From Muslims to Christians to Jews, Medieval Spain underwent many conflicts in religion and yet still found ways for coexistence. On Thursday night, historian Mark D. Meyerson animatedly filled McCord Auditorium with anecdotes and history of Spain during these times. His lecture, “Conflict and Coexistence: Muslims and Christians in Medieval Spain” was the first part of “The Worlds of Islam” series.

After 9-11, a group of faculty, students, and community members were given the task to put together a program about Muslims in North Texas. At first, a conference for October 5, named “Islam in North Texas” was developed. James Hopkins, chairperson of the History Department suggested offering two additional lectures with similar issues and to unite them with the first idea. The result was a series called “The Worlds of Islam.”

“This lecture is a special way of starting the series because it will take the audience back to a time of some of the great achievements of Islamic culture in Spain, a time that represented the high point of Islamic rule throughout the Mediterranean,” said Andrea Boardman, executive director of the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies. “We are hoping that there is both a Muslim and non-Muslim audience.”

Meyerson is an associate professor of Medieval History at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on medieval and early modern Spain, especially the social history and Christian-Muslim-Jewish connections. Author of “The Muslims of Valencia in the age of Fernando and Isabel: Between coexistence and Crusade,” his lecture emphasized the factors that successfully brought together the Muslim and Christian societies in Medieval Spain.

“I find this time a very moving and dramatic history,” said Meyerson.

He discussed how the Muslims, Christians and Jews all lived in Spain during the same period. At times, people of one religion were forced to convert to another and at other times there was an understanding of coexistence with separate freedoms, and communal autonomy.

Between the ninth and tenth centuries, Spain was dominantly Muslim. The Muslim regime was quite liberal allowing non-Muslims much freedom and communal autonomy. During this time, some Christians realized that the best way to have economic and social success would be to adapt Muslim ways, so Christians began to convert to Islam.

By the end of the tenth century, almost 80 percent of the Christians had converted. Still, there was a group of radical Christians that disagreed.

“These radical Christians felt that they were hiding the fact that they were Christians. They felt persecuted because they couldn’t speak their minds and for them that meant standing on the rooftop and declaring the truth of Christianity and the falsehood of Islam,” Meyerson said.

The Jews living in Spain at this time maintained their Jewish identity as a minority.

Spain then transitioned into a more Christian dominant regime in which Christians wanted to convert everyone. It became a land of conquer more than it was before.

“One of the things that attracted me in my research to Christian Spain is that the archives are incredibly rich,” he said.

Meyerson went to Spain expecting to find evidence of a decline in Muslim and Christian relations since that is what the textbooks led him to. He found a more complex story.

“Yes, there was violence. Yes, there was disagreement. And it wasn’t a wonderful, glorious coexistance, but it was a coexistance,” he said.

Jeremy Adams of the history department introduced Meyerson as a “figure of expertise.” A large turnout showed that people came “to embrace understanding, rather than misunderstanding.”

“He seemed very knowledgeable and his enthusiasm made him a pleasure to listen to,” said senior art history major Becca Reardon.

“The Worlds of Islam” series will also include a daylong conference on October 5, named “Islam in North Texas.” It will bring together all sorts of people from religious leaders and community activists, to doctors, and “soccer moms” to talk about what it means to be a Muslim and an American. “Four Years in the Middle East: The Trail of History” will be the last lecture on November 7. All the events of “The Worlds of Islam” will be held at SMU and are open to the public.