By: Isa Rashid
Convivencia is a term used to refer to the religious coexistence between Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula from the Umayyad conquest in 711 to the reconquest of Spain by the Christian kingdoms in 1492. It was first used in this context in 1948 by Spanish philologist Americo Castro, who argued that Spain’s unique identity could be traced to the contributions of Jews and Muslims in Al-Andalus. Later historical works like Maria Rosa Menocal’s “The Ornament of the World”, also portray Al-Andalus as a paragon of tolerance that allowed for the creation of a vibrant religious, intellectual, and artistic heritage. Much contention has been raised over the historiographical accuracy of Spain’s Medieval past and its implications for interrelations between the Abrahamic faiths but the idea of Convivencia is important and still relevant today.
Islam’s theoretical framework is what allowed for practical measures of tolerance and coexistence to be met out across various dynasties and caliphates. The Quran states, “Let there be no compulsion in religion”. This guiding principle has shaped Islamic societies from the time of the Prophet Muhammad. Furthermore, the Quran refers to Ahl-al Kitab, or “People of the Book”. These are the Jews and Christians who are seen as brothers and sisters in Abrahamic faiths. An interesting manifestation of these doctrines of tolerance was the “Constitution of Medina” (622 CE). This was a document created by the Prophet Muhammad to govern the relations between the Muslims and Jews in the city-state. It is important to note, the Jews of Medina both agreed to the document and remained in the city, under no threat of conversion or violence. Later, in the 7th century, the Caliph Umar Ibn al-Khattab would create the legal document the “Pact of Umar” using the same framework of religious coexistence, also using the term, dhimmis to denote People of the Book. Dhimmis were usually members of Abrahamic religions (although many exceptions were made) who had to pay a yearly poll tax in exchange for protection, freedom of religion, and were afforded exemption from military service. These concepts delineating from the Constitution of Medina and the Pact of Umar were implemented widely by Islamic rulers, from the Cordoban Caliphate to the Ottoman Empire. Expressions of coexistence were clear in Andalusian society. Jewish and Christian intellectual, social, and political life flourished. Dr. Farhan Mujahid Chak states that Islam’s lack of a conceptual “other” is what allowed coexistence to flourish and take on visible forms practiced in various Islamic societies of the Middle Ages.
It is important to understand that these ideals of coexistence were not continuous nor can interactions between Muslims, Jews, and Christians be defined by a singular text. Historian David Nirenberg states, “Our understanding of the history of Muslim (or Christian) relations with Jews has to be rich enough to explain both the periods of relatively stable coexistence and the periodic persecution that marked Jewish life in both civilizations.” These times of persecution bring valid criticisms to the romantic concept of Convivencia. The 1066 Granada Massacre that saw around 4,000 Jews murdered by a violent mob or the forceful conversion of Christians and Jews during the early years of the Almohad Caliphate are just two examples that highlight the problems with Castro’s definition of Convivencia.
Contrastingly, another question to be asked is whether Convivencia can be applied to Islamic lands outside of the Iberian Peninsula. The Ottoman Empire famously took in thousands of Jews following the Christian reconquest of Spain in 1492. There, the same applications of dhimmitude and religious tolerance held sway. Jews were noticeably safer in Islamic lands than in Christendom. Rabbi Obadiah of Bartinoro wrote this of the Muslims in Palestine during his travels to the Holy Land in 1488, “Rather, they are very kind to the foreigner, especially to one who does not know the language. When they see many Jews together, they do not express any envy.” Many Jews and Christians fled to Islamic lands in the east following their exile from the Almohad Caliphate. Rabbi Yusuf Ibn Sham’un, a doctor, was one of those Jews who fled to the Ayyubid dynasty in the 1180’s. In Aleppo, he would come to befriend Muslim polymath Ibn Al-Qifti. Their lifelong friendship, says Professor Alan Verskin, may have been facilitated by the practice and encouraged growth of philosophy and other sciences that were prevalent in the religiously tolerant Medieval Muslim world.
Convivencia as a concept is both idealistic and historically inaccurate but the uniqueness of Al-Andalus and other Islamic dynasties during the Middle Ages cannot be ignored. Islam’s tenets of tolerance outlined in the Quran facilitated coexistence between the Abrahamic faiths but those times were often marred by persecution of religious minorities. In the modern world, the ideals of Convivencia should be something we all strive for, regardless of historical failures of the concept to live up to its name.
References
CHAK, FARHAN MUJAHID. “La Convivencia: The Spirit of Co-Existence in Islam.” Islamic Studies 48, no. 4 (2009): 567–90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20839184.
Cohen, Mark R. Under Crescent and cross: The jews in the Middle Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.
Green, David B. “1066: Massacre in Granada, Spain.” Haaretz.com, December 30, 2012.
Jonathan Ray. “Beyond Tolerance and Persecution: Reassessing Our Approach to Medieval ‘Convivencia.’” Jewish Social Studies 11, no. 2 (2005): 1–18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4467701.
Olson, Robert W. “Jews in the Ottoman Empire in Light of New Documents.” Jewish Social Studies 41, no. 1 (1979): 75–88. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4467038.
Verskin, Alan. “‘A Muslim-Jewish Friendship in the Medieval Mediterranean: ʿAlī Ibnal-Qifṭī’s Biography of Rabbi Yūsuf Ibn Shamʿūn.’” Stony Brook: Forum ItalicumPublishing, 2017, 184–99.