International Conference: "Coming to Terms with Forced Conversion."

International Conference: "Coming to Terms with Forced Conversion. Coercion and Faith in Pre-Modern Iberia and Beyond."

Residencia de Estudiantes, Madrid, 17–18  November 2016.

Convened by Mercedes García-Arenal and Yonatan Glazer-Eytan (CORPI, ILC-CCHS, CSIC Madrid)

Can be read here the poster and the program.

Programm:

Thursday, November 17, 2016

INTRODUCTION

9:30 – 10:00    Mercedes García-Arenal and Yonatan Glazer-Eytan 

PANEL 1: THE ALMOHADS AND THE WIDER ISLAMIC CONTEXT

CHAIR:  Gerard A. Wiegers (University of Amsterdam)

10:00 – 10:30  Uriel Simonsohn (University of Haifa): "Women and Conversion to Islam: A Sample Analysis of Medieval Narratives and Legal Problems."

10:30 – 11:00  Maribel Fierro (ILC-CCHS, CSIC): "Rethinking Forced Conversion in Almohad Times."

11:00 – 11:30  coffee break   

11:30 – 12:00  Alan Verskin (The University of Rhode Island): "Consolation Literature as a Response to the Forced Conversions of the Almohad Period: Maimonides’ Epistle on Martyrdom in the Light of Maimon b. Joseph’s Epistle of Consolation and Ibn ʿAqnīn’s Healing of Souls."

12:00 – 12:30  Tamer el-Leithy (Johns Hopkins University): "The Limits of Constituted Conversion in Late Medieval Egypt."

12:30 –13:00   Discussion      

13:00 – 14:30 lunch

PANEL 2: GRAPPLING WITH THE RESHAPING OF COMMUNITY

CHAIR: David Nirenberg (University of Chicago)

14:30 – 15:00  David S. Powers (Cornell University): "Mālikī Jurists on the Status of a Synagogue in Touat, ca.1480."

15:00 – 15:30  Paul Fenton (Paris Sorbonne): "Problems of Integration and Exclusion: The Case of Neo-Muslims of Jewish Origin in Morocco."

15:30 – 16:00  coffee break   

16:00 – 16:30  Ryan Szpiech (University of Michigan): "Enforcing Rabbinical Tradition: The Forced 'Conversion' of Castilian Qaraites."

16:30 – 17:00  Ram Ben-Shalom (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): "Jews and Conversos in Aragon in the Aftermath of the 1391 Riots: the Development of a New Grammar of Conversion."

17:00 – 17:30  Discussion      

Friday, November 18, 2016

PANEL 3:  THE VISIGOTHIC MODEL AND ITS USES

CHAIR: Ana Rodríguez (IH, CCHS-CSIC)

09:30 – 10:00  Elsa Marmursztejn (Université de Reims): "Uses and Echoes of the Visigothic Conciliar Legislation in the Scholastic Controversy on Forced Baptism (13th–14th Centuries)."

10:00 – 10:30  Rosa Vidal Doval (Queen Mary, University of London): "Visigothic Legislation and the Converso Problem in Late Medieval Spain."

10:30 – 11:00  Isabelle Poutrin (Paris-Est, Créteil): "Proving the Extortion of Consent in Conversion, Apostasy and Other Circumstances of Life. Some Theorizations in Canon Law (16th–17th Centuries)."

11:00 – 11:30  Discussion      

11:30 – 12:00  coffee break   

PANEL 4: BETWEEN DISSIMULATION AND MARTYRDOM     

CHAIR: Luis Bernabé-Pons (Universidad de Alicante)

12:00– 12:30   Yonatan Glazer-Eytan (CORPI, Johns Hopkins University): "Between Heart and Mouth: Idolatry and Intention after the Forced Conversions."

12:30 – 13:00  Miriam Bodian (University of Texas-Austin): "Crypto-Jewish Dissimulation and Martyrdom: Ambivalent Values."

13:00 – 13:30  Gerard A. Wiegers (University of Amsterdam): "Martyrdom and Eschatological Reward: Crypto-Islam and the Salvation History of the Parchment of the Turpiana Tower and the Granadan Lead Books."

13:30 – 14:00  Discussion      

14:00 – 15:30 lunch

PANEL 5:   THE LIMITS OF FORCED CONVERSION

CHAIR: Fernando Rodríguez Mediano (CORPI, ILC-CCHS, CSIC)

15:30 – 16:00  Marisa Bueno (POCRAM, Paris-Est, Créteil): "Are You Still My Wife? Conversion to Christianity and Its Legal Effects on the Pre-Existing Marriage and Their Offspring in Late Medieval Castile."

16:00 – 16:30  Tamar Herzig (Tel Aviv University): "The Forced Conversion of Convicted Jewish Criminals in 15th-Century Italy."

16:30 – 16:45  coffee break   

16:45 – 17:15  Mercedes García-Arenal (CORPI, ILC-CCHS, CSIC): "Forced Conversion and Theologies of Baptism"

17:15 – 17:30  Discussion      

17:30 – 18:00 David Nirenberg          Concluding Remarks