Reversing Sacred Spaces: 
Al-Andalus and the Western Mediterranean (11th-13th Centuries)

Based on a debate on recent archaeological discoveries in the cloister of the Sé de Lisboa, we question here the reversibility of sacred spaces as a symbolic form of political and social dominion. The starting point determines the chronology, the observation scales, as well as the dominant problem under study. The chronological limits, in line with those of the newly discovered levels of the Sé cloister, immediately before and immediately after the Christian conquest of the Madina Ushbuna in 1147 (in any case before 1300), correspond roughly to the period of the reflux of al-Andalus in the face of military pressure from the Christian kingdoms (1064-1249). This determines an important reallocation of sacred spaces, with the transformation of many mosques into churches, which will be the center of our research topic. Some parallels with preliminary examples of space reversibility, especially those resulting from the Islamic conquests in the Mediterranean and Hispania (7th-9th centuries) will also be tested. The observation starts from the local scale that is Lisbon, to the whole of the Gharb, al-Andalus, but also Africa and Sicily, looking for regularities and differences. The approach will be necessarily interdisciplinary seeking the cross-contributions of historians, archaeologists, and art historians.