Ruwe representatie

Interreligieuze interacties in verhalen van reizigers door de Levant tijdens de Kruistochten

Samenvatting

This article explores interreligious interactions in traveller accounts from the Levant during the Crusades. While this period has often been characterised by conflict between Christians and Muslims, these sources paint a more layered image. Drawing on four accounts written by Ibn Munqidh, Ibn Jubayr, Thietmar, and Burchard, this article introduces the concept of ‘rough representation’, inspired by Christopher MacEvitt’s model of ‘rough tolerance’. This model describes a textual practice in which the travellers simultaneously represent polemical stereotypes while also showing practical experience of interreligious interactions. Rough representation consists of three characteristics: permeability, localisation, and absence. Together these show how interreligious contact is obscured and embedded by these texts. This approach highlights that contact between religious communities was frequent and normalised in traveller accounts, which offers a rebuttal to the narrative of perennial conflict and animosity between Christians and Muslims that still prevails today.