Speakers:
Dr Philip Booth
Dr Marci Freedman
Dr Harry Munt
The Medieval Mediterranean was frequently travelled by "pilgrims" of all three main Abrahamic religions, with accounts and descriptions of these pilgrims and travellers able to tell us about Medieval religions in practice, travel, and of encounters with other cultures and beliefs. But questions of how the experiences and intentions of these pilgrims differed from one another, as well as the ways they comparatively conducted themselves or performed their devotions, is still a topic of open discussion.
To this end, the panel will discuss the pilgrimage accounts of Theoderic, Thietmar, and Riccoldo of Monte Croce, the travel account of Benjamin of Tudela, and a fatwa/treatise by Ibn Taymiyya on the legality of Muslims' pilgrimage practices in Jerusalem. By considering together accounts of Medieval Christian, Jewish, and Muslim pilgrims to sites in the Eastern Mediterranean we can think more closely about the similarities between these "pilgrims" of different faiths and about the varied expressions of pilgrimage and travel in the Medieval world.