How Medieval Thinkers Analysed Cultural Differences

Aims to establish Cultural Comparisons as an area of medieval studies by looking at some of the outstanding texts, mainly from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries.

Medieval intellectuals were fascinated to compare their culture with others, often, though not always, looking at differences in religion. They did so using a number of different genres, among them dialogues between representatives of different ‘laws’ (i.e., religions), travellers’ stories, geographies, philosophical treatises and ethnographic reports.

The main focus will be on the period from c.800 to c.1400, and Christian, Islamic and Jewish writers will be considered, in their discussions both of differences between these three monotheistic cultures, and with pagan cultures, such as those of India and the Mongols. Among the writers discussed are Ibn Fadlan, al-Farabi, al-Biruni, Gilbert Crispin, Peter Abelard, Gerald of Wales, Jacob ben Reuben, Petrus Alfonsi, Maimonides, John of Piano Carpini, William of Rubruk, Albert the Great, Roger Bacon, Marco Polo, Oderico of Pordenone, Ramon Lllull, Riccardo of Monte Croce, Ibn Kammuna, Abner of Burgos, Hasdai Crescas and Ibn Khaldun.

Historians have greatly underestimated the sophistication and variety of this facet of medieval intellectual life, because it does not fall neatly into one of our current subject divisions (such as history of philosophy or history of literature) and because anthropology and comparative religion are usually presumed to be modern disciplines, without medieval precedents. The aim of this book is to show that there existed a medieval ancestor to these disciplines, in which the similar questions to those that interest specialists today were discussed, but within a different context and with different aims. By studying a series of outstanding texts in this field, the study thus aims to establish Cultural Comparisons as an independent branch of medieval studies.