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IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 1716: Othering in Pre-Norman Southern Italy, III: Non-Christians and Non-Muslims as a Challenge

Thursday 6 July 2017, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom / Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akadmie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Organisers:Clemens Gantner, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Kordula Wolf, Abteilung Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Deutsches Historisches Institut, Roma
Moderator/Chair:Clemens Gantner, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Paper 1716-a'Pagans and bad Christians': The Saracen 'Other' in the Politics of 9th-Century Southern Italy
(Language: English)
Sam Ottewill-Soulsby, Sidney Sussex College
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Mentalities, Political Thought
Paper 1716-bPractices of Othering the 'Saracens' in 9th-Century Mainland Italy and Sicily
(Language: English)
Kordula Wolf, Abteilung Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Deutsches Historisches Institut, Roma
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Historiography - Medieval, Mentalities, Political Thought
Paper 1716-cTaxation and Otherness in Islamic Sicily
(Language: English)
Lorenzo Bondioli, Department of History, Princeton University
Index terms: Economics - General, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies
Abstract

In this third and final session on 'othering' in pre-Norman southern Italy, Sam Ottewill Soulsby will examine the construction of south Italian narratives pitting Christians against Muslims and the ways in which Christians who allied across religious lines were consequently 'othered' as 'bad Christians'. Kordula Wolf will then address simultaneous construction of in- and out-groups as well as political and everyday practices in our region, comparing the island of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula. Lorenzo Bondioli will finally use documents from the Cairo Geniza and investigate convergences and divergences between legal theory and fiscal practice in Sicily, focusing on the fiscal relationship between Jewish residents, and visiting merchants, and the Sicilian authorities.