672 Songhai
became the Slavic and Bulgarian town of Sofia. Captured
by the BULGARSin 809, the town became subordinate to
the new centers of the medieval Bulgarian Empire, such
as Tirnovo and OCHRIDA. The Byzantines retook control
of the town in the 11th and 12th centuries. By 1385 the
OTTOMANTURKS, commanded by Sultan MURADI, had
conquered Sofia and it had become the Turkish capital of
western Bulgaria.
Further reading:Svetlana Ivanova, “Sofya,” Ency-
clopedia of Islam,9.702–706; Stoiko Kozhukharov, Sofia,
trans. Donka Minkova (Sofia: Foreign Languages Press,
1967).
Songhai (Songhay, Sonraï, Sonrhai) From as early as
the seventh century, Songhai was an empire in North
AFRICA on the northern bend of the Niger River. It
became part of the empire of MALIin the 13th century. In
1135 the Songhai people freed themselves from Mali and
started to conquer the surrounding area where the capital
was Gao. The Songhai people deployed a skillful and
sophisticated army that included cavalry. They remained
mostly pagan. Their empire was to reach its greatest
extent and power in the early 16th century under the
Muslim Muhammad I Askia (1493–1528). Its wealth was
derived from the TRADEin salt and GOLDand probably the
slave trade with the north.
Further reading:Daniel Chu and Elliott Skinner, A
Glorious Age in Africa: The Story of Three Great African
Empires(Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1990); Patri-
cia and Fredrick McKissack, The Royal Kingdoms of
Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa(New
York: H. Holt, 1994); Djibril Tamsir Niane, ed., General
History of Africa. IV, Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth
Century (Berkeley: University of California Press for
UNESCO, 1984); abridged ed., ed. Jospeh Ki-Zerbo and
Djibril Tamsir Niane (Berkeley: James Currey, 1997);
Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore, Medieval Africa,
1250–1800,2d ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2001).
Song of Songs One of the Wisdom Books of the BIBLE,
the Song of Songs had only a spiritual interpretation in
both Jewish and Christian exegesis. This dialogue of a
lover and the beloved was understood in JUDAISM as
between Israel and its GOD. Christian exegetes saw a dia-
logue between the church and Christ or between the con-
verted SOULand the divine Word. ORIGEN’s commentaries
had great influence during the Middle Ages. The Song of
Songs was one of the books of the Bible most commented
upon in the medieval period. It furnished a repertoire of
images for religious poetry as well as secular love poetry
in the VERNACULAR. In the vernacular it was a favorite
text for mystics.
See alsoBERNARD OFCLAIRVAUX,SAINT;MYSTICISM,
CHRISTIAN; RICHARDROLLE OFHAMPOLE.
Further reading:Michael Casey, ed., A thirst for God:
Spiritual Desire in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons on the
Song of Songs(Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian, 1988); E.
Ann Matter, The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in
Western Medieval Christianity(Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1990); Ann W. Astell, The Song of
Songs in the Middle Ages(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press, 1990).sorcery SeeMAGIC AND FOLKLORE.soul (nafs) The soul in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam
can mean “the spirit,” “the person,” “the life breath,” “the
self,” or “the mind of the individual.” In medieval religious
terms, soulusually meant “the spiritual part of the human
being” and designated the principal and immortal aspect
necessary for vital animation or life in any animate being,
either beast or human. In the Middle Ages, the human soul
had two main properties: a trinitarian image and immortal-
ity. There were medieval debates about the dual or singular
nature of human beings, about the soul as a separate and
separable substance from the body, and about the timing
and source of animation, either through human action or
directly from GOD. The soul carried the personal identity
of the individual. There were also discussions about
whether both the body and the soul would rise at the LAST
JUDGMENT, or the soul only.
See alsoAUGUSTINE OFHIPPO,SAINT;ETERNITY OF
THE WORLD AND OF THE SOUL; IBN SINA, ABUALI AL-
HUSAYN; REDEMPTION.
Further reading:Muhammad Naquib Syed Al-Attas,
The Nature of Man and the Psychology of the Human Soul:
A Brief Outline and a Framework for an Islamic Psychology
and Epistemology(Kuala Lumpur: International Institute
of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1990); Piero Boitani
and Anna Torti, eds., The Body and the Soul in Medieval
Literature: The J. A. W. Bennett Memorial Lectures, Tenth
Series, Perugia, 1998(Suffolk: D. S. Brewer, 1999); Philip
David Bookstaber, The Idea of Development of the Soul in
Medieval Jewish Philosophy (Philadelphia: M. Jacobs,
1950); A. C. Pegis, St. Thomas and the Problem of the Soul
in the Thirteenth Century(Toronto: Pontifical Institute of
Mediaeval Studies, 1934).Spain Spain was divided into several provinces under
the Roman Empire. After the VANDALSpassed through,
the VISIGOTHS took control of it in the fifth century.
With the conversion to Catholicism of the Visigothic king,
RECAREDI, in 589, the Iberian Peninsula became a mostly
Christian kingdom. In the Middle Ages it lost its political
significance and became only a geographical area. The
Muslim conquest of 711–18 put the greater part of the
peninsula under Muslim rule, AL-ANDALUS, with only a
few weak and divided Christian enclaves or kingdoms in