Can you not do it as a survey of sources or preliminary consideration of the subject? Admittedly at the undergrad level doing groundbreaking work is difficult to impossible, especially if you don't have the language for primary sources, but papers essentially pointing out the opportunities for further scholarship in an area are a legitimate type of academic work. There's a proper name for them, but I forget what it is.
That's kind of the current plan, I think. The whole point of this paper is that it is the finale to our big two-quarters-long Introduction the the Historical Research Paper, so as long as I'm doing the research and putting it together well, I don't think the teacher will mind too much. He's on board right now with me trying for this, and I'm just praying that last quarter's prof, the Spain guru, will come through for me in terms of helping find sources. It may very well end up being "blahblahblah Compostela. Now, doesn't it look like there might be comparisons to be made to the Hajj? The end."
Well, presumably you could lay some groundwork for that comparison by investigating the haji as well; for general commentary on the socio-political importance of it there ought to be enough works in English to lay a firm foundation. You might not be able to swing a full comparative work, but a paper on the parallelism present in the pilgrimages might be feasible.
Spain-teacher wants me to stick with the Galicia side of things :( She says that there just aren't enough sources translated from the Arabic to English, whereas there are tons of good sources for the pilgrimage to Compostela on its own.
So perhaps I will just do that one, and then try to very (not) sneakily slip in the real idea at the end.
Errrm. yes. Yes! I support it! I do remember that you have had problems finding some supporting materials and research for your Spanish era work, yes? Just something to think about but if it does not involve the Code of Federal Regulations or obscure areas of FDA regulatory policy, I'm not going to be any help at all other than to say, Go you!
Yeaaah, it was tough. I'm getting on it right away this time though in terms of asking the people who might know about where to find stuff. And thanks!
Though I'm of absolutely no help in this area, I say, Go for it! It sounds absolutely fascinating (as well as letting me know how woefully tiny my knowledge of Spain in the middle ages is).
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She says that there just aren't enough sources translated from the Arabic to English, whereas there are tons of good sources for the pilgrimage to Compostela on its own.
So perhaps I will just do that one, and then try to very (not) sneakily slip in the real idea at the end.
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And thanks!
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But good luck!
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