Event Date
Event Date
Location
UC Davis International Center
Join the Department of History, the California History-Social Science Project, and the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program at UC Davis as we host a free speaker series and forum aimed at improving our public understanding of Middle Eastern history.
- Our first session features Professor Brian Catlos. Brian Catlos is Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Mediterranean Studies Seminar at the University of Colorado. He has authored several books, including Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain, a history of al-Andalus that accounts for how religion often served as the language of conflict, but it was rarely its source. He will speak on Muslims, Christians, and Jews in medieval Spain.
- Abstract: In 1066, an event took place in the Muslim kingdom of Granada that is sometimes described as an anti-Jewish pogrom. Townsfolk of the capital rose up to kill the Jewish wazīr and would-be regicide and usurper, Yusuf (Joseph) ibn Naghrīla, and are reported to have attacked the city’s Jewish community resulting in many deaths. Yusuf was the son of Ismāʿīl (Samuel) ibn Naghrīla – renown as a poet, rabbi, and ha-Nagid (“prince” of the Jews) – who had served as wazīr and confidant to the kings of the Berber Zirid dynasty. Reviewing the primary sources, Brian Catlos reveals this a complex situation that cannot be defined simply on sectarian terms. Rather than evidence of interfaith “intolerance,” the history of al-Andalus was one profound integration of Muslims and Jews. Far from being a watershed event, the Naghrīlas' situation and the violent episode which brought them down fit into established political patterns; they reflect the convergence of Muslim and Jewish society in Islamic Spain.
- Reception will take place from 4:30-5:30 pm. Scholar talk and conversation will take place from 5:30-7:00 pm.
- This series aims to bring together UC Davis students, faculty/staff, K-12 teachers, and the public as we learn to contextualize current conflicts.
- This series will also lead to the production of K-12 classroom materials later in the spring.
