The frontier of gottfried liedl: Situating the origins of european modernity in nasrid granada

In a range of recent popular and scholarly surveys of the history and significance of al-Andalus, US scholars have emphasized that Muslim Iberia was characterized by attributes such as "tolerance," and "cosmopolitanism." This article aims to draw attention to the neglected work of a contemporary Austrian historian and philosopher, Gottfried Liedl, who in his Frontier trilogy has argued for the modernity of Nas.rid Granada from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. Through a reading of Liedl's discussion of how Granada was legally, militarily, socially, and demographically both modern and European, this article argues for the importance of Liedl's work to understanding the full spectrum of the ways in which scholars use aspects of the history of al-Andalus to advance master narratives for the significance of Islamic Iberia. Throughout his work, Liedl presents a critique of both "modernity" and the state in its modern form by arguing that Nas.rid Granada was the first modern European state.