ANAR 159
“1492” : Coexistence, Crusade and the Origins of the Spanish Conquest.
Pre approved as CAT 124 Practicum
Professor Paul Goldstein, [email protected]
When one door closes another opens. Nowhere in world history was this more the
case than in 1492 in the Iberian peninsula. North and South Americans best know 1492
for Columbus’ opening to the New World. The very same year also marked the end of
seven centuries of complex cultural coexistence among Muslims, Jews, and Christians
with the final “Reconquista” of Spain, the expulsion of non-Christians, and the growth of
the Inquisition. This fascinating period is a vivid example of both intercultural
coexistence and conflict among followers of the three great monotheistic religious
traditions, with lessons that resonate today. This course will focus on the period from 711
through the end of the 16th century, and will contrast evidence for “convivencia”
(multicultural coexistence) versus the history of hostility, crusade, and religious
intolerance among three great cultures of Medieval Spain. We will then trace the direct
line from the negotiation of identity and intercultural frontiers in Spain, to the conquest of
the Americas and interaction with Native Americans. The late Medieval period defined
the complex character of the Spanish conquest of the New World, which has been
described as “the spirit of a gold rush with the conviction of a crusade”. Without
understanding the “Convivencia”, “Reconquista” and Inquisition we could never
understand the complex web of cultures that is Latin America today.
The course will take a museological approach, combining lectures and readings
with weekly visits to major monuments, archaeological sites, museums, and the
birthplaces of the New World conquistadors and chroniclers. Assessment will be based
on four “Virtual Museum” practical research assignments. Students will design and
present exhibits based on monuments or objects they experience first-hand. The aim is to
create alternative exhibit text, documentation, and museum presentations of
interpretations that challenge or complement on-site explanatory materials with
alternative interpretations emphasizing course themes of social identities and
intercultural relations in medieval Spain and its colonies.
Itinerary: Excursions to archaeological sites, museums, churches, mosques. (assuming
base in Toledo)
Week 1: Toledo, town touring
Week 2: Madrid, day trip, city tour, Prado museum
Week 3: Three day trip, al Andalus and major monuments of Moorish Spain: Seville
(Alkasr Royal Palaces and gardens, Cathedral of Seville, Almohad palace and mosque,
Jewish quarter, archive of the Indies), Cordoba (Mosque-Cathedral, the Alkasr palace,
medina, Jewish quarter), and Granada (Alhambra, old city).
Week 4 and 5: Day trips in Extremadura, birthplace of the conquistadors. Possible
destinations: Trujillo (Pizarro), Medellin (Cortes), Badajoz (Alvarado, de Soto), Jerez de
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los Caballeros (Balboa), Salamanca (Coronado), Llerena (Cieza de Leon), Caceres (old
city), Merida (Roman ruins)
Preliminary Syllabus (readings will be edited)
Week 1: Late Medieval Spain and multicultural heritage: Introduction to a
museological approach
Marstine, Janet, 2005, New Museum Theory and Practice: An Introduction.
Constable, Olivia Remie, 1997, Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim,
and Jewish Sources. University of Pennsylvania Press. Selected readings
Gerber, Jane, 1994 The Jews of Spain
Glick, Thomas 2005 Islamic And Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages (Medieval
and Early Modern Iberian World)
Menocal, Maria Rosa, 2003 The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and
Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain
Meyerson, Mark 2004 A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain (Jews,
Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World) Princeton
Reilly, Bernard F. 1993 The Medieval Spains Cambridge
Ruggles, D. Fairchild Gardens, Landcape, and Vision
Virtual Museum assignment: Medieval Toledo
Week 2: Frontiers: Economic and Political relationships
Blumenthal, Debra 2009 Enemies and Familiars: Slavery and Mastery in Fifteenth
Century ValenciaCornell.
Boone, James, 2009 Lost Civilization? The Contested Islamic Past in Spain and
Portugal. Duckworth
Constable, Olivia Remie, 1996, Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain: the Commercial
Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula, 900-1500 Cambridge.
Virtual Museum assignment: Madrid
Week 3 “Conquista” or “Convivencia”? Cultural relationships
Ray, Jonathan “Beyond Tolerance and Persecution: Reassessing our Approach to
Medieval ‘Convivencia’,” Jewish Social Studies (New Series) 11 (Winter, 2005) 1-18
Thomas Glick, 1992 Convivencia: Jews, Muslims and Christians in Medieval Spain
Nirenberg, David 2004 “Love Between Muslim and Jew in Medieval Spain: A Triangular
Love Affair,” in Jews, Muslims and Christians In and Around the Crown of Aragon:
Essays in Honor of Professor Elena Lourie Leiden 127-155
Nirenberg, David, 1996 Communities of Violence Princeton.
Powers, James “Frontier Municipal Baths and Social Interaction in Thirteenth Century
Spain,” American Historical Review 84 (1979), 649-667
Virtual Museum Assignment: Cultural Identities, past, present, future
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Week 4 Conflict and Conversion: Jews, Moriscos, Native Americans and the
Inquisition
Burns, Robert I., “Christian Islamic Confrontation in the West: The Thirteenth Century
Dream of Conversion,” American Historical Review 76 (1971), 1386-1434
Burns, Robert I. “Renegades, Adventurers and Sharp Businessmen: The Thirteenth
Century Spaniard in the Cause of Islam,” Catholic Historical Review 58 (1972), 341-66
Kagan and Dyer. Inquisitorial Inquiries: Brief Lives of Secret Jews and Other Heretics
Kamen, Henry 1999 The Spanish Inquisition : A Historical Revision. Yale.
Nirenberg, David “Conversion, Sex and Segregation: Jews and Christians in Medieval
Spain,” American Historical Review (2002), 1065-1093
Greenleaf, Richard E. Persistence of Native Values: The Inquisition and the Indians of
Colonial Mexico The Americas Vol. 50, No. 3 (Jan., 1994), pp. 351-376
Perry, Mary Elizabeth 2007 The Handless Maiden: Moriscos and the Politics of Religion
in Early Modern Spain (Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern
World)
Virtual Museum Assignment: from the Crusades to the New World
Week 5 Turning westward: Origins of the Conquistadors
James L. Boone, "Parental Investment and Elite Family Structure in Preindustrial States:
A Case Study of Medieval-Early Modern Portuguese Genealogies," American
Anthropologist 88:859-878, 1986
Elliott, John H. 2002 Imperial Spain 1469-1715.
Gabai, Rafael Varon, 1997 Francisco Pizarro and his Brothers: The Illusion of Power in
Sixteenth-century Peru. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press
Lockhart, James, 2012 (1978) The Men of Cajamarca: A Social and Biographical Study
of the First Conquerors of Peru. University of Texas, Austin.
Restall, Matthew, 2007 Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Oxford
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