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Contemplating Convivencia: Cosmopolitanism, Exclusivism and Religious Identity in Iberia

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Contemplating Convivencia: Cosmopolitanism, Exclusivism and Religious Identity in Iberia Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Religious Studies Theses Department of Religious Studies Summer 8-7-2012 Contemplating Convivencia: Cosmopolitanism, Exclusivism and Religious Identity in Iberia John F. Sullivan II Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/rs_theses Recommended Citation Sullivan, John F. II, "Contemplating Convivencia: Cosmopolitanism, Exclusivism and Religious Identity in Iberia." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2012. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/rs_theses/43 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Religious Studies at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Religious Studies Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CONTEMPLATING CONVIVENCIA: COSMOPOLITANISM, EXCLUSIVISM AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY IN IBERIA by JOHN FRANCIS SULLIVAN II Under the Direction of Louis A. Ruprecht Jr. ABSTRACT Visigothic Hispania, Islamicate al-Andalus and Christian Spain are names representing three scriptural monotheistic civilizations in Iberia. Al-Andalus has stood apart from this list by representing a time and a place of convivencia in which Christians, Jews and Muslims cooperated and coexisted. Why and how the Islamicate civilization in al-Andalus differed from the Visigoths or the Spanish, despite all three sharing a religious orientation is an historical puzzle. By exploring the legal status of Jews within the legal regimes of Christian Rome and Visigothic Hispania, this thesis will suggest that it is cosmopolitanism and its converse exclusivism that best explain concepts of convivencia or coexistence in the face of religious diversity. INDEX WORDS: Convivencia, Iberia, Islam, Muslim, Spain, Cosmopolitanism, Jew, Christian, Roman, Visigoth, Exclusivism, Law, Theodosius, Constantine, Diogenes, Cosmopolitan CONTEMPLATING CONVIVENCIA: COSMOPOLITANISM, EXCLUSIVISM AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY IN IBERIA by JOHN FRANCIS SULLIVAN II A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2012 Copyright by John F. Sullivan II 2012 CONTEMPLATING CONVIVENCIA: COSMOPOLITANISM, EXCLUSIVISM AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY IN IBERIA by JOHN FRANCIS SULLIVAN II Committee Chair: Louis A. Ruprecht Jr. Committee: Abbas Barzegar Isaac Weiner Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University August 2012 iv DEDICATION For Lou, strength and honor. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many thanks to my committee members, Louis A. Ruprecht Jr., Abbas Barzegar and Isaac Weiner for their myriad of invaluable contributions to this project over the years. This thesis could also not have been completed without the feedback and encouragement of colleagues Sarah Levine, Suzanne Tryon, Kenny Smith, Heather Abraham, Nicholas Newell and Kathryn Yates. I would also like to acknowledge the excellent work of Georgia State University’s Interlibrary Loan staff that was consistently able to locate and obtain obscure materials. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... v 1 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................... 1 What’s in a name? ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Engaging Iberia .................................................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 Temporal Bookends and the Iberian Difference ............................................................. 3 1.1.2 In the year 1492… .......................................................................................................... 4 1.1.3 Peoples and a Peninsula ................................................................................................. 5 1.1.4 Imperial Identities ........................................................................................................... 7 1.1.5 Dominant Categories of Imperial Identity .................................................................... 11 1.2 Cosmopolitanism, Exclusivism and Identity ...................................................................... 13 1.3 Cosmopolitanism ................................................................................................................. 16 1.3.1 A Citizen of the World ................................................................................................... 18 1.3.2 What hath Diogenes wrought? ...................................................................................... 21 1.3.3 A Cosmopolitan Empire ................................................................................................ 22 1.4 Exclusivism ......................................................................................................................... 24 1.5 Exclusivism and Scriptural Monotheism ........................................................................... 25 1.5.1 The Jews ........................................................................................................................ 25 1.5.2 Christians ...................................................................................................................... 27 1.5.3 Muslims ......................................................................................................................... 28 1.5.4 Cosmopolitanism and Exclusivism at Work .................................................................. 29 vii 1.5.5 Cosmopolitan Monotheism ........................................................................................... 30 1.6 A Tale of Two Romes .......................................................................................................... 31 1.6.1 Constantine ................................................................................................................... 32 1.6.2 Theodosius .................................................................................................................... 33 2 VISIGOTHIC HISPANIA (419-711 CE) ................................................................................ 36 2.1.1 What is a Visigoth? ....................................................................................................... 38 2.2 Visigothic Hispania, Stage One: From Roman to Visigoth .............................................. 39 2.2.1 The Temporal Bookends of Visigothic Hispania ........................................................... 39 2.2.2 From Roman Hispania to Visigothic Hispania ............................................................. 40 2.2.3 Policing Borders: The Jews and the Codex Theodosianus ........................................... 41 2.3 Visigothic Hispania and the Lex Romana Visigothorum .................................................. 47 2.3.1 Lex Romana Visigothorum ............................................................................................ 48 2.4 Stage II: Visigothic to Nicene Visigothic ........................................................................... 53 2.4.1 The Third Council of Toledo and The Nicene Visigoths. .............................................. 54 2.4.2 An Impossible Dream .................................................................................................... 57 2.4.3 The Sixth Council of Toldeo .......................................................................................... 59 2.4.4 The Jews and the Lex Visigothorum ............................................................................. 61 2.5 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 78 2.6 Epilogue ............................................................................................................................... 80 2.6.1 Scope of the Project ...................................................................................................... 80 2.6.2 Islamicate Al-Andalus ................................................................................................... 82 viii 2.6.3 Christian Spain ............................................................................................................. 84 2.6.4 Contemplating Convivencia .......................................................................................... 85 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................ 86 1 1 INTRODUCTION Medieval Iberia (c. 711 CE – 1492 CE) is often upheld as a model of social organization by contemporary scholars who privilege terms such as coexistence or convivencia. Such terms are designed to foreground the categories of tolerance and intolerance as they may have been reflected within the regimes that ruled in that place and time. In this thesis, I will explore Iberia, not in terms of tolerance or intolerance, but by using a different set of variables in order to highlight what may be a more broadly applicable and ultimately more illuminating picture of what actually emerged. My starting point will be a close study of the legal regimes and their response to religious minorities, specifically
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