OxTalks is Changing
OxTalks will soon be transitioning to Oxford Events (full details are available on the Staff Gateway). A two-week publishing freeze is expected to start before the end of Hilary Term to allow all future events to be migrated to the new platform. During this period, you will not be able to submit or edit events on OxTalks. The exact freeze dates will be confirmed on the Staff Gateway and via email to identified OxTalks users.
If you have any questions, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
The Lyell Lectures 2026 - Muslim Books in Christian Hands: From Iberian Moriscos to Early Modern Europe
These lectures examine the books produced by Muslim minorities in Christian Iberia from the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the seventeenth century. Even after the forcible conversion of Muslims at the beginning of the sixteenth century, these minorities continued to use, copy and clandestinely preserve Muslim books. Manuscripts were bought and taken outside Spain, collected and read by groups from Italian Humanists to Early Orientalist in Northern Europe.
This lecture series will analyse the itineraries of some of these Muslim Iberian manuscripts through libraries and centres of knowledge, as well as how they were used and interpreted outside their Iberian context. These phenomena include the personal contacts and collaboration between expelled Iberian Muslims and European Christian scholars, and raise the question of how Morisco literature affected Early Modern understanding of Islam.
Following the series, recordings of the lectures will be available on the Lyell Lectures series page, which you can find here: visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/the-lyell-lectures
Type: Seminar Series
Timing: Various days, at 18:30
Web Address:
https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/lyell-lectures-2026
Organising department: Bodleian Libraries
Talks:
Tuesday 28 April 2026
Lecture 1 – The Morisco Polemicist Muhamad Alguazir: From Marrakech to the Bodleian
Date: 28 April 2026, 17:15 - 18:30
Speaker
:
Professor Mercedes Garcia-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid)
Venue: Weston Library, Broad Street OX1 3BG
Venue Details: Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, and online via Zoom
Organisers:
TBA
Hosts:
TBA
Thursday 30 April 2026
Lecture 2 – Morisco books between Spain and Rome: Morisco Islam through Eastern Christian eyes
Date: 30 April 2026, 17:15 - 18:30
Speaker
:
Professor Mercedes Garcia-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid)
Venue: Weston Library, Broad Street OX1 3BG
Venue Details: Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, and online via Zoom
Organisers:
TBA
Hosts:
TBA
Tuesday 5 May 2026
Lecture 3 – Christian Books in Muslim Hands
Date: 5 May 2026, 17:15 - 18:30
Speaker
:
Professor Mercedes Garcia-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid)
Venue: Weston Library, Broad Street OX1 3BG
Venue Details: Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, and online via Zoom
Organisers:
TBA
Hosts:
TBA
Thursday 7 May 2026
Lecture 4 – Concordia mundi and the search for Qur'ans: Prophetism and Christian Kabbala
Date: 7 May 2026, 17:15 - 18:30
Speaker
:
Professor Mercedes Garcia-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid)
Venue: Weston Library, Broad Street OX1 3BG
Venue Details: Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, and online via Zoom
Organisers:
TBA
Hosts:
TBA
Monday 11 May 2026
Lecture 5 – Muslims and Christian Knowledge of Islam: the participation of Moriscos
Date: 11 May 2026, 17:15 - 18:30
Speaker
:
Professor Mercedes Garcia-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid)
Venue: Weston Library, Broad Street OX1 3BG
Venue Details: Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, and online via Zoom
Organisers:
TBA
Hosts:
TBA
Editors:
Laura Spence,
Belinda Clark
