ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the major issues that have absorbed medieval historians in the twentieth century; and looks at twentieth-century political developments, at the use of the medieval past by twentieth-century politicians, and at the interaction of both with history writing. It also considers the fate of historians’ preoccupations of the twentieth century and the issues that remain to be resolved. The Nationalists used the past in the argument for unity: Spain had a long history, its modern political identity established by the middle ages, particularly in the context of the long war fought by the Christians against the Moslems. The middle ages have for a long time been seen as a critical period in the formation of modern Spain. For the Moslems of southern Spain, tenth-century chronicles used terms borrowed from the Old Testament – Ishmaelites and Chaldeans – but also occasionally the words Arab and Saracen.