Disputes and Settlements in the Mediterranean

This collective volume represents a significant contribution to the critical and historiographical debate on the three major religious and cultural traditions of the Mediterranean—Christianity, Islam, and Judaism—analyzed through the lens of judicial practices rooted in peace-making.

It aims to explore the connections between religious frameworks and compositional methods of social conflict resolution, both within each monotheistic tradition and in contexts where these traditions interacted or coexisted, whether peacefully or in tension. A flourishing historiography on Western Europe has investigated the relationships between state-administered (hegemonic) justice—typically associated with the repression of crime through judicial and tribunal systems—and so-called community justice (negotiated), encompassing practices such as arbitration, settlements, agreements, pardons, and conciliatory resolutions, while emphasizing their grounding in religious beliefs and institutions. However, scant attention has thus far been devoted to the Mediterranean region, broadly defined as a distinct object of study from this specific standpoint. Focusing on the Mediterranean broadens the scope to include non-Christian yet European contexts, such as the Ottoman Balkans and the scattered Jewish communities across Europe, enabling a less West-centred and more nuanced understanding of judicial modernity, as well as a deeper exploration of how judicial practices and social conflict resolution were shaped by religious thought across diverse cultures.

This book is primarily addressed to specialists in the field, though it may also serve as a valuable reading resource for graduate and doctoral students approaching the history of law, religion, and Mediterranean societies.