Introduction. Simon Barton’s Scholarly Legacy: Challenging Historiographical Narratives in Medieval Mediterranean and Iberian Studies

Simon Barton’s influential scholarship in Medieval Iberian History and Mediterranean Studies has significantly contributed to the reassessment and questioning of controversial historiographical paradigms, such as ‘Convivencia’ and ‘Reconquista’, while promoting a systematic cross-disciplinary engagement with less Eurocentric perspectives. His work examined the functioning of medieval Iberian social systems of power; the social and cultural legacy of interfaith exchanges; and the socio-political and cultural influence of multiple forms of contact on the multi-confessional context of the Iberian Peninsula. Building on Simon Barton’s scholarly legacy, and through a close examination of different types of textual, archaeological, visual and material evidence, this volume explores how historical narratives were strategically manipulated and adopted to promote and legitimise cultural and emotional frameworks, social hierarchies, and political strategies, and how they developed across different chronological and geographical settings. The study of a socially, culturally and politically plural Iberia offers an excellent opportunity to de-centre and diversify frameworks of research, helping us understand processes of identity-making and social dynamics that shaped the lives and experiences of individuals and communities across the Middle Ages.