Was Medieval Spain Especially Tolerant?

The concept of Convivencia (usually translated as coexistence) has long been used to characterise inter-faith relations between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in medieval Spain. Despite the wars of the Reconquista, the Iberian peninsula has been presented as a place of tolerance and cooperation. But is this really accurate? Or was the reality more complicated? Follow me on Instagram:   / studium.historiae   Recommendations for further reading: -Burnett, Charles. "The Coherence of the Arabic-Latin Translation Program in Toledo in the Twelfth Century." In Science in Context v14, n1-2 (2001): 249-288. -Brubaker, Rogers. Ethnicity without Groups (Harvard University Press, 2004). -Catlos, Brian A. Muslims of Latin Christendom, ca. 1050-1614 (Cambridge University Press, 2014). -Cohen, Mark R. Under Crescent and Cross, the Jews in the Middle Ages (Princeton University Press, 2008). -Collins, Roger and Anthony Goodman, eds. Medieval Spain: culture, conflict, and coexistence (Houndmills; New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2002). -Coope, Jessica A. The Martyrs of Córdoba: community and family conflict in an age of mass conversion (University of Nebraska Press, 1995). -Fancy, H. "Theologies of Violence: The Recruitment of Muslim Soldiers by The Crown of Aragon." In Past & Present v221, n1 (2013): 39-73. -Mann, Vivian B., Thomas F. Glick, Jerrilynn D. Dodds, eds. Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in medieval Spain (New York: G. Braziller in association with the Jewish Museum, 1992). -Mews, C.J., John N Crossley, eds. Communities of Learning: networks and the shaping of intellectual identity in Europe, 1100-1500 (Turnhout : Brepols, 2011). -Meyerson, Mark D. Jews in an Iberian Frontier Kingdom: society, economy, and politics in Morvedre, 1248-1391 (Leiden: Brill, 2004). -Olsen, Glenn W. "The Middle Ages in the History of Toleration: A Prolegomena." In Mediterranean Studies v16 (2007): 1-20. -Safran, Janina M. Defining boundaries in al-Andalus: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Islamic Iberia (Cornell University Press, 2016). -Soifer, Maya. "Beyond Convivencia: critical reflections on the historiography of interfaith relations in Christian Spain." In Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies v1, n1 (2009): 19-35. -Tolan, John. « Une convivencia bien précaire: la place des Juifs et des Musulmans dans les sociétés chrétiennes ibériques au Moyen Age ». In Guy Saupin, Rémy Fabre et Marcel Launay, eds., La tolérance. Actes du colloque international de Nantes pour le quatrième centenaire de l’Édit de Nantes (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 1999). Pp. 385-94. -Wolf, Kenneth B. "Convivencia in Medieval Spain: A Brief History of an Idea." In Religion Compass v3, n1 (2009): 72-85. All images used in this video are either my own, in the public domain, under fair use, or under creative commons (whence they shall be credited appropriately) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Outro music: Laid Back Guitars by Kevin MacLeod, CC BY-SA 4.0 http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-... #medievalhistory #medieval #middleages #history #educational #spain #iberia #convivencia #tolerance #jewishhistory #españa #portugal #islamichistory #coexistence #alandalus