Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Islamic Iberia. By Janina M. Safran

Abstract

In Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus, Janina Safran is interested in the problem of proximity between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Islamic Iberia. She examines how the Muslim rulers constructed and maintained the political and social boundaries between these groups in a society in which these boundaries were constantly blurred and tested by conversion, intermarriage, and the development of the Arabic language as the lingua franca. As Safran describes, the problem of religious boundaries was quite practical. What happened, for instance, if a Muslim and a Jew were staying in the same house and the house collapsed, killing both? If none of them could be identified, how should the funerary rites be performed and where should they be buried? Could a converted Muslim arrange the marriage of his Christian sister or daughter who had not converted to Islam? Could a Muslim son walk his Christian mother to church? And when she died, should the son take care of the Christian funerary ceremonies or should he leave this to the Christian community of which he was no longer part? If someone died in the house of a Christian or Jewish family, should the Muslim neighbor offer his condolences? Should he say: “May God bless the deceased with the best of what He rewards someone from your religion?” or should he keep silent? Or take the problem of a mixed couple—a Muslim husband and a Christian wife—whose child died when the man was away. The mother buried the child in a Christian cemetery. Shortly afterwards, the husband returned, learned of the situation, and asked himself whether he should exhume the body and move it to a Muslim cemetery. Or would such an action jeopardize the integrity of the body?