Mediterranean Europe’s Islamic Past and Orientalism during the Nineteenth Century The Use and Misuse of Medieval History

Introduction

Part 1. Representing the Islamic past : between literature and history

Chapter 1. Representations of the Arabs and Islam in Popular Historiography of Pre-Unity Italy

Rolando Minuti

Chapter 2. The Concept of Luso-Árabes: from Oliveira Parreira’s Novel to the Portuguese Historiography

Elsa Cardoso

Part 2. Writing the Islamic past’s history : national and transnational circulations

Chapter 3. Are Jews Andalusians like others? The Contemporary Challenges of a History of the Jews of al-Andalus

Emmanuelle Tixier du Mesnil

Chapter 4. «Notre science est la science libre». Ernest Renan and Michele Amari in Conversation, 1854-1856.

Mauro Moretti

Chapter 5. Writing the history of Sicily’s Islamic Past: Michele Amari’s Networks of Informants

Annliese Nef   

Part 3. Nationalizing the medieval Islamic past: historical narratives and political debates

Chapter 6. A Nation Shaped Against Islam? The Reconquista and Medieval Iberia in 19th-Century Spain

Alejandro García-Sanjuán

Chapter 7. Medieval Islamic Past and the Formation of Portugal: an Analysis of the Parliamentary Discourses of the Portuguese Constitutional Monarchy (1821-1910)

André Filipe Oliveira da Silva

Chapter 8. Towards the Study of the “Internal History” of al-Andalus: Orientalism and National Historiography during the Spanish Restoration (1874-1931)

Pablo Bornstein

Part 4. Remembering the Islamic past: between collective memory, local history and national narrative

Chapter 9. Arabic Coins in Private Collections and Museums in Italy during the Long 19^th-century (1782-1912): Society, Oriental Studies and National Identity

Arianna D’Ottone

Chapter 10. “Saracens” in Southern Italy: Local History, Orientalism and Folklore during the Nineteenth Century

Marie Bossaert

Chapter 11. A Time of Invasions: Nineteenth-Century Historians and the Saracen Presence in Provence, the Alps and Rhône Valley

Laurent Ripart

Biography

Marie Bossaert is an associate professor in contemporary history at Clermont Auvergne University. Her research focuses on the social, cultural and political history of the Mediterranean during the 19^th and early 20^th century, especially on scholarly Orientalism. She co-edited the book L'orientalisme en train de se faire. Une enquête collective sur les études orientales dans l'Algérie coloniale (2024).

Annliese Nef is a professor in medieval history at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Her research focuses on the Medieval history of Maghreb and Sicily, and on the way it was written in the 19^th century. Among her publications: Conquérir et gouverner la Sicile islamique XIe-XIIe siècle (2011) et Révolutions islamiques (2021).