THE ORNAMENT OF THE WORLD
How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain

This course—the title is taken from Yale professor Maria Rosa Menocal’s seminal 2002 book—is a follow-up to recent courses about Alexandria and Vienna, which explored cosmopolitan societies that achieved greatness in time of harmony and that crumbled under pressure. We will try to see whether there is a common thread in such cosmopolitan, open societies, and whether their histories might inspire contemporary western European societies now hesitating between multicultural openness and nationalistic chauvinism.

COURSE LENGTH: 12 weeks
DISCUSSION TEAM: Ossama el Naggar and others
FIRST SESSION: Monday, February 27, 2012 at 6:15 pm