Texts from the Middle

Texts from the Middle is a companion primary source reader to the textbook The Sea in the Middle. It can be used alone or in conjunction with the textbook, providing an original history of the Middle Ages that places the Mediterranean at the geographical center of the study of the period from 650 to 1650.
 
Building on the textbook’s unique approach, these sources center on the Mediterranean and emphasize the role played by peoples and cultures of Africa, Asia, and Europe in an age when Christians, Muslims, and Jews of various denominations engaged with each other in both conflict and collaboration. The supplementary reader mirrors the main text’s fifteen-chapter structure, providing six sources per chapter.
 
The two texts pair together to provide a framework and materials that guide students through this complex but essential history—one that will appeal to the diverse student bodies of today.

 
 

Contents

List of Texts 
Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART I. The Helleno-Islamic Mediterranean (650–1050 CE)

1 The Legacy of Empire

1. The Battle of Siffin (657 CE)
2. The Battle of Tours (732 CE)
3. Legends of Women and the Conquest of al-Andalus
4. Toda of Navarre and ꞌAbd al-Rahman III
5. The Emperor, the Caliph, and the Elephant
6. Basil Lakapenos: A Mighty Eunuch

2 Mediterranean Connections

1. Harald Hardradi: A Viking in the Mediterranean 
2. Religious Relations in Fatimid Cairo
3. The Calendar of Córdoba
4. Jewish Traders’ Letters from the Cairo Geniza
5. Ibn Fadlan at the Frontiers of the Mediterranean World

3 Conversion and the Consolidation of Identiies

1. Christian Arabization in Muslim Lands
2. Byzantine Iconoclasm
3. The Donation of Constantine 
4. Jews in Early Medieval Europe 
5. Jewish Communities and Muslim Authorities in the Cairo Geniza 

4 Peoples of the Book Reading Their Books 

1. Which Is the Bible? Which Is the Qurꞌan? 
2. The Problem of Scriptural Translation
3. Studying in Eleventh-Century Iraq and France
4. Hadiths on Fasting, Charity, and the Hajj
5. A Christian and a Muslim Interpret Their Scriptures
6. Plotinus on Beauty and the One
7. Ibn Hazm Critiques the Christian Gospels and Explores the Nature of Love 

PART II. An Age of Conflict and Collaboration (1050–1350 CE)

5 Holy and Unholy War 

1. The Fall of Yusuf ibn Naghrilla
2. The Trial of Philip of Mahdia 
3. Franks and Muslims in Crusade-Era Palestine and Syria 
4. Latin-Byzantium Relations 
5. Papacy and Power 
6. The Almohad Revolution 

6 A Connected Sea 

1. The Power of Negotiation
2. Visions of the East
3. A Rough Guide to Pilgrimage 
4. A Pilgrim at Sea 
5. Collaboration and Credit 

7 Mediterranean Societies 

1. Morality in the Marketplace 
2. The Limits of Legitimacy 
3. Keeping It Clean 
4. Power and Piety 
5. The Challenge of Heresy 
6. Pride and Prejudice 

8 Reading Each Others’ Books 

1. The Disciplina Clericalis of Petrus Alfonsi, 1062–1140 CE 
2. The Muslim and Christian Buddhas
3. Mixed-Blood Greek Border Lords 
4. The Muslim Jesus 
5. The Latin-Christian Encounter with the Talmud 
6. The Book of the Covenant by Joseph Kimhi 
7. Ibn Taymiyya Critiques Christianity—and Others 

9 A Sea of Technology, Science, and Philosophy 

1. Hacking the Astrolabe across the Mediterranean 
2. The Life of a Scientific Translator: Gerard of Cremona (ca. 1114–1187 CE) 
3. Learning Medicine, Finding Medicines 
4. Thomas Aquinas’s Third Way 
5. Gregory Palamas on the Dangers of Philosophy 
6. Nonrationalism Thrives! 

PART III. The Contest for the Mediterranean (1350–1650 CE)

10 Imperial Rivalry and Sectarian Strife 

1. Islamic Discourses of Legitimacy 
2. Christian Views of the Fall of Constantinople 
3. Fernando II of Aragon and Spanish Imperial Expansion
4. Machiavelli’s Views on Politics 
5. Fighting Sectarian Enemies 

11 Minorities and Diasporas 

1. The Spanish Inquisition and the Expulsion of the Jews 
2. Oppression and Expulsion of the Moriscos
3. Jews and Ghettos in Renaissance Italy 
4. Christians under Mamluk and Ottoman Rule 
5. Responses to Expulsion and Exile 

12 Slavery and Captivity

1. Slave Soldiers in the Muslim World
2. Early Medieval Europe and the Slave Trade
3. Slave Life in Late Medieval Mediterranean Europe 
4. Crusaders, Corsairs, and Captives 
5. Perceptions of Black Africans in the Early Modern Mediterranean 

13 Mystical Messiahs and Converts, Humanists and Armorers

1. Describing Muslim and Jewish Mystics
2. A Morisco Prophecy of Turkish Triumph
3. Conversion in Public 
4. Sixteenth-Century Latin-Christian Views of Islamic Science and Medicine 
5. Building and Firing the Bombards

14 Family, Gender, and Honor 

1. Contracting Marriage
2. Women in the Economy 
3. Women in Power
4. Women’s Spirituality 
5. Sexual Transgressions and the Law 

15 Mediterranean Economies and Societies in a Widening World

1. Responses to the Plague
2. Social Rebellion
3. Muslim-Christian Commercial Agreements 
4. Private and Public Charity 
5. Climate Change, War, and Discontent 

Bibliography 
Index