ABSTRACT
Through a reconstruction of the genealogy of the concept of convivencia, this chapter argues that beyond a description of historical realities in medieval and early modern Iberia, convivencia is a prescriptive moral and political project that reconfigures the relationship between religion and the secular state based on the memory of twentieth-century conflicts. It also examines how, in related discourses that link tolerance to convivencia, Sufism and courtly cultures in al-Andalus are portrayed as universal systems that are capable of transcending difference, whereas Islamic law and ritual practice are perceived as restrictive, divisive, and particular.
