Project description
Focusing on women: crypto-religious Muslim and Jewish minorities in medieval Spain
The Muslim and Jewish minorities within the Christian Crown of Aragon during the 15th century developed a form of crypto-religious behaviour to preserve their ancestral faith. The significance of gender within historical records has often been overlooked in conventional interpretations. The MSCA-funded CONVERSAS project aims to examine the cultural identities of these crypto-religious Muslim and Jewish minorities during this era. The project aims to challenge established interpretations and introduce innovative comparative concepts that focus on the socio-religious attributes of female members from these communities who converted to Christianity. These individuals, known as Moriscas (Christian women of Muslim heritage) and Judeo-Conversas (Christian women of Jewish heritage), were suspected of privately adhering to the religious practices of their forebears.
Objective
The project CONVERSAS explores the cultural identities of Muslim and Jewish crypto-religious minorities within coerced mono-confessional pre-modern Crown of Aragon (c. 1400-1500). It will challenge traditional interpretations - based on male centred historical documents and largely ignored within gender blind research - by creating a novel concept of comparison, especially between socio-religious characteristics of these groups’ female members converted to Christianity: Moriscas (Christian women of Muslim origin) and Judeo-Conversas (Christian women of Jewish origin) suspected of secret adherence to the religion of their ancestors. The project aims to develop an adaptable multi-dimensional comparative and intersectional model to provide cultural, historical and gender analysis of these religious groups. As a sample of multi-dimensional methodology applied to the underutilized archival data - most notably inquisitorial trial dossiers, Jewish and Muslim religious and legal texts, royal documents, local legislations, notarial, and cadastral documents - the applicant will write a research monograph, accompanied by a database of selected manuscripts integrated into the Host’s servers, and (co-)organize a workshop. The research will be conducted in a trans-disciplinary research group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in Barcelona (Spain) under the supervision of Professor Linda Gale Jones, an international authority of comparative Muslim and Christian gender studies. The applicant will bring philological, historical, and anthropological skills that will facilitate research in the group and the transfer of ideas. Since democratic managing of increasing cultural diversity represents one of the crucial challenges that Europe is facing today the knowledge acquired from Islamic and Judaic intangible cultural heritage will prevent ethnic disintegration and promote understanding and reconciliation toward creating a plural, tolerant and broadminded cohesive society.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
08002 Barcelona
Spain