Historian adds nuance to Mideast religious history
The history of the three major monotheistic religions is sometimes viewed in simplistic terms, and CU Professor Brian Catlos hopes to add breadth to the historical record. Seen above are symbols of the Abrahamic religions on an iron fence in Haifa city, Israel. Photo: istockphoto.
Catlos reconciles contrary views of the history of interaction among Muslims, Christians and Jews in the medieval Mediterranean area.
By Clay Evans
Consider a few of the many commonly held beliefs about the history of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in southern Europe, the Levant and the greater Middle East.
Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula in the middle ages was characterized by tolerance, while Christian society of the time was very intolerant. The Crusades of 11th through 13th centuries were primarily a conflict between Christianity and Islam. The conflict in Israel-Palestine is simply a modern enactment of ages-old tensions and enmity between Jews and Muslims.
There is some truth to each proposition, but none reflects the full scope of history. Brian Catlos, professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and a leading innovator in the emerging interdisciplinary field of Mediterranean studies, would like to correct the record.
His books, “Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Faith, Power, and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad,” scheduled for release in August 2014, and “Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, 1050-1614,” published in May, are just his latest contributions to the field.
With “Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors,” Catlos says he “aims to reconcile two contrary views of this history, the clash of civilizations versus Convivencia” — the “coexistence” in which the three Abrahamic faiths were said to have lived in relative peace together in Spain.
“The book explores some of the unknown history of interaction between them that is neither the stereotypic conflict nor the rosy nostalgic view some people adopt of Muslim, Christian and Jewish harmony,” he says.
For example, leading up to the First Crusade in 1096, Muslims — specifically, Sunni Turks ruling a caliphate from Baghdad and the Shia Fatamid dynasty in Egypt — were too busy waging holy war against one another to try to conquer Europe.
Likewise, the period featured a “clash of civilizations” in the Christian world between the churches in Rome and Constantinople.
“These two conflicts intersected and the Crusades emerged as a kind of collateral damage,” Catlos says. “I think this is extremely important, because it challenges the interpretation of history of Muslim-Christian conflict upon which we sometimes try to justify policies today.”
He cites as examples President George W. Bush’s reference to a “crusade” with regard to the war in Iraq and Osama bin Laden’s constant references to the “loss” of Andalusia to Christians hundreds of years ago. But politicians and polemicists are not the only guilty parties: the Western “scholarly edifice” has reinforced the same ideas for centuries.
The book “Muslims and Medieval Latin Christendom,” which explores some of the same time period, is intended for a more academic audience and is “the first time that anyone has written an overall history of Muslim minorities in Christian Europe,” Catlos says. The book explores how Muslims helped transform everything from cooking to literature to science, and even served as a catalyst for changes in how Christendom viewed itself.
Until quite recently, the influence of Islam on the development of Western culture was mostly ignored by scholars.
“The way we think of history in the West is, really, a normal product of an intellectual culture which … is rooted in the societies and culture of northwest Europe,” he says. “But if you only analyze history through one particular cultural lens, you are not getting the whole story. You are going to get some things wrong.”
As a co-director of the Mediterranean Seminar, based at the Center for Mediterranean Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Mediterranean Studies Group, at the CU-Boulder Department of Religious Studies, Catlos is interesting shifting such long-held perceptions in Western culture and the academy.
The seminar is the leading organization in the emerging field, with some 800 members worldwide who participate in conferences and workshops and collaborate on research and other projects.
“The Mediterranean is an area where people of different languages, ethnicities, religions and social and political cultures have interacted for millennia,” says Sharon Kinoshita, professor of world literature and cultural studies and co-director of the Center for Mediterranean Studies.
“Mediterranean Studies gives us a way of thinking about the variety of forms such interactions could take, allowing us to see the big picture of things that are artificially separated when the history of the region is divided into sub-specialties like French or Islamic or African history, art, literature, etc."
“Brian Catlos has played a key role in shaping this new field,” she says. “His own research on religious minorities across the region draws on his extraordinary ability to work across levels from the archival document to the theoretical model, producing a richly textured picture of life in the medieval Mediterranean.”
Clay Evans is director of public relations for CU Presents.
June 25, 2014
Catlos reconciles contrary views of the history of interaction among Muslims, Christians and Jews in the medieval Mediterranean area.
By Clay Evans
Consider a few of the many commonly held beliefs about the history of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in southern Europe, the Levant and the greater Middle East.
Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula in the middle ages was characterized by tolerance, while Christian society of the time was very intolerant. The Crusades of 11th through 13th centuries were primarily a conflict between Christianity and Islam. The conflict in Israel-Palestine is simply a modern enactment of ages-old tensions and enmity between Jews and Muslims.
Brian Catlos, CU professor of religious studies
There is some truth to each proposition, but none reflects the full scope of history. Brian Catlos, professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and a leading innovator in the emerging interdisciplinary field of Mediterranean studies, would like to correct the record.
His books, “Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Faith, Power, and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad,” scheduled for release in August 2014, and “Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, 1050-1614,” published in May, are just his latest contributions to the field.
With “Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors,” Catlos says he “aims to reconcile two contrary views of this history, the clash of civilizations versus Convivencia” — the “coexistence” in which the three Abrahamic faiths were said to have lived in relative peace together in Spain.
“The book explores some of the unknown history of interaction between them that is neither the stereotypic conflict nor the rosy nostalgic view some people adopt of Muslim, Christian and Jewish harmony,” he says.
The book "Infidels, Kings and Unholy Warriors" by Brian Catlos will be released in August.
For example, leading up to the First Crusade in 1096, Muslims — specifically, Sunni Turks ruling a caliphate from Baghdad and the Shia Fatamid dynasty in Egypt — were too busy waging holy war against one another to try to conquer Europe.
Likewise, the period featured a “clash of civilizations” in the Christian world between the churches in Rome and Constantinople.
“These two conflicts intersected and the Crusades emerged as a kind of collateral damage,” Catlos says. “I think this is extremely important, because it challenges the interpretation of history of Muslim-Christian conflict upon which we sometimes try to justify policies today.”
He cites as examples President George W. Bush’s reference to a “crusade” with regard to the war in Iraq and Osama bin Laden’s constant references to the “loss” of Andalusia to Christians hundreds of years ago. But politicians and polemicists are not the only guilty parties: the Western “scholarly edifice” has reinforced the same ideas for centuries.
The book “Muslims and Medieval Latin Christendom,” which explores some of the same time period, is intended for a more academic audience and is “the first time that anyone has written an overall history of Muslim minorities in Christian Europe,” Catlos says. The book explores how Muslims helped transform everything from cooking to literature to science, and even served as a catalyst for changes in how Christendom viewed itself.
Until quite recently, the influence of Islam on the development of Western culture was mostly ignored by scholars.
“The way we think of history in the West is, really, a normal product of an intellectual culture which … is rooted in the societies and culture of northwest Europe,” he says. “But if you only analyze history through one particular cultural lens, you are not getting the whole story. You are going to get some things wrong.”
As a co-director of the Mediterranean Seminar, based at the Center for Mediterranean Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Mediterranean Studies Group, at the CU-Boulder Department of Religious Studies, Catlos is interesting shifting such long-held perceptions in Western culture and the academy.
The seminar is the leading organization in the emerging field, with some 800 members worldwide who participate in conferences and workshops and collaborate on research and other projects.
“The Mediterranean is an area where people of different languages, ethnicities, religions and social and political cultures have interacted for millennia,” says Sharon Kinoshita, professor of world literature and cultural studies and co-director of the Center for Mediterranean Studies.
“Mediterranean Studies gives us a way of thinking about the variety of forms such interactions could take, allowing us to see the big picture of things that are artificially separated when the history of the region is divided into sub-specialties like French or Islamic or African history, art, literature, etc."
“Brian Catlos has played a key role in shaping this new field,” she says. “His own research on religious minorities across the region draws on his extraordinary ability to work across levels from the archival document to the theoretical model, producing a richly textured picture of life in the medieval Mediterranean.”
Clay Evans is director of public relations for CU Presents.
June 25, 2014