How do historians find people and ideas that barely appearin the historical record? And what can those silences tell us about themedieval past?

In this episode, Cristina Moreno-Almeida speaks withmedieval historian Delfi Nieto-Isabel about who gets remembered, who getserased, and how historians recover hidden histories, and the digital toolshelping scholars uncover overlooked histories. Together they explore how ideastravelled across the medieval Mediterranean, why rumours and misinformation are older than we might think, and how historians can recover voices that rarelymade it into official records.

In This Episode

0:00 Introduction

0:47 Trailer

2:00 What makes Al-Andalus inspiring for a historian today?

6:28 Questioning historical narratives

13:25 Confrontational politics & othering

19:17 Myth making in the past & today

24:24 How can historical research reach the people?

33:41 Lightning Round

About the Guest

Delfi Nieto-Isabel is a Lecturer in Medieval and DigitalHistory and Associate Fellow of the Institute for the Humanities and SocialSciences of Queen Mary University of London. She started out as a physicist andthen became a medievalist. She got her PhD at the University of Barcelona in2018, was a Research Associate and Visiting Lecturer in the Women’s Studies inReligion Program at Harvard Divinity School in 2021-22, and a MarieSkłodowska–Curie Fellow at Queen Mary. Currently, she's an Academic Fellow ofQueen Mary's Digital Environment Research Institute, a Fellow of the RoyalHistorical Society, and the Co-Director of the Digital Lives Programme at QueenMary's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her research and teachingrevolve around religious dissent, persecution and women's history.

Forthcoming book: Networks of Defiance. Women and Heretical Conversion in Late Medieval Languedoc (Cornell University Press)

Learn more:https://www.qmul.ac.uk/history/people/academic-staff/profiles/nieto-isabel-dr-delfi-i-.html

About the Project

'Digital Al Andalus: Radical Perspectives Of and Through AlAndalus (2023-2038)' is an ERC selected, UKRI funded project(https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP/X042251/1) exploring the uses, abuses,and afterlives of medieval history in contemporary culture and politics.

The series brings together historians, media scholars, andcultural critics to examine how the past is remembered, mythologized, andmobilised today, from medieval Iberia to digital culture and onlinemisinformation.

Learn more: https://digitalalandalus.qmul.ac.uk/

Credits

Producer, editing and sound: The Lens Box (email: studio@thelensbox.com; Instagram @thelensbox)

Artwork: Kate Nunn, Felip Docolomansky

Follow the Podcast

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalAl-Andalus

Instagram:@digitalalandalus

Website: https://digitalalandalus.qmul.ac.uk/

Support the Project

If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing, sharingthe podcast, or leaving a review. It helps others discover the series andsupports independent public history projects.

What do people really mean when they talk about Al-Andalus? Was medieval Iberia a model of coexistence, a lost paradise, or something far more complex?

In this episode, Cristina Moreno-Almeida speaks with historian Eduardo Manzano Moreno about the historical realities of Al-Andalus and the many ways it has been remembered, romanticised, and politically mobilised over time. Together they explore coexistence and conflict in medieval Iberia, the limits of the idea of 'convivencia', and why simplified versions of the past continue to resonate today.

In this episode

0:00 Introduction

0:47 Trailer

1:46 The legacy of Al-Andalus

12:27 The myth and reality of convivencia

24:42 Romanticisation & its political pitfalls

36:28 What we can learn from Al-Andalus today

40:28 Lightning Round

About the Guest

Eduardo Manzano Moreno is a Research Professor at the Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), where he served as director from 2006 to 2012. He specialises in Al-Andalus and medieval Spanish history. He holds a Ph.D. in Medieval History from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Master of Arts in Near Eastern Studies from the University of London (SOAS). His international academic presence includes roles as a visiting scholar at St. John's College, University of Oxford, and as a guest professor at the University of Chicago. Among his notable publications are Conquistadores, emires y califas. Los Omeyas y la formación de al-Andalus (2006), and La corte del califa. Cuatro años en la Córdoba de los califas omeyas (2019), both published by Editorial Crítica. Beyond medieval Islamic history, Manzano has explored the political uses of historical narratives. His co-authored book La gestión de la memoria. La historia de España al servicio del poder (2000) critically examines how history is employed to shape national identity. He also contributed to the multi-volume Historia de España project, publishing Épocas medievales in 2010. In 2024, he released España diversa. Claves de una historia plural, offering insights into Spain’s multifaceted historical identity. His work continues to influence both scholarly discourse and public understanding of Spain’s complex past.

Learn more:

https://cchs.csic.es/en/personal/eduardo-manzano-moreno

About the Project

'Digital Al Andalus: Radical Perspectives Of and Through Al Andalus (2023-2038)' is an ERC selected, UKRI funded project (https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP/X042251/1) exploring the uses, abuses, and afterlives of medieval history in contemporary culture and politics.The series brings together historians, media scholars, and cultural critics to examine how the past is remembered, mythologized, and mobilised today, from medieval Iberia to digital culture and online misinformation.

Learn more: https://digitalalandalus.qmul.ac.uk/

Credits

Producer, editing and sound: The Lens Box (email: studio@thelensbox.com Instagram @thelensbox)

Artwork:Kate NunnFelip Docolomansky

Follow the Podcast

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalAl-Andalus

Instagram:@digitalalandalus

Website:https://digitalalandalus.qmul.ac.uk/

Support the Project

If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing, sharing the podcast, or leaving a review. It helps others discover the series and supports independent public history projects.

Digital Al Andalus: On the Record is a series which brings together historians, media scholars, and cultural critics to examine how the past is remembered, mythologized, and mobilised today, from medieval Iberia to digital culture and online misinformation.

About the Project'Digital Al Andalus: Radical Perspectives Of and Through Al Andalus (2023-2038)' is an ERC selected, UKRI funded project (https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP/X042251/1) exploring the uses, abuses, and afterlives of medieval history in contemporary culture and politics.

Learn more:https://digitalalandalus.qmul.ac.uk/

Credits

Producer, editing and sound:The Lens Box (email: studio@thelensbox.com Instagram @thelensbox)

Artwork:Kate Nunn, Felip Docolomansky

Follow the Podcast

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalAl-Andalus

Instagram:@digitalalandalus

Website:https://digitalalandalus.qmul.ac.uk/

Support the Project

If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing, sharing the podcast, or leaving a review. It helps others discover the series and supports independent public history projects.