Invading in/from the ‘Holy Land’: Apocalyptic Metatext(s) and Sacred and/or Imagined Geography, 950–1200
Invading in/from the ‘Holy Land’: Apocalyptic Metatext(s) and Sacred and/or Imagined Geography, 950–1200

Summary/Abstract: This article is based upon different levels of analysis and takes into consideration the idea that Europe and parts of the Near East were thought of by many Medieval intellectuals, both Christian and Muslim, as having common roots and characteristics, e.g. the heritage of Alexander the Great, of the Roman Empire and of the Abrahamic (three monotheistic) religions as well. In my opinion, and keeping the above in mind, some new questions could be asked, such as whether there was any serious distortion in the picture of the ‘own ’ Universe/‘ own ’Holy Land, or whether it was distorted only in some details but not in the ‘core’ of the doctrine (understood as ‘we’ are [in] ‘the center’ [=‘Holy Land’] and the ‘invaders’ are [in] ‘the periphery’, according to the typical mental scheme of the pre-modern societies). This question is quite reasonable, since for many of the Medieval Christian societies the so-called spatial segregation of the ‘Others’ (Jews, Muslims, heretics, etc.) was a typical feature. That is why all the ‘unclean people’, according to the Gog and Magog cliché, were situated on the margins, beyond the world of civilization. This is indeed a spatial segregation developed through the scheme of the spatial exclusion of the ‘Other’.

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