Many people believe that Jews and Muslims have been enemies throughout history. But some Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars are looking to the past to show that this has not always been so. These scholars point to Muslim Spain in the Middle Ages where, they say, members of all three faiths got along.
From the eighth century to the end of the 15th century, Spain was under the control of Muslims from north Africa. These Muslims of North Africa invaded across the Strait of Gibraltar in 711. Their rule lasted through the late 15th century when Spain was re-conquered by Christians.
It is this period that has interested several scholars and diplomats, particularly Joseph Montville. Joseph Montville, a former diplomat in the Middle East, now directs the Preventive Diplomacy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He and other scholars are involved in a project to trace the long history of Muslim Spain.
"Muslim Spain," Mr. Montville said, "was conquered by Berber Muslims coming across the Strait of Gibraltar into southern Spain as the Visigoth kingdoms [of Europe] were in a rapid state of decay. Quite significantly for Islam, the conquerors made treaties that were very similar to the famous pact of Omar with the patriarch of Jerusalem after the very bloody Christian crusaders were expelled from Jerusalem. The pact was basically a Qur'anic pact, which is that there is no forced conversion and there is no compulsion in religion [which is directly from the Koran] and that the clerics would continue to run their churches. There was a similar treaty called Arjuela that was negotiated with local Christians and rulers who were permitted to pursue their religion and keep their buildings and run their lives according to their religious codes of law. The period we're talking about goes up to 1492."
In the mid-15th century, Ferdinand of Aragon, and Isabella of Castile, the rulers of the largest kingdoms in a re-emerging Christian Spain, were married. Eventually, almost all of Spain was brought under their control. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews and Muslims from Spain.
This ended an extended period of Muslim and Jewish and Muslim collaboration in science, art, economics, and trade, according to Joseph Montville. "It was all possible," he said, "because it turned out that the interpretation of Islam that the Arab rulers brought to southern Spain was the rather libertarian approach to religion found in the Qu'ran, which says that there is no one between the individual believer and God."
If members of the three faiths could coexist in the Middle Ages, Joseph Montville has wondered, why the "apparent intractability" of the Arab-Israeli problem? Through his studies of medieval Spain, he said, he was able to "grasp a vision of what may still be possible" between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. One key to producing a modern-day Muslim Spain and possibly resolving the Arab-Israeli impasse, may be what he calls "Track Two diplomacy." Mr. Montville originated the concept of "Track Two Diplomacy," which asks adversaries to build working relationships at the non-official and informal level, along side formal diplomatic relations.
"The idea of 'Track Two' diplomacy," he said, "came out of an informal style of dialogue by representatives of groups in conflict. Once a relationship of 'working trust' can be developed, participants in a dialogue can begin to develop a vision of next steps. If this is done through the workshop process over a number of months and years, you can end up, as we did in the Middle East, with the Oslo process. It was the direct fruit of more than 20 years of unofficial and informal dialogue between Israelis and Egyptians and Palestinians. What has been missing from the process of dialogue in 'Track Two' diplomacy has been attention to the emotional and identity needs of the populations. What was missing has become more and more apparent since the collapse of the Oslo process, which was really an engagement intellectually of the 'publics.' How to appeal to the imagination and develop some sense of working trust and a future vision, when you don't have the luxury of having meals together, is a real challenge for reconciliation processes and 'Track Two' process. And that's basically the context within which the 'Reviving the Memory of Muslim Spain' project evolved."
The director of the Center's Preventive Diplomacy program says it's critical to take into account the psychological needs of those involved in conflict, especially those who feel themselves to be victimized. And that's why Joseph Montville says his project to chronicle the experience of Muslim Spain offers much for today's diplomats.