Monica Colominas Aparicio

Mònica is interested in the relationships between Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the Iberian Peninsula, the attitudes toward religious minorities during the Middle Ages, and specially toward the Mudejars, their manuscripts written in Arabic and Inaljamiado (Spanish in Arabic characters), and within the arts. She is particularly interested in poetry and music.

Her research investigates the politics of identity of Muslim minority communities living under Christian rule (mudejars) in the North-East of the Iberian Peninsula in the later Middle Ages. It focuses on Arabic and aljamiado manuscripts from Aragon and Navarre and aims to shed light on the function of polemical writing as a discursive means for the construction of Mudejar identities and social realities in the period of relative tolerance that preceded the forced conversions of the sixteenth century.

In March 2023, Mònica was appointed as professor in the History of Islamic Ideas and Culture in Premodern Europe at the Faculty of Religion, Culture, and Society of the University of Groningen.