Tariq Ibn Ziyad and “Conquest” Legends

Betrayal, vengeance, collaboration, and prophecy justify the Christian and Islamic narratives for the birth of al-Andalus or Muslim Spain in 711. We’ll explore the stories that shaped this new Islamicate reign. Specifically focusing on the Umayyad commander Tariq ibn Ziyad and the fall of the last Visigothic King, Roderic comparing the preservation of this history in Christian and Muslim sources.

Wallada and Andalusi Literature

Artistic expression flourished, especially during the Umayyad rule of the Emirate and Caliphate of Cordoba between 756-1031. This time period was marked by strategic cross-religious collaboration from politics to literature. One such artist is Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, the daughter of one of the last Umayyad rulers. In exploring her legacy, we’ll also discuss the muwashshah genre and other writers.

Maimonides and Jewish Thought

As one of the leading 12th-century Sephardi philosophers trained in theology, astronomy, and medicine, Maimonides is an exemplary figure for showcasing interconnected Mediterranean exchange and the significance of Jewish intellectual history influencing both Christian and Muslim scholars. By exploring his contributions we’ll explore the fascinating political backdrop of the shifting reign of the Almoravid empire to the stricter Almohads.

Ibn ‘Arabī and Islamic Philosophy

Born some 30 years after Maimonides, Ibn ‘Arabī was a leading Andalusi polymath trained in philosophy, poetry, and mysticism. He was part of the Iberian Peninsula’s Sufi movement, a movement that had lasting impacts on both Iberian Islam and Iberian culture overall. Among other contemporaries and their contributions, we will explore his monist doctrine of “wahdat al-wujūd” (unity of being).

Alfonso X and Toledean Translations

Here we focus on the 13th-century Christian court of King Alfonso X. Nicknamed “el Sabio” (the Wise), he employed Muslim, Jewish, and Christian scholars to translate texts from Arabic and Hebrew into Castilian and Latin, many of which were astrological or occult. Among others, we’ll explore the famed Picatrix, a magical manual derived from the original 10th-century Andalusi Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm.

Don Yllan and Fictional Learning

Fiction tells us just as much about the past as chronicles and philosophical or scientific treatises can. We’ll explore one such 14th-century example from Don Juan Manuel’s didactic Conde Lucanor. His exemplum 11 tells of a learned mage and a greedy Christian student. How magic is depicted shows us the importance of preservation and dissemination of knowledge beyond religious affiliations.

Teresa de Ávila and Christian Mysticism

Mystical practices center around a personal relationship with God. We saw this earlier through Muslim and Jewish thought via Sufism and Kabbalah, let’s now explore the Christian approach in the 16th century. In looking at Teresa de Ávila’s life and works we can see how she and her contemporaries understood the interaction of poetry, pain, and unification with the Divine.

Núñez Muley and New Christians

We conclude with sixteenth-century Morisco Francisco Núñez Muley, most known for his Memorial, a petition to Christian authorities in protest against anti-Morisco regulations. Despite conversions, New Christians—both Conversos and Moriscos—faced many difficulties whether they were genuine converts or still clandestinely practiced Judaism or Islam respectively. This increasing scrutiny and suspicion ultimately lead to the Morisco expulsions between 1609-1614.

Meet Your Instructor

Veronica Menaldi

Veronica Menaldi is an independent scholar and vice president of Societas Magica. She holds a PhD in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures from the University of Minnesota and specializes in socioreligious cultural contact via magic and food originating from the premodern Iberian Peninsula, emphasizing Andalusi influence or Morisco production across the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Including her monograph, Love Magic and Control in Premodern Iberian Literature (Routledge 2021), she has nearly 35 publications and has presented her research at roughly 65 venues like academic conferences, universities, and public humanities locales. Since 2012, she has taught in the US and abroad ranging from introductory language to specialized content courses in Spanish and English across all modalities including her previous role as a University of Mississippi assistant professor and current educator position at a Colorado college-prep charter. Her public outreach project, @medievalmagicmodernmystic, explores the intersection of the premodern occult and contemporary tarot and astrology.