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book: Iberian Moorings
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Iberian Moorings

Al-Andalus, Sefarad, and the Tropes of Exceptionalism
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2021

About this book

To Christians the Iberian Peninsula was Hispania, to Muslims al-Andalus, and to Jews Sefarad. As much as these were all names given to the same real place, the names also constituted ideas, and like all ideas, they have histories of their own. To some, al-Andalus and Sefarad were the subjects of conventional expressions of attachment to and pride in homeland of the universal sort displayed in other Islamic lands and Jewish communities; but other Muslim and Jewish political, literary, and religious actors variously developed the notion that al-Andalus or Sefarad, its inhabitants, and their culture were exceptional and destined to play a central role in the history of their peoples.

In Iberian Moorings Ross Brann traces how al-Andalus and Sefarad were invested with special political, cultural, and historical significance across the Middle Ages. This is the first work to analyze the tropes of Andalusi and Sefardi exceptionalism in comparative perspective. Brann focuses on the social power of these tropes in Andalusi Islamic and Sefardi Jewish cultures from the tenth through the twelfth century and reflects on their enduring influence and its expressions in scholarship, literature, and film down to the present day.

Author / Editor information

Ross Brann is Milton R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies, Cornell University. He is author of The Compunctious Poet: Cultural Ambiguity and Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain and Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Muslims and Jews in Islamic Spain.

Reviews

"Iberian Moorings constitutes an original and compelling contribution to several disciplines that have woefully divided scholarship on Islamic al-Andalus from that of Hebrew Sefarad, and both from the bulk of scholarship on Christian Spain and western Europe. The study is the first of which I am aware to offer a full, diachronic and multivalenced investigation of the long-nurtured belief of Andalusi Muslim and Jewish elites in their cultural superiority and uniqueness, and the afterlife of that belief into our own times."

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    vii
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    Preface

    ix
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    Acknowledgments

    xi
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    Introduction. Andalusi and Sefardi Exceptionalism as Tropes of Islamic and Jewish Culture

    1
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    Chapter 1. Geography and Destiny: The Genesis of Andalusi Exceptionalism in the Umayyad Caliphal Age

    21
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    Chapter 2. Without al- Andalus, There Would Be No Sefarad: The Origins of Sefardi Exceptionalism

    45
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    Chapter 3. The Cultural Turn: Andalusi Exceptionalism Through Arabic Adab, Following the Collapse of the Unitary State

    74
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    Chapter 4. The Jerusalemite Exile That Is in Sefarad: Sefardi Exceptionalism (Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries)

    106
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    Chapter 5. Out of Place with Exceptionalism on the Mind: Sefardi and Andalusi Travelers Abroad (Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries)

    139
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    Conclusion. Andalusi, Sefardi, and Spanish Exceptionalism: Reclaimed, Embraced, Repudiated, Re imagined

    172
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    Notes

    195
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    Bibliography

    239
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    Index

    275
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
April 19, 2021
eBook ISBN:
9780812297874
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
240
View content
https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812297874
eBook ISBN: 9780812297874
Keywords for this book
Exceptionalism; Utopia; Nostalgia; Andalusi; Sefardi; Iberia; Medieval History; Iberian peninsula; Exile; Trope; Mediterranean studies
Audience(s) for this book
For universities and colleges of further and higher education
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