Socio‐economic activities of monks and monasteries in southern Iberia during the Visigothic and Andalusi eras (500–1200): welfare provision, accommodation for travellers and pilgrims, and wine sales

This article traces the continuities, as well as ruptures, in the socio‐economic activities undertaken by solitary monks and monastic communities in southern Iberia during the Visigothic and Islamic periods (the sixth to the twelfth century). Besides discussing monks’ forms of engagement with their local communities, special attention is paid to their sustained social interactions, and in particular monasteries’ provision of social welfare and accommodation for travellers and pilgrims. Furthermore, I discuss how wine sales emerged as a new economic activity in textual sources from the Andalusi period.