Room share: NES 190D

From its earliest beginnings as an Umayyad province and up until the 15th century, al-Andalus acted as a lynch pin within the Mediterranean world. Connecting the Islamic empire in the East and forging links of trade and cultural exchange with Europe to the West, cities such as Cordoba captured the imagination of contemporary chroniclers, earning descriptions in the sources as truly "first-rate places". Through an exploration of the historical, literary, artistic, architectural, urban, social and economic contexts, this course will engage with and expand upon current understandings of this seminal period in Islamic history in an attempt to understand the role that Islam played in Europe and the Mediterranean world. This is in addition to an examination of the modes of cultural exchange within the region that occurred during this period both within Europe and the Islamic empire.