The Near West: Medieval North Africa, Latin Europe and the Mediterranean in the Second Axial Age

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Description

This book tells stories of interaction, conflict and common exchange between Berbers, Arabs, Latins, Muslims, Christians and Jews in North Africa and Latin Europe. Medieval Western European and North African history were a part of a common Western Mediterranean culture. Examining shared commerce, slavery, mercenary activity, art and intellectual and spiritual debates, this book argues that North Africa used to be an integral a part of western Medieval History. The book tells the history of North Africa and Europe through the eyes of Christian kings and Muslim merchants, Emirs and Popes, Sufis, Friars and Rabbis. It argues North Africa and Europe together experienced the Twelfth Century Renaissance and the Commercial Revolution. When Europe used to be highly divided all the way through twelfth century, North Africa used to be enjoying the peak of its power, united under the Berber, Almohad Empire. In the course of a common commercial growth right through the medieval period, North Africa and Europe also shared in a burst of spirituality and mysticism. This growth of spirituality occurred whilst representatives of Judaism, Christianity and Islam debated and defended their faiths, dreaming of conversion whilst they shared the similar rational methods. The growth of spirituality instigated a Second Axial Age in the history of religion. Challenging the idea of a Mediterranean split between between Islam and Christianity, the book shows how the Maghrib (North Africa) used to be not a Muslim, Arab monolith or as an extension of the exotic Orient. North Africa, not the Holy Land to the far East, used to be the first place where Latin Europeans encountered the Muslim other and vice versa. Medieval North Africa used to be as diverse and complex as Latin Europe. North Africa must not be dismissed as a side show of European history. North Africa used to be, if truth be told, an integral a part of the story.

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