Ryan Szpiech's guest appearances

Ryan Szpiech

Frankely Judaic: Explorations in Jewish Studies

CMRS Lecture Series

Eve Jochnowitz

Robert Henke

Jeremy Smith

Kirsten Fermaglich

Naomi Seidman

William Byrd

Rachel Seelig

Maya Barzilai

Eva Mroczek

Tom Burman

Shachar Pinsker

Anita Norich

Ross Brann

Marc Herman

Sefardi Exceptionalism

OwlTail

2018-19 Frankel Institute Sephardic Identities, Medieval and Early ModernHead Fellow, Ryan SzpiechProject Title: He is Still Israel? Conversion and Sephardic Identity before and after 1391

2018-19 Frankel Institute Sephardic Identities, Medieval and Early Modern<br>Head Fellow, Ryan Szpiech<br>Project Title: He is Still Israel? Conversion and Sephardic Identity before and after 1391

Ryan Szpiech, “He is Still Israel? Conversion and Sephardic Identity before and after 1391”

The Catalan Dominican Ramon Martí (d. after 1284) was the most learned polemical author of the later Middle Ages. He was part of the thirteenth-century Dominican interest in missionizing and language learning in Aragon under the auspices of Ramon of Penyafort, interest that led to the famous Disputation of Barcelona in 1263 between Friar Paul Christiani and the great Rabbi of Girona, Moses ben Nahman (Nahmanides).Following in the wake of this debate, Martí developed many of its key arguments and strategies. In order to do so, Martí learned Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic and probably taught one or all of these languages to fellow Dominicans as well. His writing (two polemical works against Islam and two more against Judaism, including the massive Pugio fidei, or "Dagger of Faith" from 1278) makes ample use of original source material in these three Semitic languages, and cites and translates widely from Jewish and Muslim religious and philosophical sources. Despite the increasing attention that Martí's work has received in recent years, scholars have only scratched the surface of his abundant and complex corpus of writings, and much work (both editorial and interpretive) remains to be done in assessing Martí's important role in Christian relations with Jews and Muslims in Iberia as well as in Christian intellectual history more generally. These two talks will consider a few dimensions of Martí's work in detail, demonstrating Martí's profound importance for scholars of the Middle Ages in general, but especially for those interested in language learning in the later Middle Ages and Christian engagement with other faiths in this period.

Tom Burman (Tennessee); Ryan Szpiech (Michigan), “The Polemics and Projects of Ramon Martí O.P.: Debating the Legacy of Medieval Iberia's Greatest Linguist”