Abstract
“Medieval interactions (700–1500)” considers the relationships among Jews, Christians, and Muslims between 700 and 1500 ce. Islam’s close association with the state influenced the development of its theology and law, the leading discipline for ordering Islamic societies and for framing Muslims’ interactions with Christians and Jews. The association of both Christianity and Islam with state power encouraged ideologies that could justify military action against the other, most notably the Crusades. Religious minorities—Jews and Christians in Muslim lands; Jews and Muslims in Christian territory—often lived restricted lives, yet Christian and especially Muslim practice sometimes allowed for toleration as well as extensive cultural and intellectual exchange, albeit without ceding political control.
