Granada and the Fall of Spanish Islam, AD 1212-1492/1614

Subject associations
NES 354 / COM 350
Term
Spring 2016
Instructors
Michael Barry
Registrar description
Thirteenth-century Christian "Reconquista" of almost all of Spain after 1212 - with the significant exception of the sultanate of Granada - subjected huge minorities of Muslims and Jews to Christian overlords and challenged the rising kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Portugal to cope with religious diversity. The course explores how the Christian kingdoms at first imitated and tried to implement Islamic precedents in tolerance but then how social strains spawned increasing sectarian intolerance, mass expulsions or forced conversions of Jews and Muslims, and finally creation of the religiously absolutist monarchies of Spain and Portugal.