A few months ago, Ben and Will sat down with Dr. Linda Jones, Professor at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, where she teaches medieval history. Dr. Jones is an expert in religious and cultural history of medieval al-Andalus and the Maghreb, especially on topics such as gender dynamics , Islam-Christendom encounters, and oratory practices. She is the author of The Power of Oratory in the Medieval Muslim World (Cambridge University Press, 2012), the first monograph to consider the significance of preaching in the medieval Islamic world.
We typically imagine women as having been entirely subordinated to men in the medieval world, especially in those contexts which were explicitly religious. However, Dr. Jones offers to us a striking counterexample. In the medieval Islamic world, she explains that women were allowed to preach, not in formal contexts, but informally. Even despite the lack of formality, their preaching still carried authoritative weight, one that was often expressed in exhortative form—encouraging listeners to undertake ascetic practices or to pray more fervently.
In addition to fascinating topics of cultural and religious practices in the medieval Islamic world, Ben and Will speak with Dr. Jones about the differences of teaching college students in the US versus Spain, the challenges of interpreting medieval manuscript handwriting, and the enduring importance of the humanities today.
Thanks for listening, and stay tuned for more!