A Renaissance Interrupted?: Personhood, 鈥淪odomy鈥� and the Public in Twelfth-Century Christian and Islamic Proto-Civil Legality
Le Centre Paul-Andr茅 Cr茅peau de droit priv茅 et compar茅 poursuit le cycle 2016-2018 des Ateliers de droit civil, sur le th猫me 芦聽Le public en droit priv茅聽禄, avec une conf茅rence de (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London).
搁茅蝉耻尘茅
[En anglais seulement] The eventful twelfth century was, in many ways, a veritable paradox. On the one hand, it saw a sudden surge in academic works and universities in Western and Southern Europe that sought to bridge the worlds previously thought entirely incommensurable and usher in an age of scholasticism that would eventually lead to the fourteenth- to seventeenth-century Renaissance. For this reason, it has been a staple of mediaevalist scholarship to describe those thorough-going changes as the 鈥榬enaissance of the twelfth century鈥�. On the other hand, the same century also reads as a striking catalogue of most violent acts and disasters: from the rise of inquisition and merciless Christian infighting, over the first expulsions of Jews and the intensification of the Reconquista on Muslim Spain to the blood and gore of the Second, Third and German Crusades. Might it not be more appropriate, then, to characterise this period as an age of profound crisis, in which the true contours of a 鈥榩ersecuting society鈥� were drawn?
This talk seeks to make a modest contribution to that debate, by guiding the audience鈥檚 attention to a tell-tale public aspect of high mediaeval life鈥攖hat of sexual and gender diversity鈥攁nd by expanding the view over the twelfth century so as to include the affairs in the Great Seljuk Empire (1037鈥�1194), a vast Turko-Persianate Sunn墨 Muslim state that originated in Anatolia, but quickly came to rule over much of the then Islamicate world.
The talk considers, in particular, an unlikely rise of neo-Roman European civil law and Seljuk proto-civil legality and its formidable effect on two paradigmatic twelfth-century intellectual debates on the public, legal and theological standing of 鈥榮odomy鈥� (peccatum sodomiticum, 濒颈飞腻峁�): one in amongst prominent Benedictines and the other between the leading 岣naf墨 scholars. It is argued that these debates, led in the distinct spirit of concordia discors (discordant harmony) or 颈办丑迟颈濒腻蹿 (permissible scholarly disagreement), are indispensable for our understanding of legal and social aspects of sexual and gender diversity in the twelfth century and, in turn, the way in which certain rapturous pluralities were continued and ruptured鈥攃oncomitantly.
Le conf茅rencier
[En anglais seulement] Dr Vanja Hamzi膰 is a Senior Lecturer in Legal History and Legal Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, an Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple and a former Member of the School of Social Science in the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. His main body of work interrogates historical and present-day formations of gender and sexual diversity in various Islamicate societies of South Asia, Southeast Asia and West Africa. His published books include Control and Sexuality: The Revival of Zin膩 Laws in Muslim Contexts (2010; with Ziba Mir-Hosseini) and Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Muslim World: History, Law and Vernacular Knowledge (2016).
Les Ateliers de droit civil
En vue de promouvoir la r茅flexion fondamentale en droit priv茅, le Centre a instaur茅 la s茅rie des Ateliers de droit civil, qui permet de regrouper des juristes qu茅b茅cois et 茅trangers autour de th猫mes de recherche communs. D茅di茅s 脿 l鈥櫭﹖ude d鈥檜n th猫me de recherche transversal, les Ateliers de droit civil contribuent ainsi 脿 enrichir et 脿 stimuler la recherche fondamentale en droit priv茅.
Le cycle 2016-2018 des Ateliers de droit civil, pr茅sent茅 par le Centre Paul-Andr茅 Cr茅peau de droit priv茅 et compar茅, se d茅roule sur le th猫me 芦聽Le public en droit priv茅聽禄.
La s茅rie des Ateliers de droit civil compte sur l鈥檃ppui financier du Fonds d鈥檃ppui 脿 l鈥檃cc猫s 脿 la justice dans les deux langues officielles.
Aucune inscription pr茅alable n鈥檈st requise. Chaque atelier聽est accr茅dit茅 pour 1,5 heure de formation continue obligatoire aupr猫s du Barreau du Qu茅bec et de la Chambre des notaires du Qu茅bec.
