Texts from the Middle is a companion primary source reader to the textbook The Sea in the Middle. It can be used alone or in conjunction with the textbook, providing an original history of the Middle Ages that places the Mediterranean at the geographical center of the study of the period from 650 to 1650. Building on the textbook's unique approach, these sources center on the Mediterranean and emphasize the role played by peoples and cultures of Africa, Asia, and Europe in an age when Christians, Muslims, and Jews of various denominations engaged with each other in both conflict and collaboration. The supplementary reader mirrors the main text's fifteen-chapter structure, providing six sources per chapter. The two texts pair together to provide a framework and materials that guide students through this complex but essential history-one that will appeal to the diverse student bodies of today.

The kingdom of Valencia was home to Christian Spain's largest Muslim population during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Fernando and Isabel. How did Muslim-Christian coexistence in Valencia remain relatively stable in this volatile period that saw the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition, the Expulsion of the Jews, the conquest of Granada, and the conversion of the Muslims of Granada and Castile? In explanation, Mark Meyerson achieves the first thorough analysis of Fernando and Isabel's policy toward both Muslims and Jews. His findings will stimulate much discussion among Hispanists, Arabists, and historians. Meyerson argues that the key to the persistence of Muslim-Christian coexistence in Valencia lies in the hitherto unexamined differences between the royal couple concerning matters of religion. More than a study of the minority policy of the Catholic Monarchs, however, The Muslims of Valencia is an exemplary analysis of the economic life of Valencia's Muslims and the complex institutional and social network that held them suspended "between coexistence and crusade." This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1991.

The Sea in the Middle presents an original and revisionist narrative of the development of the medieval west from late antiquity to the dawn of modernity. This textbook is uniquely centered on the Mediterranean and emphasizes the role played by peoples and cultures of Africa, Asia, and Europe in an age when Christians, Muslims, and Jews of various denominations engaged with each other in both conflict and collaboration. Key features: Fifteen-chapter structure to aid classroom use Sections in each chapter that feature key artifacts relevant to chapter themes Dynamic visuals, including 190 photos and 20 maps The Sea in the Middle and its sourcebook companion, Texts from the Middle, pair together to provide a framework and materials that guide students through this complex but essential history-one that will appeal to the diverse student bodies of today.

This book significantly revises the conventional view that the Jewish experience in medieval Spain--over the century before the expulsion of 1492--was one of despair, persecution, and decline. Focusing on the town of Morvedre in the kingdom of Valencia, Mark Meyerson shows how and why Morvedre's Jewish community revived and flourished in the wake of the horrible violence of 1391. Drawing on a wide array of archival documentation, including Spanish Inquisition records, he argues that Morvedre saw a Jewish "renaissance."

Meyerson shows how the favorable policies of kings and of town government yielded the Jewish community's demographic expansion and prosperity. Of crucial importance were new measures that ceased the oppressive taxation of the Jews and minimized their role as moneylenders. The results included a reversal of the credit relationship between Jews and Christians, a marked amelioration of Christian attitudes toward Jews, and greater economic diversification on the part of Jews.

Representing a major contribution to debates over the Inquisition's origins and the expulsion of the Jews, the book also offers the first extended analysis of Jewish-converso relations at the local level, showing that Morvedre's Jews expressed their piety by assisting Valencia's conversos. Comparing Valencia with other regions of Spain and with the city-states of Renaissance Italy, it makes clear why this kingdom and the town of Morvedre were so ripe for a Jewish revival in the fifteenth century.

This collection spans both the medieval and early modern period, describing the developments and day-to-day realities of relations between Jews, Muslims and Christians in Spain from the 9th to the 16th centuries. The essays discuss the historiography and the issues raised by the constantly shifting balance of ethnoreligious power, intellectual contact between cultures and social identity throughout the Iberian peninsula.

The kingdom of Valencia was home to Christian Spain's largest Muslim population during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Fernando and Isabel. How did Muslim-Christian coexistence in Valencia remain relatively stable in this volatile period that saw the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition, the Expulsion of the Jews, the conquest of Granada, and the conversion of the Muslims of Granada and Castile? In explanation, Mark Meyerson achieves the first thorough analysis of Fernando and Isabel's policy toward both Muslims and Jews. His findings will stimulate much discussion among Hispanists, Arabists, and historians. Meyerson argues that the key to the persistence of Muslim-Christian coexistence in Valencia lies in the hitherto unexamined differences between the royal couple concerning matters of religion. More than a study of the minority policy of the Catholic Monarchs, however, The Muslims of Valencia is an exemplary analysis of the economic life of Valencia's Muslims and the complex institutional and social network that held them suspended "between coexistence and crusade." This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1991.

'A great effusion of blood' was a phrase used frequently throughout medieval Europe as shorthand to describe the effects of immoderate interpersonal violence. Yet the ambiguity of this phrase poses numerous problems for modern readers and scholars in interpreting violence in medieval society and culture and its effect on medieval people. Understanding medieval violence is made even more complex by the multiplicity of views that need to be reconciled: those of modern scholars regarding the psychology and comportment of medieval people, those of the medieval persons themselves as perpetrators or victims of violence, those of medieval writers describing the acts, and those of medieval readers, the audience for these accounts. Using historical records, artistic representation, and theoretical articulation, the contributors to this volume attempt to bring together these views and fashion a comprehensive understanding of medieval conceptions of violence. Exploring the issue from both historical and literary perspectives, the contributors examine violence in a broad variety of genres, places, and times, such as the Late Antique lives of the martyrs, Islamic historiography, Anglo-Saxon poetry and Norse sagas, canon law and chronicles, English and Scottish ballads, the criminal records of fifteenth-century Spain, and more. Taken together, the essays offer fresh ways of analysing medieval violence and its representations, and bring us closer to an understanding of how it was experienced by the people who lived it.

This collection spans both the medieval and early modern period, describing the developments and day-to-day realities of relations between Jews, Muslims and Christians in Spain from the 9th to the 16th centuries. The essays discuss the historiography and the issues raised by the constantly shifting balance of ethnoreligious power, intellectual contact between cultures and social identity throughout the Iberian peninsula.