The Creation of a Medieval Frontier: Islam and Christianity in the Iberian Peninsula, Eighth to Eleventh Centuries

Abstract

Would-be historians of the Spanish Middle Ages have to make an important decision before starting their careers: they have to choose to study either the Muslim or the Christian side. In so choosing, they will affiliate themselves with one of two distinct academic traditions which, over the last hundred years of Western scholarship, have developed clear-cut disciplinary divisions. In short, they will become either Arabists or Medievalists. As Arabists they will be mainly concerned with the history of al-Andalus, the land formerly known as Hispania, which the Arabs conquered in 711. As Medievalists, our would-be historians will deal with the kingdoms that originated in the aftermath of that conquest in the mountainous and inaccessible areas of the north.