Archivierte Veranstaltungen Detail

Vortragende Person/Vortragende Personen:
Brian A. Catlos, PhD

Brian Catlos proposes a new model for understanding the dynamics of ethno-religious diversity and interconfessional relations and minority-majority interactions in the wider Mediterranean World during the long Middle Ages – the period from approximately 650–1650CE, which he refers to as “The Age of Convergence.” Eschewing the notion that these dynamics can be accounted for on the basis of “tolerance” or “intolerance,” or that identity in this environment can be analyzed primarily according to confessional identity, Catlos proposes a model based on three elements: Mutual Intelligibility, Convenience, and Dynamics of Scale. Setting out a coherent model for analyzing these relations, he complicates our view of the multi-confessional Mediterranean, but presents a coherent structure for disentangling the apparent paradoxes of plurality.

Brian A. Catlos (PhD: Toronto, Medieval Studies, 2000) is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and Research Associate in Humanities at the University of California Santa Cruz. His work centers on Muslim-Christian-Jewish relations and ethno-religious identity in medieval Europe and the Islamic World, and the history of the pre-Modern Mediterranean. In addition to many articles, he has written The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050–1300 (Cambridge: 2004), Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Power, Faith and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad (Farrer, Straus & Giroux: 2014), Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, 1050–ca. 1615 (Cambridge: 2014) and Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain (Basic: 2018). He has won numerous prizes and distinctions, including the MAA’s Haskin’s Medal and MESA’s Albert Hourani Prize, and his work is translated into ten languages. The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650 and Texts from the Middle: Documents from the Mediterranean World, 650-1650 (with T. Burman and M. Meyerson) were published in August 2022 by U California. His current project, The Age of Convergence, proposes a model (based on “Mutual Intelligibility, “conveniència” and “Dynamics of Scale”) for analyzing individual and group identity in the pre-Modern Mediterranean. He co-directs the Mediterranean Seminar, an international forum with over 2000 members world-wide, and serves on numerous journal and monograph boards.