Event FinderRabbis, Priests, Imams, and Infidels: Engaging the Other’s Religion in the Medieval Mediterranean
- Starts
- Ends
- Format
- In person
- Location
- Great Hall, Memorial Union, 2229 Lincoln Way, Ames, IA 50014
About This Event
Speaker: Tom Burman Throughout much of the Mediterranean region in the Middle Ages, Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived in the same cities, often in the same neighborhoods, and sometimes in the same houses. This lecture will explore what happened when scholars from among the three religions took the time to learn about their neighbors’ religions through learning their languages, reading their holy books, and studying their theologies. Of course, they were often appalled by what they discovered, but just as often, they found ideas, practices, and beliefs that impressed them. Indeed, often they borrowed from each other, as when Christians in the Middle East adopted Islamic theological language to express Christian doctrine, or when pious Jews repackaged Sufi practices for Jewish audiences. At the extremes, this exploration could lead to outright persecution, such as when learned Dominican priests became inquisitors, but it could also culminate in something quite different: conversion. The lecture will, in fact, conclude with reflections on both a Franciscan who became a Muslim and a Rabbi who became a Christian bishop in the late Middle Ages.