Rabbis, Priests, Imams, and Infidels: Engaging the Other’s Religion in the Medieval Mediterranean

Fall 2026 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar

Throughout much of the Mediterranean region in the Middle Ages, Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived in the same cities, often in the same neighborhoods, and sometimes in the same houses. This lecture will explore what happened when scholars from among the three religions took the time to learn about their neighbors’ religions through learning their languages, reading their holy books, and studying their theologies. Of course, they were often appalled by what they discovered, but just as often, they found ideas, practices, and beliefs that impressed them. Indeed, often they borrowed from each other, as when Christians in the Middle East adopted Islamic theological language to express Christian doctrine, or when pious Jews repackaged Sufi practices for Jewish audiences. At the extremes, this exploration could lead to outright persecution, such as when learned Dominican priests became inquisitors, but it could also culminate in something quite different: conversion. The lecture will, in fact, conclude with reflections on both a Franciscan who became a Muslim and a Rabbi who became a Christian bishop in the late Middle Ages.

Thomas E. Burman is the Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies and Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in the intellectual and religious exchanges between medieval Christianity and Islam. He is the author of "Religious Polemic and the Intellectual History of the Mozarabs" (1994) and "Reading the Qur'an in Latin Christendom, 1140–1560" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), co-author of "The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650–1650" (University of California Press, 2022), and co-editor and translator of "A Connecting Polemic in the Medieval Mediterranean" (Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, 2025). He is currently completing "Beyond the Mediterranean: The Intellectual Venture of Ramon Martí OP, 1250–84." His research has been supported by fellowships from the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

This lecture recording can be found on the Available Recordings page approximately two business days after the event and will remain accessible for three weeks.