Studying the “Shared Sacred Spaces” of the Medieval Levant: Where Historians May Meet Anthropologists

ABSTRACT A study of medieval cases of bi- or tri-confessional worship of the same site, bolstered by insights from anthropological observations of such present-day worship, leads to the conclusion that the term “shared sacred spaces” does not do justice to the phenomena under consideration. They are more adequately described by such terms as “convergence,” “cohabitation,” “contested sacred place,” “interfaith crossover.” Future studies would benefit from the evolution of an analytical vocabulary consisting of components such as: the confessional ownership of the sacred space; the religious reasons for its veneration; the direction of interfaith crossovers; the nature of the act performed by adherents of different religions; the social standing and motivation of these adherents; the existence of a developmental trajectory.