Inanimate Conversion

Abstract

Works on conversion have concentrated almost solely on the movement of people – individuals or communities – between religions. The material evidence has been employed as a tool to learn about people and texts. Nevertheless, when studied on its own accord, the material evidence reveals another facet of conversion; it tells of sacred objects which were at the heart of religious communities, and whose transition to another religion touched upon the very essence of religious identity and the meaning of sanctity.Books and buildings are two of the most common sacred objects used by Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages. Rarely studied together, the transformation of both objects has much in common, and books, much like archaeological sites and buildings, contain evidence of successive layers of compilation and use. The conversion of buildings and sites has been central to religious conquest and appropriation. These transformations were manifested by physical modifications as well as in the creation of a new mythology, which was employed, surprisingly, by Christians and Muslims alike, in the Latin East, Iberia and Egypt. Books were also volatile objects, and evidence reveals the movement of sacred books between religions, with the most treasured Gospel Books being given to Jewish communities as collateral, or the amalgamation of Jewish and Christian Bibles in medieval monasteries. In this article specific examples, from the conversion of the Dome of the Rock to the multi-layer transformation of a German Bible, provide a concrete basis for this theoretical exploration.