Download PDF | (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought_ Fourth Series) Robin Vose - Dominicans, Muslims and Jews in the Medieval Crown of Aragon-Cambridge University Press (2009).
312 Pages
With their active apostolate of preaching and teaching, Dominican friars were important promoters of Latin Christianity in the borderlands of medieval Spain and North Africa. Historians have long assumed that their efforts to convert or persecute non-Christian populations played a major role in worsening relations between Christians, Muslims and Jews in the era of crusade and reconquista. This study sheds new light on the topic by setting Dominican participation in celebrated but short-lived projects such as Arabic language studia or anti-Jewish theological disputations alongside day-to-day realities of mendicant life in the medieval Crown of Aragon. Whether in old Catalan centers like Barcelona, newly conquered Valencia or Islamic North Africa, the author shows that Dominican friars were on the whole conservative educators and disciplinarians rather than innovative missionaries — ever concerned to protect the spiritual well-being of the faithful by means of preaching, censorship and maintenance of existing barriers to interfaith communications.
ROBIN VOSE is Assistant Professor of History at St. Thomas University, New Brunswick.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book began as a doctoral dissertation, with initial research in Spain, France and Italy funded through a SSHRC/CRSHC doctoral fellowship along with generous support from the University of Notre Dame. A Medieval Academy fellowship and funding from the Newberry Library Consortium allowed me to attend a 2002 Summer Institute in the Spanish and Hispanic-American Archival Sciences at the Newberry Library in Chicago. In 2003-4 I was privileged to teach in the congenial history department at Wittenberg University, an experience which greatly facilitated and enriched my work. Since 2004 I have been a member of the equally welcoming history department at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick (Canada). Long walks to and from campus over the St. John River footbridge, with cormorants and bald eagles circling overhead, undoubtedly added their own special qualities to my comprehension of medieval history even if this is not immediately evident in every chapter.
I can only hint here at debts I owe to colleagues, friends and family. My advisor Olivia Remie Constable gave consistently excellent advice and guidance. I also worked with a dissertation committee composed of scholars whose expertise in a variety of fields is matched only by their dedication to sharing that expertise with others: Paul Cobb, Michael Signer and John Van Engen. The Notre Dame Medieval Institute, its students and its directors provided a place like no other to encourage open-minded and challenging studies of the Middle Ages. All my teachers at Notre Dame, Toronto and McGill provided insights and inspirations along the way; I would like to mention in particular Mark Jordan, Kathleen Biddick, Dayle Seidenspinner-Nunez, Mark Meyerson, Jane McAuliffe, Jacques Waardenburg, Walter Goffart, Donald Little, Faith Wallis and Nancy Partner. I also had the privilege of studying, for an all too brief period, with Sabine MacCormack and the late fr. Leonard Boyle. The depth of analysis and diversity of opinions I encountered under their tutelage was truly remarkable.
Other debts have piled up around the world: thanks to J.N. and Nina Hillgarth, David Abulafia, David Nirenberg, Robert I. Burns, Jill Webster, Adnan Husain, Larry Simon, Charles Burnett, Wout Van Bekkum, Scott Van Jacob, Harvey (Haim) Hames, Paola Tartakoff, Amanda Power, Rosa and Josep Pardina, Brian Catlos and Nuria Silleras-Fernandez for advice and conviviality. Josep Baucells Reig at the Arxiu Capitular de Barcelona, Bernat Juan Rubi at the Arxiu Capitular de Mallorca and the staff of the rare book room at the University of Barcelona were helpful and generous, as were librarians at the Universities of Notre Dame, Wittenberg and New Brunswick. Finally, I am grateful to have had splendid opportunities to present my ideas at the Illinois Medieval Association, a conference on “Post-Colonial Moves” at the University of Miami, the Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, the International Congress on Medieval Studies, the Medieval Academy and the “Christlicher Norden/Muslimischer Stiden” conference at the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt-Georgen in Frankfurt.
It was family that kept me (marginally) sane throughout the writing process, and family that kept me rich in love and support. Neither the damp winds of winter in Mallorca nor the lake-effect snows of northern Indiana could chill the glowing warmth they provided. Kim Jones made me laugh, sigh, dance and think. Owen Vose and Ryley Jones gave me new perspectives with which to see the world. All three, along with my parents John and Nancy Vose and other family members, patiently and graciously indulged my curiosity and supported me in reaching my goals. Thank you
NAMES AND TERMINOLOGY
A book written in English about many different regions in a pre-modern time whose “national” boundaries were as fluid as its dialectical orthography is bound to offend readers with a special interest in linguistic consistency. Since Iam not such a reader myself, making no claims to specialization in such fields as Catalan or Arabic onomastics, I have not felt compelled to dwell on the matter. My approach has rather been eclectic and practical, guided by a hope that the result will be comprehensible to primarily anglophone audiences. Personal names have for the most part been given in Anglicized form: James instead of Jacme, Jaime, Jaume, Tacobus or any of the other variants found in medieval and modern texts. Surnames are generally given as they surface in primary sources.
Latin surnames seem more appropriate than vernacular versions for ecclesiastics who normally appear in Latin documents; vernacular alternatives are given in parentheses at times. I apologize in advance if I have caused any confusion by discussing Raymond Martini instead of Raimundus/Ramon Marti, or John of Podio Ventoso rather than Johannes/Joan Puigventds, to cite but two examples. No attempt has been made to transliterate Arabic or Hebrew according to modern scholarly norms, and diacritics have often been omitted. Given that my focus is on medieval Dominican perceptions of their world I felt it acceptable to err on the side of simplification as they tended to do (thus Ali for ‘A/7). I have also included garbled medieval readings (“miramolin” for amir al-mu’minin) in some cases; to “correct” them would be to occlude part of the story.
I have sought to use place-names that would be reasonably identifiable to most readers. Rome for Roma is an obvious concession, and Cordoba for Cérdoba is common; more contentious perhaps is my use of Catalan Lleida for Lérida, but then Bugia for Algerian Bougie/Bijaya. I did not mean to make any nationalist or other political points through toponymy; I merely used terms I personally found to be simple and recognizable, among the many variations available in each case. Wherever confusion might arise I have tried to provide alternative spellings in parentheses.
Most egregious undoubtedly are the problematic uses of “Aragon” and “Aragonese” which will be found herein. The “Crown of Aragon” is a historians’ fiction, conveniently designating territories united under kings of Aragon but including at various times such distinct polities as the kingdoms of Valencia, Mallorca, Sicily and Sardinia, the Counties of Barcelona and Urgel, and the Lordship of Montpellier.’ “Aragon” and “Catalonia” were two of its regions, and today both are Autonomous Communities within the Spanish federation; each had an important and distinct medieval vernacular. To call medieval Catalans or Valencians “Aragonese” is strictly wrong, and potentially insulting to some, but they were subjects of the king of Aragon; furthermore, by the fourteenth century Dominicans from Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia and even Mallorca (though no longer subject to the king of Aragon in the latter case) were all members of their Order’s Aragonese Province. To be consistent and accurate here would be extremely clumsy. In compromise, friars and others have often been called “Aragonese” simply as a means of identifying their belonging to that Province (formerly part of the Province of Spain) and/or being subject to a king who included “Aragon” among his titles. Similar difficulties emerge with designations of “Spanish,” “French,” “Almohad” or “Hafsid,” but I again crave the reader’s indulgence in glossing over any resulting oversimplifications.
Finally, a note about religious terminology. One person’s convert is another’s apostate or renegade. Archaic and potentially derogatory words such as “infidel, “saracen,’““marrano” (and of course the subjective theological categories of “truth”/“error’) are inevitable in a study of medieval Dominican friars and their relations with non-Christian peoples. These relations, though sometimes relatively benign, were hardly egalitarian or open-minded by modern standards. Needless to say, I in no way mean to endorse medieval bigotry or intolerance of any form by repeating such words in the pages that follow. The sentiments presented here are those of historical characters who felt strongly about their belief systems. My goal is to present their world as fully and accurately as possible for the purpose of historical comprehension — not as fuel for anachronistic polemic or apologetic religious arguments.
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