Books recommendations for social history of Islamic Spain and Medieval Western Europe

by beardify

Hello all,

I am looking for books on the social history (daily life, culture, cuisine, sexuality, exc.) in Islamic Spain and Europe during the middle ages. I would appreciate any recommendations you can offer!

sunagainstgold
  • Ruth Mazo Karras, Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others - a great intro to both sex in the Middle Ages, and how to talk about sex and gender in history
  • Barbara Hanawalt, The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England - reconstructs family, living, and daily-schedule patterns for 14th century peasants based on archaeology and--wait for it--coroners' reports of accidental deaths
  • Barbara Hanawalt, Growing Up in Medieval London - what it says on the tin
  • Brian Catlos, Victors and Vaniquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050-1300 - how did "Islamic Spain" become "Muslims living in Christian Spain," not on a military level but on a human-interaction one
  • Olivia Remie Constable (ed.), Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources - primary source excerpts in English translation. Fascinating and very large selection!
  • Elisheva Baumgarten, Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe - looks at childhood, parenting, and daily life among Jews in medieval Ashkenaz (France and the Rhineland) in comparison with Christians in the same area
  • Oliva Remie Constable, Housing the Stranger in the Medieval Mediterranean World or Trade and Traders in Islamic Spain - crossover social/socio-economic history that considers Muslim-Christian and Muslim-Christian-Jewish interaction
  • Julie Taylor, Muslims in Medieval Italy: The Colony at Lucera - Sicily's Muslim population was deported en masse to the Italian mainland; Taylor dives into what we know about the "colony" at Lucera and why the deportees stayed. (Alex Metcalfe has written on Sicilian Muslims more generally, but Taylor's book is a little less dense so I'd recommend starting there)

Hope this gives you someplace to start! :)