Essays by Thomas Glick, Benjamin Gampel, Raymond Scheindlin, Dwayne Carpenter, Jerrilynn Dodds, Gabrielle Sed-Rajna, and Juan ZozayaThe nightingale’s song, its night singing, touches something deeply mortal—and immortal—in each of us.
— Edward Hirsch

The Middle Ages in Spain—the period from the Muslim conquest of 711 to the expulsion of the Jews and the defeat of the last Muslim ruler in 1492—witnessed an extraordinary “Golden Age” through the intermingling of its Jewish, Muslim, and Christian inhabitants. This volume explores the nature of their coexistence (termed convivencia by Spanish historians), which embraced not only ideological interchange and cultural influence, but also mutual friction, rivalry, and suspicion. The cultural and social dynamics underlying convivencia powerfully influenced the creation of poetry, art, architecture, and the material culture of Spain, as well as the transmission and absorption of scientific ideas and technology from East to West. Explored by leading scholars in each of these fields, the cultural treasures of convicenciarange from Hebrew biblical manuscripts illuminated with Islamic stylistic motifs, to astrolabes with Latin inscriptions, to the first examples of secular Hebrew poetry.

At a time when the study of cultural fusion is receiving increasing attention, this volume offers a fresh and comprehensive view of Spain’s pluralistic medieval society. Moreover, it celebrates an inspiring history of cultural achievement in the context of intergroup relations that were both negative and positive.

VIVIAN MANN is the Morris and Eva Feld Chair of Judaica at The Jewish Museum, and is Director of the Bernard Manekin Institute for Jewish Art. 
THOMAS GLICK, Professor of History at Boston University, is the author of Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages, and is co-editor of Historical Dictionary of Modern Sciences in Spain.
JERRILYN DODDS, Associate Professor of Art History at the City University of New York and a specialist in medieval Islamic and Christian art, is the author of Architecture and Ideology in Early Medieval Spain.

October 2007
8 1/2 x 10 1/4 in., 266 pages, 36 color plates, 60 b/w
ISBN: 978-0-8076-1286-6
Hardback, $39.95 (Canada $50.00)