The IEM hosted the project “Shaping an Islamic ‘Reconquest’: the loss of al-Andalus and the creation of memory in Portugal and Spain. 11th century and beyond”, which received support by a CEEC Individual grant in this year’s edition. Javier Albarrán, who was awarded his PhD in History by Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, will investigate the reactions provoked by the loss of al-Andalus between the 11th and 15th centuries, what concepts it generated and how these have since been used, transmitted and adapted in modern and contemporary societies.

The first aim involves analysis whether these reactions involved discourses of an Islamic reconquest, and whether these were political and active, rhetorical or literary. Secondly, the researcher sets out to study how the reactions fostered feelings of territorial belonging across space and time, how territorial losses altered the al-Andalus understanding of its history and memory, and how these phenomena are now perceived and applied in contemporary societies. In short, this strives to to understand whether or not the loss of al-Andalus generated an ethnohistory over a shared past, particularly in Portugal and Spain.