This work deals extensively with the Arabic themes and literary devices used by Hebrew Andalusian poets in 11th century Muslim (and Christian) Spain. Special interest is devoted to the four main poets of the Hebrew Golden Age in Spain, namely Samuel Ha-Nagid, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Moses Ibn Ezra and Yehuda Ha-Lewi.

This volume on Religion and Reductionism grew out of a conference convened in November, 1990, where the participants were asked to respond to the conceptual and methodological problem of reductionism in the academic study of religion. The conference focused on the writings of Robert A. Segal and his defence of reductionism and criticism of Mircea Eliade's non-reductive interpretation of religion. At the Miami conference some of the most important and enduring questions were raised: (1) What is religion? (2) What is religion and/or religious meaning? (3) How should religion be studied...

Jews settled in medieval Spain at least by the third century, and under the Christian Visigoths (sixth to eighth centuries) suffered increasing hostility and persecution, from which they were saved by the Muslim invasion (711). This book details the relations between Jews and the Visigoths, and then with the Muslims both in Muslim Spain proper (al-Andalus) and in later Christian Spain to the fifteenth century. It examines both the positive and negative aspects of those relations, drawing on a variety of sources many of which are here utilized for the first time. Political, socio-economic,...

This volume deals with the creation of a new image of Islam in the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. It uses as point of departure several treatises on Islam written around 1450.
The first chapters examine the historical background, the authors' biographies and the styles they chose to approach different audiences. As for the contents of the treatises, subjects included are Islamic doctrine as known by Christian theologians; controversy as a way to achieve pacific conversion and social habits leading to the acculturation of Islamic communities.
The interpretation of these sources...

The sources, content and fate of the 15th-century allegorical fable Vision Deleytable are examined from three angles: as a medieval compendium of religious philosophy, as a major influence in Spanish literature, and as an invaluable historical source on Jewish-Christian interactions in medieval Spain. The volume is divided into three sections. The first part considers Vision's didacticism within the Jewish and Christian frames of education in 15th-century Spain. The second part includes a review of Vision's philosophical content as a comprehensive articulation of a...