Span 513
Spanish Civilization: Jews, Christians and Moors in Medieval Castile
Fall 2004
Dr. Mar Martínez-Góngora
205 Lafayette Hall
Description: This course studiesthe culture of Mediaeval Castile in the light of Christian, Moorish and Jewish interactions. During the first part of the semester, students will study the historical circumstances surrounding the cultural encounters between Jews, Christian and Moors during the Middle Age in the Castilian speaking territory of the Iberian Peninsula. During the semester we shall analyze fragments from literary works such as El Cantar del Mio Cid,Romances, and religious works of the Mester de Clerecia like Milagros de Nuestra Señora by Gonzalo de Berceo that include negative stereotypes about Moors and Jews. This view contradicts the traditional perception of the Iberian Middle Age as a place of religious tolerance and peaceful understanding between the members of the three “castes”, as we attend, for example, to the anti-Semitic laws promulgated at this time in the Siete partidas, a judicial corpus produced by the king Alfonso X of Castile. An analysis of the Middle Age Castilian culturalproductionremains incomplete absent a review of the Muslim and Jewish contributions to what was later called the “Spanish culture”. Muslim and Hebrew poets included in their bilingual muwashshahas the first record of Castilian language (the jarchaswritten in Mozarabe dialect) and the Arabian tradition of collection of tales marked the initiation of the genre of short fiction in Spain by Don Juan Manuel with his work El conde de Lucanor. Students will also compare Christian and Islamic concepts of urbanism and will study samples fromdifferent styles and periods of Muslim architecture and landscaping,one of the most important legacies of this civilization. A study of the main features of the Mezquita of Cordoba, the Alcazar, the Giralda and the Torre del Oro of Seville and the palace and gardens of the Alhambra of Granada will complete this section. Finally, we shall study the cultural contributions of the Sephardic population (Jews of Spanish origin), their way of life in the Iberian Peninsula, the economic and political causes around their expulsion in 1492, and the nature of the Diaspora. In this course, conducted in Spanish, the student is required to write three examinations and a final project.
Obligatory Bibliography: Course package
Evaluation: The final grade is based on the following: Participation (Including oral presentations): 20%; 3 tests: 60 %; Final project 20%.
Departmental Attendance Policy:. Students should be aware that any absences from class may adversely affect the class participation component of their final grade. In any case, no student may have more than three (3) absences. Students should also note that it is their responsibility to ensure that they are in compliance with this attendance requirement. Instructors are not required to remind students of their attendance status. Finally, no make-up exams will be given. Late homework and compositions will not be accepted. The student is responsible for any material or information missed due to absences.
Class protocol: Besides completing the assigned homework, students are required to read the assigned pages and to prepare other materials for the class in advance. In class, students are required to be involved in the activities and they must show their preparation by participating in the discussions, by asking relevant questions, being critical and analytical with the contents presented in class as well as by sharing their ideas and opinions. In class the student is required to maintain a polite demeanor always and under every circumstance. Also, she or he MUST use Spanish forms of courtesy to interact with other students and with the professor.
Statement for students with special needs: Every reasonable accommodation will be made to assist any student with documented special needs to meet the academic requirements expected of all students enrolled in this course. (Evidence must be presented to the instructor the first week of class).
Goals and objectives: At the end of the semester the student will have improved the following learning outcomes, which are based on the School of World Studies Goals, those of the College of Humanities and Sciences, and VirginiaCommonwealthUniversity:
- International experience
- Interdisciplinary foci
- Advanced language skills in Spanish
- Oral communication in Spanish
- Writing intensive in Spanish
- Global good citizenship and ethics
- Critical thinking
- Student engagement
The University Honor Policy will be enforced: Students are responsible for knowing the Honor Policy and for using it on all assignments in this course.
Phone: Office: 827 3401
E-mail:
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1:00 to 2:00 P.M (205 Lafayette Hall).
Bibliography:
Altamira, Rafael. Historia de la Civilización española. Barcelona: Crítica, 1988.
Austin, RW. Sufies of Andalucía: The Roh al-quds and al Pura al-Fakhirah of Ibn Arabí. Berkeley: U of California P, 1971.
Arnold, Thomas Walker. The Legacy of Islam. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1965.
Buickhardt, Titus. Moorish Culture in Spain. New York: McGraw Hill, 1972.
Brann, Ross and Adam Sutcliffe, eds. Renewing the Past, Reconfiguring Jewish Culture: From Al-Andalus to the Has kalah. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2004.
Cantarino, Vicente. Entre monjes y musulmanes: El conflicto que fue España. Madrid: Alhambra, 1978.
Caro Baroja, Julio. “Orígenes del antisemitismo español”.Los judíos en la España Moderna y contemporánea. 4 ed. Madrid: Istmo, 2000. 23-286
Chueca Goitia, Fernando. “La ciudad islámica.” Breve Historia del Urbanismo. 18 ed. Madrid: Alianza, 1997. 65-87
---. “La ciudad medieval.” Breve Historia del Urbanismo. 18 ed. Madrid: Alianza, 1997. 88-108
Coope, Jessica. The Martyrs of Cordoba: Community and Family Conflict in the Age of Mass Conversion. Linconln: U of Nebraska, 1995.
Deyermond, A. D. Historia de la literatura española, I Edad Media y Renacimiento. Barcelona: Ariel, 1973.
Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio. Los conversos de origen judíos después de la expulsión. Granada: U of Granada, 1991.
Garci-Gómez, Miguel. “Del filosemitismo al antisemitismo”. El Burgos de Mio Cid. 27-37.
Gil, Anidjar. Our place in Al Andalus: Kabbalah, Philosophy, Literatura in Arab Jewish Letters. Standord: Stanford UP, 2002.
Guichard, Pierre. La arquitectura del Islam occidental. Granada: Legado andalusí, 1995.
Howe, John and Michael Wolfe. Inventing Medieval Landscapes: Sense of Place in Western Europe. Gainsville: U of Florida, 2002.
Imamuddin, S M. Muslim Spain: 711-1492 A. D.: A Sociological Study. Leiden: Brill, 1981.
Kennedy, Hugo. Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of Al-Andalus. London: Longman, 1996.
Lasala, Magdalena. Almanzor: el gran guerrero de Al-Andalus. Madrid: Temas de Hoy, 2002.
MacKay, Angus. Spain in the Middle Ages: From Frontier to Empire, 1000-1212. London: MacMillan, 1977.
Maravall, Jose Antonio. El concepto de España en la Edad Media. Madrid: Instituto de Estudios políticos, 1964.
Martínez-Góngora, Mar. “Conflictos en la Sociedad Estamental: el discurso antimercantil en el Libro de Alexandre.”Crítica Hispánica 26 (2004): 115-131.
Mirrer, Louise. Women, Jews, and Muslims in the Texts of Reconquest Castille. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1996.
---. “Representing ‘Other’ Men: Muslims, Jews, and Masculine Ideals in Medieval Castilian Epic and Ballad.” Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages. Ed. Clare A. Lees. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1994. 169-186.
Mitre, Emilio. La España Medieval. Madrid: Itsmo, 1979.
Navarro Palazón, Julio. Casas y palacios de Al-Andalus. Granada: legado andalusí, 1995.
Nykl, Alois Richard. Hispano-Arabic Poetry and Its Relations with the Old Provencal Troubadours. Baltimore: JH Furst, 1970.
Peñarroja Torrejón, Leopoldo. Cristianos bajo el Islam: los mozárabes hasta la Reconquista de Valencia. Madrid: Gredos, 1993.
Read, Jan. The Moors in Spain and Portugal. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1974.
Reinhart P, Dozy. Historia de los musulmanes de España. Madrid: Turner, 1982.
Safran, Janinah. The Second Umayyad Caliphate: The articulation of Caliphal Legitimacy in Al-Andalus. Cambridge,MA: Harvard UP, 2000.
Settle, Mary Lee. Spanish Reconigtions: The Roads to the Present. New York: NW Norton, 2004.
Whishaw, Bernhard and Ellen M. Whishaw. Arabic Spain: Sidelights on her History and Art. Reading,UK. Garnet, 2002.
Wolfe, Kenneth Baxter. Christians Martyrs in Muslim Spain. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988.
Programa de clases (Tentativo)
Span 513
AGOSTO
Lunes 30. Introducción al curso. Los reinos cristianos.
SEPTIEMBRE
Miércoles 1. La invasión árabe y la creación de Al-Andalus.
Lunes 6. No clase
Miércoles 8. Economía, sociedad y organización política de Al-Andalus.
Lunes 13. La cultura hispano-musulmana. Lectura de “Sobre las señales del amor” de El collar de la paloma de Ibn Hazm de Córdoba (package).
Miércoles 15. La cultura hispano-musulmana
Lunes 20. La decadencia de Al-Andalus y los reinos de Taifas, las invasiones norteafricanas y el reino Nazarí de Granada.
Miércoles 22. Mujeres y Al-Andalus. Lectura de “Asluhu Li´L-ma´āli: On the Social Status of Andalusí Women ”,de María Viguera. En The Legacy of Muslim Spain (709-724). y “The Culinary Culture of Al-Andalus”, de David Waines in The Legacy of Muslim Spain(725-738.)
Lunes 27. La ciudad medieval y la ciudad islámica. Lectura de Checa Goitia (package).
Miércoles 29. El jardín hispano-árabe. Lectura de “The Hispano-arab garden: Notes toward a tipology”,de James Dickie (Yaqub Zaki) en The Legacy of Muslim Spain (1016-1035).
OCTUBRE
Lunes 4. Prueba 1
Miércoles 6. El arte del periodo califal. La mezquita de Córdoba.
Lunes 11. La arquitectura de los reinos de Taifas y de las invasiones almohade y almorávide. La Alhambra y la arquitectura nazarí.
Miércoles 13. Los artes mozárabe y mudéjar.
Lunes 18. Los mozárabes, las jarchas y las muwashshahas.
Miércoles 20. La figura del moro en los romances fronterizos.
Lunes 25. La figura del moro en los romances fronterizos (cont.)
Miércoles 27. La imagen del moro en El Conde Lucanor del Infante Don Juan Manuel y en el Poema del Mio Cid.
NOVIEMBRE
Lunes 1. Prueba 2
Miércoles 3. Orígenes de la presencia judía en la península ibérica.
Lunes 8 Las juderías en la Castilla Medieval
Miércoles 10. Actividades de los judíos y grandes personalidades de esta comunidad.
Lunes 15. La imagen estereotípica del judío en la cultura castellana.
Miércoles 17. Las siete partidas y la idea de la tolerancia religiosa.
Lunes 22. La representación del judío en El poema de Mio Cid y en los Milagros de Nuestra Señora.
Miércoles 24. La representación del judío en el Mester de Clerecía: Los Milagros de Nuestra Señora de Gonzalo de Berceo y el Libro de Aleixandre.
Lunes 29. Expulsión y diáspora.
DICIEMBRE
Miércoles 3. Prueba 3
Lunes 6. Presentaciones orales
Miércoles 8. Presentaciones orales