The goal of this round table discussion is to analyze the different images and vantage points of this period existing in different geographical spaces, including the many different myths and misconceptions that have been created about it. Among the aspects that will be dealt with, and which Youssef’s new film attempts to tackle, are the opposing ideas of co-existence and conflict, of conquest and “reconquista,” as well as the blurry lines drawn between the processes aimed at civilization’s enlightenment and invasion, within the context of the latest conflict between East and West to take place on the Iberian Peninsula.

Event information sheet

The event has been organized on the occasion of the visit by the Egyptian filmmaker to Casa Árabe to present his film “Karma“ and as part of the holding of the seminar titled “Dialogues on the Late Medieval Mediterranean: Meetings and discussions on methodology,” held by IS-LE COST Action and hosted by Casa Árabe the day before.

Originally a student of Youssef Chahine, Khaled Youssef was his main assistant for ten years, being the executive director and screenwriter for all of his internationally acclaimed films. Within his extensive film-making career, he worked with Chahine as a screenwriter for the movie Al Masiir (Destiny, Egypt, France, 1997), about the life of Andalusian philosopher Averroes, set in Al-Andalus during the twelfth century. In addition to his many other awards and nominations, two of his films were ranked among the best 100 Arab films of all time by the Dubai International Film Festival (2013).

Alejandro García Sanjuán has a PhD in Medieval History  from the University of Seville (1998) and is a tenured professor of Medieval History at the University of Huelva (since 2008). His research focuses mainly on the history of Al-Andalus, and in particular on studying the Islamic legal framework for relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as the way in which the concept of Al-Andalus has been viewed in contemporary Spanish historiographical and cultural tradition. His latest publications include Coexistencia y conflictos. Minorías religiosas en la Península Ibérica durante la Edad Media (Co-existence and Conflicts: Religious minorities on the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages, 2015), La conquista islámica de la Península Ibérica y la tergiversación del pasado (The Islamic Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and Misrepresentation of the Past, 2013) and Till God Inherits the Earth: Islamic Pious Endowments in Al-Andalus (10th-15th centuries) (2007).

At Cambridge University, Elizabeth Drayson is the Lorna Close Fellow in Spanish at Murray Edwards College, a professor of Spanish at Peterhouse and an affiliate professor with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She is s specialist on medieval literature and early modern Spanish and cultural history, as well as on the relations between the Arab, Jewish and Christian cultures during the medieval and late medieval periods. She produced the first translation and edition of the Libro de buen amor (The Book of Good Love) by Juan Ruiz (known as the “Archpriest of Hita”) to come out in England. Some of her most notable recent works include The Moor’s Last Stand: How seven centuries of Muslim rule in Spain came to an end (2017), El último sultán. Boabdil y el fin de Al-Ándalus (The Last Sultan: Boabdil and the end of Al-Andalus, 2018), translated into Spanish, and Granada: Spain’s Lost Paradise (2020, currently at press).