Debating Masculinity

Abstract

In a paper first delivered at the University of Barcelona (2005), Jones, a specialist in Islamic studies, explores the connection between Muslim masculinity and ethnicity. Jones delivers an analysis of the pre-Islamic Arab codes of masculinity from which the Prophet Muhammad and Islamic culture derive and shows how the emergence of the Islamic tradition reconfigured gender definitions in some cultures. Further, Jones argues that the competing views of masculinity emerged in the historical context of medieval Arab-Spanish culture.