Between Tolerance and Intolerance in Medieval Spain: An Historiographic Enigma

The nature of what has been termed "tolerance" and "intolerance" in the historiography of medieval Iberia has, while rarely defined, continued to provide much-employed organizing categories for the field. This paper reviews one focus of that historiography from the nineteenth into the twenty-first century: the relations among Muslims, Jews, and Christians, with respect to tolerance/intolerance and related categories (notably, convivencia). It analyzes, among other factors, the impact on this historiography of the intellectual, cultural, and political movements which have affected historians of medieval Iberia. It makes a case for the importance for specialists in the field to be keenly aware of these aspects of historiography at a time when medieval Spain is seen as offering a unique opportunity for testing theories of interfaith relations and social interaction