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IMC 2010: Sessions

Session 1309: Spaces Inbetween: Places of Transition, II

Wednesday 14 July 2010, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:Marc von der Höh, Lehrstuhl für die Geschichte des Späten Mittelalters, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Moderator/Chair:Miriam Czock, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Paper 1309-aVersa est mater omnium ecclesiarum in opprobrium: On the Defilement of Churches and Monasteries in Early Medieval Italy
(Language: English)
Matthias Bley, Historisches Institut, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Index terms: Anthropology, Hagiography, Historiography - Medieval
Paper 1309-bChurch, Mosque, Palace: The Creation of Holy Spaces in Medieval Islam and Christianity
(Language: English)
Jenny Oesterle, Geschichte des Mittelmeerraums im Mittelalter, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Lay Piety, Liturgy
Paper 1309-cJews Inbetween?: South-Italian Jewry in a Mediterranean Context
(Language: English)
Wolfram Drews, Franz Joseph Dölger-Institut zur Erforschung der Spätantike, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies
Abstract

Lately historians have become more interested in space as analytical tool to describe the significance of place in human interaction. This interest has led to the conclusion, that space is not only a physical entity but a construction of men. In other words, spaces are created and conceptualized by people. A place does not have to be seen as a coherent space; rather coexisting spaces can develop in it. This is especially true for holy spaces: they were public places which were exposed to all kind of non-liturgical or unreligious uses. Therefore the two proposed sessions will examine the dynamics of overlapping and at the sametime competing concepts by which holy spaces in one material place were created. Thus the sessions shall shed some light on the differences and the surprising similarities of the construction of holy space by different social or cultural groups.