The Middle Ages were not as dark as many would have it. In one place, Europe shone like a brilliant jewel: in Muslim Spain, what the Arabs called Al-Andalus. Córdoba and Granada represented the pinnacle of Arab knowledge and culture.
Córdoba was the center of knowledge in Europe, the irresistible center around which everything revolved. Granada was the fairy-tale city in the mountains, the last stronghold of the Muslims in Spain, where beauty and grandeur mirrored the mountain slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
Here they achieved the masterpiece we strive for today. Jews, Christians and Muslims lived side by side. They respected each other’s religions and ways of life. But they did not just build a peaceful coexistence, they built Europe’s largest center of expertise. Innovations in mathematics, astronomy, architecture, philosophy, medicine, agriculture and literature flourished here. Through Muslim Spain, new and forgotten knowledge came to the rest of Europe and laid the foundation for modern Europe. The cities were teeming with multicultural diversity, and this was not a problem, but an advantage. Even outsiders from Christian Western Europe marveled at the cities’ legendary achievements.
For almost 800 years, coexistence characterized Spain – before it was replaced by one of the most xenophobic regimes Europe has ever seen. If history is a textbook, then few places are as relevant today as Córdoba and Granada. The seminar visits both places. We use modern theories and research to understand what happened, and then apply the lessons to our own time and the participants’ organizational lives.
Among the topics:
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