Module HIST21R1: Early Medieval Iberia: from Conquest to Caliphate, 409-1031

Department: History

HIST21R1: Early Medieval Iberia: from Conquest to Caliphate, 409-1031

Prerequisites

• A pass mark in at least ONE level 1 module in History

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To introduce students to the political, social, cultural, and religious history of Christian and Muslim Iberia in the early Middle Ages.
• To familiarise students with written, material, visual, and musical sources from the Latin and Arabic traditions in English translation.
• To lead students to think critically about relations within and between Christian and Muslim communities in early medieval Iberia.

Content

• Early medieval Iberia was a contradiction: kings and caliphs fought to impose unity from above, while from below society formed a complex diversity of constantly evolving languages, cultures, and religions. Roman Hispania was occupied by the barbarian Visigoths in the fifth century, yet the Christian kingdom which they built in the sixth and seventh centuries consciously mimicked the Roman empire of literacy and laws, bringing its bureaucratic weight to bear persecuting the Jewish communities of the Peninsula. Visigothic Hispania was in turn conquered by Arab and Berber armies from North Africa in the eighth century, yet the Islamic emirate, later caliphate which they founded in the ninth and tenth centuries remained a creature of the city of Córdoba in the south of al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), while the majority Christian population engaged the new regime with acculturation and assimilation alongside resistance and rebellion. This module explores the ever-changing landscape of early medieval Iberia through the tension between unity and diversity in its political, social, cultural, and religious history. By examining chronicles and laws, lives of saints and theology, inscriptions and poetry, music and the liturgy, even an encyclopaedia and an autobiography, together with architecture, art, and archaeology, students will consider how the distinct yet interconnected communities of the Peninsula both opposed and interacted with each other. And by debating narratives of conquest, belief, status, identity, continuity, change, and the frontier, students will come to understand modern Spain as more than the historical mythology of a nation born from holy war and ‘reconquest’.

Learning Outcomes

• An understanding of unity and diversity as key concepts for interpreting politics, society, culture, and religion in early medieval Iberia.
• An ability to make nuanced arguments drawing comparatively and contextually on written, material, visual, and musical evidence.
• An awareness of the tension between past and present in the positioning of early medieval Iberia in Spanish and Portuguese history.

• Building on and developing skills gained at Level 1.
• Deepening and extending historical understanding through focused, concentrated modules.
• Developing precision, depth of understanding, and conceptual awareness.

• The ability to employ sophisticated reading skills to gather, sift, process, synthesise and critically evaluate information from a variety of sources (print, digital, material, aural, visual, audio-visual etc.).
• The ability to communicate ideas and information orally and in writing, devise and sustain coherent and cogent arguments.
• The ability to write and think under pressure, manage time and work to deadlines.
• The ability to make effective use of information and communications technology.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Student learning is facilitated by a combination of the following teaching methods:
• Lectures to set the foundations for further study and to provide the basis for the acquisition of subject specific knowledge. Lectures provide a broad framework which defines individual module content, introducing students to themes, debates and interpretations. In this environment, students are given the opportunity to develop skills in listening, selective note-taking and reflection;
• Seminars to allow students to present and critically reflect upon the acquired subject-specific knowledge, methodologies and theories, and to identify and debate a range of issues and differing opinions. The seminar is the forum in which students are given the opportunity to communicate ideas, jointly exploring themes and arguments. Seminars are structured to develop understanding and designed to maximise student participation related to prior independent preparation. Seminars give students the opportunity to develop oral communication skills, encourage critical and tolerant approaches to reasoned argument and historical discussion, build the students' ability to marshal historical evidence, and facilitate the development of the ability to summarise historical arguments, think in a rapidly changing environment and communicate in a persuasive and articulate manner, whilst recognising the value of working with others and, occasionally, towards shared goals.
• Assessment:
• Examinations test students' ability to work under pressure, to prepare for examinations and direct their own programme of revision and learning and develop key time management skills; The examination gives students the opportunity to develop relevant life skills such as the ability to produce coherent, reasoned and supported arguments under pressure. Students will be examined on subject specific knowledge and skills;
• Summative coursework will test students’ ability to communicate ideas in writing, present clear and cogent arguments succinctly and show appropriate critical skills as relevant to the particular module.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative work done in preparation for and during seminars, including oral and written work as appropriate to the module. The summative coursework will have a formative element by allowing students to develop ideas and arguments for the examination and to practice writing to similar word limits.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University