show how, at times, this perspective may obscure more than it reveals—if not mislead altogether.

Following an initial theoretical and methodological discussion—focused on the Mediterranean as an analytical space and on Islamic prescriptive discourses regarding intercommunal relations in Muslim-majority Mediterranean regions—the course examines several case studies of interaction between individuals of different faiths, both in contexts of conflict and in those characterized by peaceful coexistence.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending Students (i.e., those who attend at least 75% of the classes)

Weeks 1 and 2 – COURSE INTRODUCTION

Silences: Francis and the Sultan

• John Tolan, Saint Francis and the Sultan, Italian edition (original English 2009), Laterza 2009, Introduction and Chapter 1 (case study).

The Mediterranean as an Analytical Space

• Ramzi Rouighi, “A Mediterranean of Relations for the Medieval Maghrib: Historiography in Question,” al-Masāq (2017), pp. 1–20.

• Nabil Matar, “The ‘Mediterranean’ through Arab Eyes in the Early Modern Period: From Rūmī to the ‘White In-Between Sea’,” in Judith E. Tucker (ed.), The Making of the Modern Mediterranean: Views from the South (University of California Press, 2019), pp. 16–34. [Available online via De Gruyter: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520973206/html ]

• Eric Dursteler, “On Renaissance Bazaars and Battlefields: Recent Scholarship on Mediterranean Cultural Contacts,” Journal of Early Modern History, 15/5 (2011), pp. 413–434.

• Additional texts to be read together in class.

Optional but recommended reading:

• Jessica Goldberg, “On Reading Goitein’s A Mediterranean Society: A View from Economic History,” Mediterranean Historical Review 26/2 (2011), pp. 171–186.

Week 3

Non-Muslims Living in Islamic Lands: Prescriptive Discourses and Beyond

• Mark Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross, Chapter 1, pp. 3–14.

• Tamar El-Leithy, “Sufis, Copts, and the Politics of Piety: Moral Regulation in 14th-Century Upper Egypt,” in Adam Sabra and Richard McGregor (eds.), The Development of Sufism in Mamluk Egypt (Cairo: IFAO, 2006), pp. 75–120.

• Marina Rustow, “At the Limits of Communal Autonomy: Jewish Bids for Intervention from the Mamluk State,” Mamluk Studies Review, 13/2 (2009), pp. 133–159.

• Translated primary sources to be read and discussed in class.

Optional readings:

• Levy-Rubin, Non-Muslim Minorities, Chapter 4, pp. 99–112.

• Luke Yarbrough, Friends of the Emir, Chapter 4, pp. 88–109 (Chapter 1 is also very useful).

• Yohanan Friedmann, entry “Dhimma” in Encyclopaedia of Islam. THREE (Available online through Unibo resources).

Week 4

Islamo-Christian “Encounters” and “Dialogues”?

• Jon Hoover, Ibn Taymiyya (Oxford: Oneworld, 2019), pp. 5–44.

• Ibn Taymiyya, Letter to a Crusader King. Reflections on the Foundations of the “True Religion”, Italian translation by M. Di Branco, Biblioteca di Via Senato, 2004.

Week 5

Confessional Contaminations? Questioning Christian Impurity in islamic Law.

• Leor Halevi, “Christian Impurity versus Economic Necessity: A Fifteenth-Century Fatwa on European Paper,” Speculum 83 (2008), pp. 917–945.

Note: The reading list may be subject to minor changes, to be discussed and agreed upon with students as the course progresses.

Non-Attending Students (i.e., those who attend less than 75% of the classes)

Given the experimental nature of the course and the absence of a comprehensive textbook that mirrors its structure, non-attending students are required to follow a more traditional Islamic studies syllabus:

• Andrew Rippin, Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, London: Routledge, 4th edition, 2012 (entire book).

• Alfred-Louis de Prémare, Alle origini del Corano, Rome: Carocci, 2014.

• Talal Asad, The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam, Georgetown: Center for the Study of Contemporary Islam, 1986, 28 pp. (available online).

Plus one of the following chapters:

• Shahab Ahmed, What is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic, Princeton University Press, 2016 — Introduction and Chapter 2, or Chapter 3, or Chapter 4 (the latter is especially recommended for anthropology students and closely related to the previous two readings).

Teaching methods

Lectures, group work, presentations.

Assessment methods

Attending students are those having attended at least 75% of the classes.

The exam will be conducted orally and will assess the student's command of the material studied in the course.

The student will be assessed according to his/her ability to present and critically discuss the topics raised, making use of the exam bibliography and the course tools provided.

Top marks (28-30L) will be awarded to students displaying: an excellent command of the topic, a critical approach to the material, a confident and effective use of the appropriate terminology.

Average marks (25-27) will be awarded to students who are able to summarise the relevant topics, but are not familiar with historiographical and historical debates, nor display a full command of the appropriate terminology.

Low marks (18-24) will be awarded to students displaying a patchy knowledge of the relevant topics and do not command the appropriate terminology.

A student will be deemed to have failed the exam if he displays significant errors in his understanding and failure to grasp the overall outlines of the subject, together with a poor command of the appropriate terminology.

This course is one of a set of two courses composing a "corso integrato". The exam for each course will have to be taken independently and the final grade will be the avarage between the two assessments.

Teaching tools

Students with learning disorders and/or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Caterina Bori