"Oh no - the Turks!": Italy and the Islamic Mediterranean

Catalog description

Passed down through popular lore, the phrase "mamma li turchi!" is still known to Italians today. This course explores the history, culture, and contemporary politics of Italy through the lens of the country's relations with Muslims and Islamic societies in the Mediterranean region. We begin in the first millennium of the common era, when Muslims ruled over large parts of Europe, including Iberia and Sicily. We then move into the Renaissance period to cover Italy's extensive relations with Islamic empires such as the Mamluks of Egypt and the Ottomans of the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa (often simply called, "the Turks"). Moving into the modern period, we will then examine how Italian national identity was moulded in contrast to an imagined Muslim counterpart, tracing how these ideas informed Italian colonialism in North Africa. The last part of the course focuses on contemporary issues: over the past several decades and still today, Italy has maintained particularly close relations with Muslim countries in the region. Nonetheless, immigration and the supposed menace of Islam have come to play a large role in Italian politics today. We will study these topics using a range of sources including first-hand accounts (in translation), art, and film. Key themes in the course include conquest, coexistence, conversion, migration & immigration, trade, colonialism, national identity formation, the Cold War, and global political movements.