Contacts on the Move. Toward a Redefinition of Christian-Islamic Interactions in the Early Modern Mediterranean and Beyond. Introduction

In the last decades, the emergence of a new research trend on the “early globalization” has influenced the study of Early Modern History from many points of view.The great availability of sources written in different languages and the sharing of knowledge and linguistic skills among the international community of academics are changing the way we do history and the topics we focus on. It is not a coincidence that the study of religious relationships beyond the Holy War represents a cornerstone in this frame. As historians are stressing the routes of political, cultural and economic communications through lands, oceans and empires, a constantly-growing number of cross-cultural and trans- religious go-betweeners begins to populate the Early Modern centuries. We aim at highlighting themes that are still unexplored or deserve revision and throw light on the diverse trajectories of Muslim-Christian interactions and in a var- ied geographical context. Assuming the ancient liquidity as a moving step, we are focusing on the practical side of this story focusing on the individual experience and on the way it has been recorded and transmitted to us. For this reason, a certain micro-historical scent enters each essay and a selection of sources supports all our case studies.