"Muslim Minority in the Portuguese Kingdom (1170-1496): identity and writing"

The historical perspective of Muslim minority (as the Jewish one) is subjected to a mediated discourse, based mainly upon documentation produced or controlled by the Christian powers. Even so, it is possible to trace the identity marks of this minority in the written records, mainly in production of Islamic Law or in other documental levels that registered services rendered to the Portuguese king in Islamic territories. A bipartite identity expressed in Portuguese, in an adscription to the King and the realm, in their assumption of the legal statute of mouro forro (free moor), and in Arabic, as garīb, in their relation to the Islamic umma

“A minoria muçulmana do reino português e os contactos diplomáticos com o dār al-islām”

Os muçulmanos do reino português são pontualmente convocados pelo monarca para exercer funções diplomáticas com o mundo islâmico. Ligados à comuna de Lisboa, com que o rei mantém relações privilegiadas e homens da sua confiança, estes muçulmanos serão convocados por Afonso V, para uma missão junto ao sultão mameluco Īnāl. O monarca, embora de forma indireta, pretende intervir sobre Jerusalém, na proteção dos cristãos dessa cidade. A utilização destes muçulmanos nas relações com o dār al-islām remete para a relevância de um equilíbrio político no Mediterrâneo que passa também pelo fenómeno sociológico das minorias étnico-religiosas

"Mouros e Guerra Santa na produção do Mosteiro de S. Vicente de Fora: O Indiculum e a Crónica da tomada desta cidade de Lisboa aos mouros e da fundação deste Mosteiro de S. Vicente".

As produções escritas do Mosteiro de S. Vicente sobre a sua fundação, o Indiculum e a Crónica, respetivamente o texto latino e a sua tradução reformulada, remetem para uma visão distinta do “Mouro” em função dos tempos e dos contextos específicos em que ambas foram produzidas. No primeiro caso, um muçulmano semanticamente neutro, serve apenas como contraponto à acção dos Cruzados; no segundo, enfatizam-se os atos desses “mouros”, num campo semântico despectivo do Islão e dos seus apaniguados, os “inimigos da Santa Fé”. O discurso ideológico, no entanto, encontra-se eivado de conceitos da cosmogonia e do direito islâmicos, sendo verosímil que o seu anónimo autor possa ser um muçulmano convertido que, num excesso de zelo e/ou de hétero-afirmação, leva ao limite um discurso de intenção ideológica e propagandística, antimuçulmano e apologético da Guerra Santa

“Muslims in the Portuguese Kingdom: Between Permanence and Diaspora”

On December 1496, King Manuel published the edit expelling Jews and Muslims from Portugal or in option their conversion to Catholicism. The difference between the treatment given to Jews and to Muslims lays in the Christian minorities under Islamic rule in the Mediterranean, particularly those of Jerusalem, and in the Holy Sites of the city. For the Portuguese Muslims the solution oscillates between permanence as Christians and diaspora. Nevertheless, by royal grant, some Muslims stayed as such in the Moorish quarter of Lisbon

Conquerors, Brides and Concubines. Interfaith Relations and Social Power in Medieval Iberia.

As its title indicates, this book, which is divided into four chapters, seeks to provide an overview of “the diverse political, social and cultural functions that interfaith marriage alliances and other sexual encounters fulfilled within the overall dynamic of Christian- Muslim relations in the Iberian Peninsula during the medieval period, both within al- Andalus (…) and the expansionist Christian-dominated polities of the North” (4). In this sense, its chronological span reaches from the early eighth century (the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Muslims) to 1492 (the Christian conquest of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada

Propriedade e direito entre os muçulmanos de Portugal: dos bens comuns à gestão do património do rei

El derecho islámico informa de la identidad de los musulmanes del reino portugués, desde el período matricial de su integración hasta finales del siglo XV. De la participación en los moldes de su propia subordinación fiscal y tributaria, a la cuestión del derecho sucesorio, los musulmanes legistas de Lisboa responden a las sucesivas interpelaciones de la Corona, constituyéndose el monarca como el principal beneficiario de esa producción legal. Esta manipulación del poder, el aspecto más visible en la documentación, muestra todo el dominio continuado de ese universo legal y de sus especialistas mudéjares. Aspecto que tendrá lógicamente su resonancia en la vivencia interna de estas comunidades, especialmente en lo que a la propiedad se refiere. El principio de la sunna de la dominación de los bienes colectivos se refleja en los bienes habices y los colectivos (al-Muslimina), aún documentados en el siglo XV. Por otro lado, la propia gestión del patrimonio del rey, en la morería de Lisboa, será dominada, en el mismo período, por una autoridad musulmana, el juez de los derechos reales, contradiciendo la ley canónica y la territorial que prohibía a los infieles ejercer poder sobre los cristianos.Islamic law constitutes part of Portuguese Muslims’ identity, since the formative period to the end of the 15Th century. The Lisbon’s Muslim jurists respond to successive appeals from the Crown, contributing as far as their own fiscal and tax subordination to the definition of succession rights. In any case the King became the main beneficiary of such legal production. This manipulation, the most visible feature in the written sources, proves nevertheless the persistent mastering of this legal universe and of its mudéjar experts, that will necessarily have its meaning in the daily life of the Muslim communities. Property reflects this feature. The dominance of collective goods, one of the sunna principles, projects itself in the hubs properties and in the collective goods (al-Muslimin), acknowledged till the 15th century. Moreover, the actual management of the King’s properties in the Muslim quarter of Lisbon, in the end of the same century, was in the hands of a Muslim authority, the judge of the King’s rights, contradicting the canonical and the territorial law that prohibited the infidels to exercise power over Christians

Assinaturas árabes em documentos medievais portugueses

As assinaturas árabes na documentação medieval portuguesa consubstanciam, no seu conjunto, um instrumento de análise da produção própria das comunidades mudéjares e dos seus códigos auto-referenciais. Embora parcas a nível da documentação medieva portuguesa, permitem, contudo, contrapor uma percepção onomástica interna, a uma visão externa que, necessariamente, veicula as percepções cristianocêntricas e as suas consequentes interpretações sobre a comunidade. De resto, a vivência dos grupos muçulmanos, comparte-se entre os dois códigos linguísticos, o português e o árabe, emergindo, neste último, um capital simbólico que se potencializa nestas assinaturas, perturbando a normalidade da expressão escrita da língua vernácula

Using moodle analytics for continuous e-assessment in a financial mathematics course at Polytechnic of Porto

The relevance of electronic learning, commonly called e-learning, has been growing exponentially in the last decade. Virtual learning environments (VLEs) disclosed new paths for interactions and motivation promotion, offering basic learning analytics functions and are becoming progressively popular. Moodle (acronym for Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is one of the most used VLEs, it is a free learning management system distributed as Open Source. The VLE Moodle gives professors access to an “endless” use and performance database like the number of downloads for each resource, participation of students in courses, statistics of performed quizzes, among others. The data stored by Moodle offers a good and handy source for learning analytics. One popular definition, from the First International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge in 2011, states that “Learning Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about students and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs”. Thus, using appropriate learning analytics methods and techniques, it would be helpful to analyze what particular learning activities or tools were practically used by students in Moodle, and to what extent. Considering the importance of the student engagement and the benefits of continuous assessment in higher education, as well as the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) on educational processes, it is important to integrate technology into continuous assessment practices. Since student engagement is connected to the quality of the student experience, increasing it is one way of enhancing quality in a higher education institution. In this study, will be demonstrated how the use of several educational resources and a low-stakes continuous weekly e-assessment in Moodle had a positive influence on student engagement in a second year undergraduate Financial Mathematics Course. Students felt that their increased engagement and improved learning was a straight result of this method. Furthermore, this suggests that wisely planned assignments and assessments can be used to increase student engagement and learning, and, as a result, contribute to improving the quality of student experience and success.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Online assessment through moodle plataform

The differences between secondary education and Higher Education (HE) are numerous, both in terms of teaching methodologies and as well as evaluation/validation procedures. Until a few years ago, the HE assessment practices were reduced, with some exceptions from practical/laboratory curricular units, to written exams, carried out on the same day and at the same time by all, or, at most, two frequencies (tests) over the course of the semester or year. With growing concerns in terms of learning outcomes and students’ success, globalisation and the massification of education, several alternative models have been tested, both in terms of teaching/learning methodologies (flipped, project-based, “blended”, among others) and assessment practices (portfolio, continuous, segmented, formative, and others). The fast development of electronic devices has been promoting the development and sharing of several digital educational tools and their use seem to be a good choice to promote actual students’/professors’ interaction and corresponding socialization, even in some assessment tasks. In this particular case, online activities can be transformed into powerful self-assessment resources for students, stimulating reflection and promoting independent learning. Moodle, as an open Learning Management System (LMS), has all the requisites and potential features to be a fine supporting tool to several activities, specifically to assessing ones. In this paper, we will briefly describe Moodle potentialities, with some application examples based on literature review and present the work developed on several Mathematic curricular units from different schools of the Polytechnic of Porto, where Moodle is used as an online assessment tool, to promote a continuous/segmented model with specific and different activities designed for each course.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio