Home > About Us > People : Michael T Lower
Department Affiliations
Narrative
I am a historian of medieval Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, focusing on Christian, Muslim, and Jewish interaction within and across these regions in the central and later middle ages. I am currently working on a comparative history of Christian mercenaries in North Africa and Muslim mercenaries in Spain in the medieval and early modern periods, tentatively titled Fighting for the Enemy. I am particularly interested in the ease with which medieval mercenaries crossed the religious divide and carved out an established presence for themselves in their host societies, sometimes for centuries. Because medieval mercenary guards were a genuinely cross-cultural phenomenon, they open up rich possibilities for comparative study of trans-Mediterranean contact and assimilation based on Arabic and European-language sources.
Specialties
- Medieval Europe
- the Crusades
- Christian-Muslim Relations
- North Africa in the Middle Ages
Educational Background
- Ph.D.: History, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, 1999.
Publications
- Lower, Michael T. The Barons' Crusade: A Call to Arms and Its Consequences. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
- Lower, Michael T. "Ibn al-Lihyani: sultan of Tunis and would-be Christian convert." Mediterranean Historical Review 24 (2009): 17-27.
- Lower, Michael T. "Conversion and St Louis's Last Crusade." The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 58 (2007): 211-231.
- Lower, Michael T. "Tunis in 1270: A Case Study of Interfaith Relations in the Late Thirteenth Century." The International History Review 28 (2006): 504-514.
- Lower, Michael T. ""Negotiating Interfaith Relations in Eastern Christendom: Pope Gregory IX, Bela IV of Hungary, and the Latin Empire"." Essays in Medieval Studies 21 (2004): 49-62.
- Lower, Michael T. "'The Burning at Mont-Aimé: Thibaut IV of Champagne's Preparations for the Barons' Crusade"." Journal of Medieval History 29 (2003): 95-108.
Research Activities
- Fighting for the Enemy: Christian Mercenaries in North Africa and Muslim Mercenaries in Spain, 1050-1574: Book Project, 2008 - present
Awards
- Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellowship, 2010 - 2011
- Imagine Fund SIngle Course Release, 2009 - 2010
- Imagine Fund Research Grant, 2009 - 2009
- Solmsen Residential Fellowship, Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006 - 2007
- Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry, and Scholarship, Graduate School, University of Minnesota, 2006 - 2008
- Sabbatical Supplement, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, 2006 - 2007
- Single Semester Leave, Graduate School, University of Minnesota, 2002 - 2003
- McKnight Summer Fellowship, University of Minnesota, 2001, 2008.
- Faculty Summer Research Fellowship, Graduate School, 2001, 2008.
Courses Taught
- Hist5900 -- Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Middle Ages
- Hist 1031W -- Europe and the World: Expansion, Encounter, and Exchange to 1500
- Hsem 3070 -- European Lives
- Hist 3608W / Mest 3610 – History of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages
- Hist 3613 -- History of the Crusades
- Hist 3618 / Mest 3610 – The Dark Ages Illumined: Medieval Europe to 1050
- Hist 3619 / Mest 3610 – Chivalry, Crisis, and Revival: Medieval History, 1050-1500.
- Hist 5612 -- Proseminar in Medieval History
- Hist 5614 / Mest 5610 – The Medieval Church
Alternative Output Formats