Convivencia

Convivencia — Spanish for "living together" — describes the complex coexistence of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities in medieval Iberia, particularly during the period of Islamic rule. It is one of the most debated concepts in medieval history, celebrated by some as a model of interfaith tolerance and criticized by others as a romanticized myth.

The reality, as usual, fell somewhere in between. Under Islamic rule, Christians and Jews were classified as dhimmis — protected peoples who could practice their faiths freely in exchange for paying a special tax (jizya) and accepting certain social restrictions. This was neither equality nor persecution in the modern sense, but a regulated pluralism that was, by medieval standards, remarkably accommodating.

The cultural fruits of this coexistence were undeniable. In Córdoba, Toledo, and other Andalusian cities, scholars of all three faiths collaborated on translations, philosophy, and science. Jewish thinkers like Maimonides wrote in Arabic. The translation schools of Toledo made Greek and Arabic learning accessible to Latin Europe, transmitting the works of Aristotle, Euclid, Galen, and al-Khwarizmi to a Western audience that had lost access to much of classical knowledge. This intellectual exchange was one of the crucial catalysts of the European Renaissance.