Ethno-religious Relations in the Medieval Mediterranean: Resolving the Paradox

The Medieval Mediterranean is alternately presented as the arena of ecumenical conflict, of Holy War and Crusade, or as a nostalgic idyll of ethno-religious convivencia. Neither portrayal is accurate or complete. The present paper attempts to disentangle the complex and apparently self-contradictory nature of inter-faith relations in the Mediterranean (900 to 1500 CE). Factors to be considered include the Mediterranean basin's geographic characteristics and their influence on the societies that developed along its shores, favoring the development of diverse, heterodox societies. In absence of an imperial authority that could impose a common language of culture and power on this region (ie. enforce “legibility”), socio-cultural unity emerged in the Mediterranean organically, through processes of syncreticism, exchange, and acculturation, as a consequence of “mutual intelligibility.” Mediterranean interconnectness and interdependence fostered an environment characterized both by predatorial and symbiotic dynamics engaged in by diverse collectives and institutions pertaining to each of the major ecumenical groups (Latin, Greek, Islamic, Jewish). Interaction took place on three levels. The “micro-” level was the most volatile, prone to extremes of both violence and integration; actors were typically not restrained by ideological concerns, but evoked chauvinistic language in certain circumstances. The “macro-”, or systemic level, on the other hand, was most strongly characterized by ecumenical competition; it was here that the intellectual and cultural apparatus of exclusion was preached, if not always practiced. Between, a “meso-“ level of intra-regional institutions was strongly informed by the systemic dynamic, but independent enough to pursue agendas which did not necessarily coincide with this. Differentiating between these three modes of interaction is key to resolving the apparent paradoxes of ethno-religious relations in the pre-Modern Mediterranean – relations shaped by the particularly cultural expressions of each group, but also strongly anchored in the physical nature of the environment.