Coexistence in Medieval Christian and Muslim Societies Politics, Trade and Culture in Anatolia and Iberia

Introduction: Anatolia and Iberia in Comparison: Coexistence, Conflict, and Exchange
Ömer Fatih Parlak & Ahmet Usta

1. The Sea in the Middle in the Age of Convergence: The Pre-Modern West as Mediterranean
Brian A. Catlos

2. Mediterranean Vessels: Fibonacci, Copernicus, and the Role of Arabic Manuscripts in the Transmission of Scientific Knowledge
Erica Ferg

3. Board Games as Social Lubricant: Cases from Medieval Anatolia and Iberia
Ömer Fatih Parlak

4. Minorities, Assimilation, and Conversion in Mallorca: Ramon Llull and the Karlsruhe Breviculum
Jesús Rodríguez Viejo

5. Diplomacy of Tolerance: Politics between Cilician Armenians and Mamluks in the Late Medieval Anatolia
Ahmet Usta

6. Portuguese Jewish–Muslim Convivencia in the Kingdom of Portugal during the Middle Ages
José Alberto Rodrigues da Silva Tavim

7. Pegolotti’s Commercial Itinerary from Ayas to Tabriz: trade, urban societies, transport, measures applied by the Il-Khanid government
Tom Sinclair

8. The Plague and Social Dislocation in Early Modern Istanbul
Fariba Zarinebaf

Biography

Ahmet Usta is Assistant Professor of Medieval History at Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakif University, Republic of Türkiye. His research focuses on the Eastern Mediterranean history in the Middle Ages, trade and diplomacy between Mamluks and Christian world, and also the history of medieval Cyprus in the later period.

Ömer Fatih Parlak is an Assistant Professor at Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University, Republic of Türkiye. His research interests lie in the cultural history of games and games in literature.

'Medieval Anatolia and Iberia, two peninsulas located at opposite ends of the Mediterranean, have often individually attracted research on their religiously and ethnically diverse societies, and in particular the experience of Christian and Muslim coexistence in each region. Usually, though, such research has been conducted in isolation. The present volume makes a significant contribution to the historiography on the medieval Mediterranean by bringing together a collection of essays that allow the reader to approach these societies in comparative perspective, juxtaposing the Anatolian and Iberian experiences of coexistence, and shedding new light on debates about ‘convivencia’.

Some of the studies in the volume approach the theme by focusing on the political and social history of Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities who existed side by side, but others investigate coexistence through evidence ranging from knowledge transfer via Arabic manuscripts to medieval board games to trade to the plague.  Collectively, the volume does much to highlight the social and cultural diversity of the Mediterranean world, and brings to the fore both new evidence and new methodologies for approaching the theme of coexistence, as well as underlining how comparing and contrasting Anatolia and Iberia helps us understand not just the commonalities in the shared experience of coexistence, but also the specific and distinctive features of each region.'

 Andrew C.S. Peacock, University of St. Andrews