Cultural Flourishing in Tenth Century Muslim Spain Among Muslims, Jews, and Christians
CULTURAL FLOURISHING IN TENTH CENTURY MUSLIM SPAIN AMONG MUSLIMS, JEWS, AND CHRISTIANS A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of The School of Continuing Studies and of The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Liberal Studies By Marilyn Penn Allen, B.S. Georgetown University Washington D.C. December 17, 2008 Copyright 2008 by Marilyn Penn Allen All Rights Reserved ii CULTURAL FLOURISHING IN TENTH CENTURY MUSLIM SPAIN AMONG MUSLIMS, JEWS, AND CHRISTIANS Marilyn Penn Allen, B.S. Mentor: Ori Z. Soltes, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This thesis seeks to discover what made it possible for such an extraordinary cultural flourishing to occur among Muslims, Jews, and Christians in tenth century Muslim Spain during the reign of the Umayyad Muslim leader Abd al-Rahman III and his Jewish vizier (minister of state), Hasdai ibn Shaprut. What historical, societal, and personal factors made it possible for these two leaders to collaborate? My analysis primarily looks at the time of Muslim rule in Medieval Spain (called al-Andalus by the Muslims and Sepharad by the Jews) from 711 to 1031 C.E. However, in order to place that time period in context, it is important to look at what was happening in Spain before the Muslim invasion as well as what was happening in the known world, in particular the Mediterranean basin, from the first to the eleventh centuries. For example, the Muslim empire spread rapidly in the seventh and eighth centuries, eventually encompassing the territories from Spain to the Indus River and controlling all the trade routes across the Mediterranean.
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