| CODE | HST2032 | ||||||
| TITLE | Mediterranean Encounters between Christians and Muslims 1500-2000 | ||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||
| DEPARTMENT | History | ||||||
| DESCRIPTION | The fate of the Mediterranean population changed with the arrival of the Arab Muslim conquests of Mediterranean lands that started in around the 640s. The presence of Arabs in the Mediterranean dated back to before this date but from this period onwards, a new type of Arabs marked their presence in the Mediterranean. The arrival of Islam did not only mark the arrival of a new religion but also created a permanent division in the Mediterranean region. Islam divided the Arabs among themselves and also come into direct confrontation with Christianity. Like Islam, Christianity was not a monolithic faith, but Arab Muslims were by far better organized and took advantage of the many divisions that characterized the Christian world to expand their presence in the Mediterranean. Due to this quick and wary expansion, the main historiography on this subject focuses on the history of the numerous conflicts and conquests that took place on both sides of this divide. Yet, these were also times of fascinating encounters between Christianity and Islam. The latter is going to be the main focus of this study unit. Therefore, the encounters between Christianity and Islam will be studied through Arab texts written by various Muslim scholars from the 15th century onwards. The text chosen has the Mediterranean as the centre of their focus. Malta being in the centre of the Mediterranean appears in great prominence in the selected texts. Before the 16th century, the history of this relationship between Islam and Christianity is often ambiguous and inconclusive. Between the 16th and the 18th century, Arab Muslim scholars read the histories of the encounters between Christianity and Islam as part of the cultural and social divide that was present among the people living on the shores of the Mediterranean coast. From the 19th century onwards, Muslim narratives become closely intertwined with issues of "nationalism" and Arab cultural identity. In the 20th century, material evidence starts to become important for the study of this relationship and this leads to a contentious debate among Islamic scholars and this debate starts to feature prominently in academic publications. This study-unit, therefore, will focus on this wider debate. This will be studied through a selected number of texts by Muslim scholars who made references to or expressed their views on Christianity. What is of interest is that a number of important Muslim scholars included information about Malta in their writings. In these texts, the Muslim scholars discuss Malta within the wider context of these encounters between Islam and Christianity that were taking place during their times. References were not just about the Muslim conquest of Malta but more importantly Muslim and Arab scholars discussed the general situation in the Mediterranean and that of Malta at the time of their writings. This aspect of the Christian-Muslim debate is often forgotten and has not yet been studied. In analysing and interpreting Muslim historical sources, one can find information about how Muslim and Arab scholars perceived the Mediterranean throughout different periods. In this study-unit, students will analyse how such a past entered the collective memory and helped the people of the Mediterranean to construct and deconstruction their "national" identities. In the process, myths, memories, traditions, and scholarly interpretations of the past were constructed. It is the construction of this Muslim and Arabic memory, in particular the one formed from Early Modern Times onwards that will be the subject of this course. Study-unit Aims: This study-unit aims to introduce students to the historical sources and historiography related to Arab-Muslim sources that are relevant to Mediterranean history. In particular, the study unit will focus on one of the most contentious themes from this era, namely the manner and degree to which the Muslim-Christian relationship impacted the lives of the native population of the Mediterranean from the arrival of Islam till 2000. Through a careful analysis of Muslim sources, students will consider how historical knowledge was created in the Muslim world and how historical analysis and interpretation of these Muslim sources may reflect particular worldviews and political-cultural perspectives, biases, agendas, and concepts of collective identity. Students taking this study-unit will also debate the degree to which society's memory of the past is subject to continuous interpretation and re-interpretation under the shadow of the present, and the implication that this may have on the output of historical knowledge. Concerned with interpreting historical evidence covering social, political, and cultural aspects, students embarking on the study of the Muslim-Christian relationship must also engage in physically examining the proper sources. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Identify the main documentary sources covering Arab-Muslim relations related to the Mediterranean and assess their impact and importance to the history of the Mediterranean in general and that of Malta in particular; - Describe how past and current Arab and Muslim scholars and authors have provided different interpretations of the historical evidence about Christian-Arab relations through the centuries; - Relate the historical interpretations and debates covering the social, cultural, and political context of the time. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Think critically about the construction of a Christian/Muslim identity in the collective memory of the Arab world in Pre-Modern and Modern Times as well as Contemporary times; - Evaluate how present factors have influenced and at times distorted recollections of past Muslim Mediterranean history; - Develop a comparative understanding of how societies have used images of the past to legitimise social norms in the present. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Rogan, Eugene (2017), The Arabs: A History Supplementary Texts: - Anderson, B. (2006) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. - Concerto, P. (1989) How Societies Remember. - Geary, P. (2003) The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. - Graham, B. and P. Howard, eds. (2008) The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Tutorial | ||||||
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| LECTURER/S | Simon Mercieca |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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