FOCUS_Migration Living faith: In Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa, the religious communities play a very prominent role in public life: Christians – here in a traditional procession for Holy Week – Muslims, Jews and Hindus alike. 34 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 18 A Model for Greater Togetherness La Convivencia is viewed as a golden age of tolerance – a period of peaceful coexistence between Muslims, Jews and Christians in medieval Spain. The myth surrounding this period persists to this day. Researchers at the Max Planck Institutes for Social Anthropology in Halle and for the History of Science in Berlin are studying the history of the Convivencia and considering its possible function as a model for today’s world. TEXT JEANNETTE GODDAR ust before Diwali, the Hindu festi- the Spanish exclave, which borders val of lights when members of the Morocco to the west and the Mediter- Hindu faith take to the streets in ranean to the east, since 2001. colorful processions, festive deco- J rations also adorn the area around RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS ARE the Plaza de los Reyes square in Ceuta. INTENDED TO FACILITATE CONTACT The online daily newspaper Ceuta Actu- alidad counted over 50,000 lights on Ceuta is less known as an autonomous the streets of the old city in 2016. As city than as a cipher for the confronta- in previous years, the city’s leader, tion of Europe and Africa: in both Ceu- Juan Jesús Vivas, who holds the title ta and Melilla, the European Union has Mayor-President due to Ceuta’s special a land border beyond the Mediterra- autonomous status, paid a visit to the nean. The familiar media images from Hindu community. The 64-year-old Ceuta mostly feature people climbing politician has led the government of fences: the headline “Hive of Terrorism Photo: age fotostock/Alamy stock photo 1 | 18 MaxPlanckResearch 35 on the Outer Borders” has already ap- deep that immigrants who had arrived peared in a reputable national newspa- from South America in the 1980s were per based in Zurich. naturalized before Muslims who had Juan Jesús Vivas doesn’t attend Di- been living there for generations. Chris- wali because a particularly large num- tians and Muslims have cohabited in ber of Ceuta’s 82,000 inhabitants be- Ceuta since it was conquered by Por- lieve in Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu and the tugal in the 15th century. It was later rest of the Hindu pantheon; over 95 ceded to Spain. percent of Ceuta’s inhabitants are Christians and Muslims. Vivas attends CEUTA CAN’T BE REDUCED because he understands that the joint TO ITS BORDERS celebration of religious events – be it Diwali, Yom Kippur, Eid-al-Kabir or Brian Campbell himself comes from a Easter – is a means of promoting social country located on the external border peace and stability. “When Vivas be- of Europe: Malta. Since 2011, he has Top Under one roof: This Hindu shrine in came Mayor in 2001, Ceuta was com- spent time among the inhabitants of Ceuta contains not only images of the pletely divided,” says anthropologist Ceuta over the course of many visits, goddess Durga and other Hindu gods, but Brian Campbell from the Max Planck some of which lasted several months. It also Christian and Muslim symbols. Institute in Halle. all started because, at the beginning of Bottom In the open: Muslims in Ceuta Christians and Muslims kept to his doctoral career, he was searching for mark the end of Ramadan – the month of fasting – with the traditional cele - themselves. It was very clear who was a “textbook example of multicultural- bration prayer. in charge: the Christians considered ism.” In Ceuta he found, along with themselves the city’s true citizens and many other things, a place where, al- divided power among themselves, and though people coexist under extraordi- the Muslims had to make do with what- nary conditions, the actual situation ever remained. The certainty regarding bears no relation to the image present- who belonged and who didn’t ran so ed in the European media. “Ceuta can’t Photos: JORDI CAMÍ/Alamy stock photo (top), Reuters (bottom) 36 MaxPlanckResearch 1 | 18 FOCUS_Migration Every society carries within it the roots of violence – » but also the potential for reconciliation. be reduced to its borders,” explains thing: the former implies a space that is Campbell, “People live there and they used jointly by several people or groups, love it because it’s their town. And, like while the latter implies that these peo- people everywhere, they try to make the ple or groups make joint use of all the best of what their lives have to offer.” structures in which their shared lives, And they are supported in this by including the contact between them, the mayor: In an environment in are organized. “People who cohabit which ethnicity and religion are ex- share more than just the space,” adds tremely interconnected, where Mus- Campbell, “they live, not alongside lims are almost always of Moroccan de- each other, but with each other.” scent and Christians almost always have Iberian roots, Juan Jesús Vivas de- LA CONVIVENCIA WAS A GOLDEN liberately involves the different reli- AGE IN SPAIN gious communities as actors in the city’s policies. “Instead of suppressing In the historiography, particularly the ethnicity, culture and religion, he uses Spanish version, convivencia stands for them to bring people into contact with much more than this: it denotes a peri- each other. He gives them positive con- od during which large parts of the Ibe- notations rather than negative ones,” rian Peninsula were under Muslim rule explains Brian Campbell. and became known as “al-Andalus.” Every religious community that cel- The Berber-Muslim military command- ebrates festivals or other rituals receives er Tariq Ibn Ziyad, who invaded the financial support. There is one non-ne- peninsula from the Mediterranean, gotiable condition: the spaces and gained control of the then Visigoth squares – and the buffet – must be open Kingdom in 711. This marked the be- to all the city’s inhabitants, including ginning of a period in which the Iberi- those with a different religious affilia- an Peninsula was governed first as a tion or with no religion at all. As quick- caliphate and later by numerous – ini- ly becomes evident, this creates an op- tially – Muslim kingdoms, which were Temporary Ceuta resident: Social anthropologist Brian Campbell spent weeks and sometimes portunity for people talk to and get to subsequently converted to Christian even months in the Spanish exclave to get to know one another, and thus also to es- rule under the Reconquista. know how the different religious and ethnic tablish trust. But as Campbell reports, Apart from Christians and Muslims, groups there live together. it’s about more than that. It fosters a the region was also inhabited by a mi- sense of belonging that firmly estab- nority of Jews. Christians didn’t regain lishes that, irrespective of who or what power until 1492, with the Reconquista, they believe in, they are all Spaniards. and then they wanted the entire coun- The mayor has given his model a try for themselves: the last Muslims name: convivencia. A quick check of the were reported to have been expelled word in a Spanish-English dictionary from the region in 1614, despite the yields both “coexistence” and “cohabi- fact that many of them had long since tation.” When applied to societies com- converted to Christianity. prising people of all persuasions, and This also marked the end of an era in Photos: JORDI CAMÍ/Alamy stock photo (top), Reuters (bottom) Photo: Private collection even to families, these aren’t the same which Spain flourished intellectually, 1 | 18 MaxPlanckResearch 37 FOCUS_Migration Left Collegial exchange: Helge Wendt, Elena Serrano and Mònica Colominas (left to right) work on historical aspects of the Convivencia at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Right Dialogue across the ages: A 14th-century image shows Islamic philosopher Averroes (left) in a fictitious disputation with the ancient scholar Porphyry. Averroes, who lived in Spain in the 12th century, is renowned for his works on ancient Greek philosophy, especially the writings of Aristotle. culturally and economically: Córdoba, so with varying degrees of violence. entitled “Convivencia. Iberian to Glob- the capital of the caliphate, was the Conflicts repeatedly arose, as did reli- al Dynamics 500–1750,” they are carry- third largest city in the world in the giously motivated persecution – includ- ing out research with scientists from 10th century and famous for its art ing the massacre of the Jewish popula- the Max Planck Institute for the Histo- and crafts, poetry and philosophy. tion in Granada in 1066. ry of Science in Berlin, the Max Planck One of the most popular stories from Günther Schlee, Director at the Max Institute for European Legal History in “al-Andalus” concerns the fascination Planck Institute for Social Anthropolo- Frankfurt am Main and the Kunsthis- with Aristotle and ancient Greek phi- gy in Halle, refers to it as a period of torisches Institut in Florenz, which is losophy on the part of Muslim philos- “relative peace with highs and lows,” also part of the Max Planck Society. ophers, especially Ibn-Rushd, who is but also one that lacked anything even better known in Europe under the Lat- approaching equal rights: “The society THE RELIGIONS COMPETED in name Averroes. of that period can’t be considered under IN DISPUTATIONS the aspect of the modern principle of PEACE WAS FRAGILE EVEN equality,” says Schlee. On the contrary, American historian David Nirenberg is IN THE GOLDEN AGE the Caliphs considered the non-Mus- also involved in the project as an exter- lims as dhimmis, or protected persons: nal scientist.