A Society in Transition: Property and Law in Arabic Documents from Toledo (11th-14th Centuries) (winter term 2021/22)

Topic:

The collection of legal documents of the Cathedral of Toledo, Archivo Histórico Nacional de Madrid, a collection of 1175 documents (1083-1391) offers a detailed portrait of Toledo. It witnesses the fact that Muslim, Christians and Jews of Toledo preserved their Arabic legal culture for about 250 years after the conquest of Toledo in 1085. Arabic language, laws and legal culture continued under the Castilian administration, when the population of Toledo had become subject to Christian “law,” called Sunna an-Naṣārà, or Fuero.

It is the largest collection of Arabic documents preserved in Spain and displays the continuation of Islamic legal culture and the transformation of socio-economic structures as shown by documents of transactions, donations, testaments, credits, marriage contracts, and so on. As a mirror of the transformation of society, the collection pictures the economic role played by the Church officials, the accumulation of wealth by  certain families and the Cathedral, the transfer of property among religious communities as well as the process of conversion and assimilation.

Furthermore, it portraits the leadership of women in social and economic life, together with the gradual linguistic „turn“ that culminated in the 14th century, when Romance, the language of Castilians, replaced Arabic and Latin.

The Toledo documents are unique insofar as they are the only known collection of Arabic legal documents reproducing the Islamic legal system, written by non-Muslims living under Christian rule. The origin of this Archive would be as well explored.

Method:

The course would combine traditional methods of scholarship, such as reading and deciphering the documents, situating them in their historical context, and quantitative network analysis (partially done) to reveal previously unexamined patterns of political, socio-economic and legal structures in the paradigmatic city of Toledo. A whole view of the collection will be achieved by focusing in the most representative documents of each kind. An introduction to the use of APD, Arabic Papyrology Database, LMU, will be provided for the use in class.

Aims:

Mastering the language of legal documents and Maghribi script.
Improving analysis skills concerning the factors and agents of a process of social change, in this case, applied to Toledo society.
Overview of the role of law and religious institutions in the transformation of society.

 Type of exam:

Oral presentation
Written essay

Among the required readings are:

Beale-Rivaya, Y.; Busic, J. (ed.). 2018. A Companion to Medieval Toledo. Leiden: Brill.
König, D.G. 2019. Latin and Arabic: Entangled Histories. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University.
Olstein, D.A. 2006. La era Mozarabe. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca.
Pennington, K. 2006. "The Birth of the Ius commune: King Roger II’s Legislation", Rivista internazionale del diritto comune 17, 1-40.
Paul, J.. 2018. "Archival Practices in the Muslim World Prior to 1500", in: A. Bausi, C. Brockmann, M. Friedrich, S. Kienitz, (ed.), Manuscripts and Archives: Comparative Views on Record-Keeping, Berlin (Studies in Manuscript Cultures 11), 339-360.
Vandorpe, K. 2011. "Archives and Dossiers", in: S. Bagnall (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Spoken and written proficiency in English language. The course is open to all advanced students in B.A., M.A., and PhD programs of Islamic studies, historians, art historians, and archaeologists of the Middle East. All students need a computer, reliable internet access, and a headset. In a short personal Skype interview, we will check whether all technical assets are working.

Students from Hamburg have to sign up in the campus system stine and to contact Stefan Heidemann as early as possible to register and get the necessary introduction into the technology. Students from other universities than Universität Hamburg are welcome and have to apply with a short CV and a motivation letter in English. The applications should be sent to Prof Stefan Heidemann (stefan.heidemann@uni-hamburg.de) and to Dr Rocio Daga Portillo (rociodaga@lmu.de).

Preference is given to students from universities within the network of the Webinar Initiative in Islamic Material Culture.