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The Hispanic Medieval Kingdoms and Al-Àndalus

Code: 100357 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Archaeology OT 4

Contact

Name:
Felix Maria Retamero Serralvo
Email:
felix.retamero@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

Ability to read in Catalan, Spanish and French


Objectives and Contextualisation

The aim of the course is to provide a deepest knowledge of the Iberian medieval societies: discuss the principal events and the main historical figures, as well as the historiographical context; to familiarise the student with the written evidence and the arcahaeological research on the period; to understand the main historical processes that determined the formation of the different Iberian medieval societies, and to explore the connections between the destruction and the construction of new societies in the context of the Iberian conquests and the Modern expansion.


Competences

  • Contextualizing and analysing historical processes.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Managing the main methods, techniques and analytic tools in archaeology.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethic relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse the historical processes that lead to armed conflict.
  2. Analysing the key issues that allow us to address the study of historical phenomena from a gender perspective.
  3. Applying both knowledge and analytical skills to the resolution of problems related to their area of study.
  4. Applying proper techniques and analytical tools in case studies.
  5. Applying the morphosyntactic analysis to the reading of Latin texts, identifying if necessary the specific characteristics of the literary genre or the corresponding linguistic variation.
  6. Assessing and critically solving the characteristic historiographical problems of gender history.
  7. Assessing and critically solving the historiographical problems of war studies.
  8. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
  9. Carrying out oral presentations using appropriate academic vocabulary and style.
  10. Critically analysing informational speeches, especially in relation to ideology and ethnocentric and sexist bias.
  11. Effectively expressing themselves and applying the argumentative and textual processes of formal and scientific texts.
  12. Identifying main and supporting ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  13. Identifying the characteristic methods of Archaeology and its relationship with the historical analysis.
  14. Identifying the context of the historical processes.
  15. Identifying the specific methods of History and its relationship with the analysis of particular facts.
  16. Interpreting and analysing documentary sources.
  17. Interpreting historical texts in relation to archaeological contexts.
  18. Interpreting material sources and the archaeological record.
  19. Mastering and identifying the history of immediate environment.
  20. Mastering the diachronic structure of the past.
  21. Mastering the relevant languages to the necessary degree in the professional practice.
  22. Mastering the Universal History of the Middle Ages.
  23. Organising and planning the search of historical information.
  24. Reading and interpreting historiographical texts or original documents and transcribing, summarizing and cataloguing information produced in the Middle Ages.
  25. Recognising the importance of controlling the quality of the work's results and its presentation.
  26. Relating elements and factors involved in the development of historical processes.
  27. Solve the methodological problems posed by the use of medieval historiographical sources.
  28. Submitting works in accordance with both individual and small group demands and personal styles.
  29. Transmitting the results of archaeological research and clearly communicating conclusions in oral and written form to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  30. Use the specific technical vocabulary of interpretation and commentary of ancient texts.
  31. Using computing resources of the area of study of history.
  32. Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.
  33. Using the specific interpretational and technical vocabulary of the discipline.

Content

1. The Regnum gothorum (6th-8th c.). The issue of the feudalization of Visigothic society

2. The conquest of 711 and the making of al-Andalus.

3. The Umayyad and the taifa dinasties (8th-10th c.).

4. Counties and kingdoms of the Northern Peninsula. The Kingdom of Asturias; the Asturian-Leonese Kingdom; Castile (8th-11th c.). The populatio

5. Almoravit and almohad dinasties. The 'asabiyya

6. A society organised for war:Castile12th-15th centuries. The frontier

7. Tne Nasrid Amirate of Granada and the final conquest. Mudéjars and  moriscos (15th-16th c.)

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Theory: lectures. Practical exercises on case-studies; text analyses 50 2 8, 21, 11, 17, 28, 30
Type: Supervised      
Tutorial seasons on written and oral works 15 0.6 8, 21, 11, 17, 28, 30
Type: Autonomous      
Work by students: assisting to the lectures; reading, research and analysis of information, assignments. 75 3 8, 21, 11, 17, 28, 30

-Practical exercises on case-studies; text analysis.

-Work by students: assisting to the lectures; reading, research and analysis of information, assignments. The student must take into account the news and informations published on the Virtual Campus/Moodle. All activities have a deadline that must be met strictly, according to the proposed schedule.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Essay 40% 7 0.28 10, 1, 2, 5, 4, 3, 7, 6, 8, 21, 19, 22, 20, 11, 9, 32, 14, 15, 13, 12, 16, 18, 17, 24, 23, 28, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 33, 31
Test 1 30% 1.5 0.06 2, 1, 3, 8, 21, 19, 22, 20, 11, 32, 14, 12, 16, 18, 17, 24, 28, 26, 27, 29, 30, 33
Test 2 30% 1.5 0.06 2, 1, 3, 8, 21, 19, 22, 20, 11, 32, 14, 15, 13, 12, 16, 18, 17, 24, 28, 26, 27, 30, 33

Continuous assessment.

1. Two tests: 30 % of the final grade each.
2. One or two practical essays: 40% of the final grade.

One of the exercises will consist in an oral presentation

Single assessment.

Synthesis test 1: 30%. 

Synthesis test 2: 30%. 

Essay(s): 40%. 

There will be a unique date date for the completion and delivery of the assessment tests. This date will be announced during the first week of class, both in the classroom and through the Virtual Campus.


The marks below 3,5 will not add in the calculation of the average. To passthe course a minimum mark 5 will be required. To participate in the re-avaluation process students must have been previously evaluated in a set of activities whose weight equals to a minimum of 2/3 parts of the total grade.

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

 


Bibliography

-Barbero, A. & M. Vigil, La formación del feudalismo en la península ibérica, Crítica, Barcelona, 1982 (1ª ed.) Humanitats- 1a planta ; 946.02 Bar

-Barceló, M., El sol que salió por Occidente, Universidad de Jaen, 1997 (edició revisada i ampliada publicada per la Universitat de València,2010) Humanitats- 1a planta ; 946.021 Bar

-Barrios, A.; R. Peinado, dirs., Historia del Reino de Granada, 3 vols., Universidad de Granada, 2000. Humanitats- 1a planta ; 946.81.03 His

-Barton, S. & R. Portrass, eds, Beyond the Reconquista. New directions in the history of Medieval Iberia (711-1085), Brill, 2020, 103. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uab/detail.action?pq-origsite=primo&docID=6175832

-Garcia Fitz, La guerra contra el Islam peninsular en la Edad Media, 2019. https://sintesis-read-garden.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/viewer/la-guerra-contra-el-islam-peninsular-en-la-edad-media/1

-Guichard, P., De la expansión árabe a la Reconquista: esplendor y fragilidad de al-Andalus, El Legado Andalusi, Granada, 2002. https://www.legadoandalusi.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/FLA-BIB_0022_Guichard-es.pdf

-Martín Viso, I., ed. Los procesos de formación del feudalismo: la península ibñerica en el contexto europeo. Ed. Trea, 2023.  Humanitats- 1a planta Signatura: 321.17 Pro

-Monsalvo, J.M., Atlas histórico de la España Medieval, Madrid, Sintesis, 2010. Humanitats- 1a planta ; 946(084.4)

-Powers, J., A society organised for war. The Iberian municipal militias in the Central Middle Ages, 1000-1284, University of California Press, 1988. https://archive.org/details/societyorganized0000powe/page/n7/mode/2up

-Rios Saloma, M.F., La Reconquista. Una construccion historiografica (siglos XVI-XIX), UNAM-Marcial Pons, Madrid, 2011. Humanitats- 1a planta ; 930.1(46) Rio

 


Software

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Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed