The Caliphates and Taifas of medieval Al- Andalus represented and continue to represent one of the most important sites of intercultural understanding in the oriental/occidental political imaginary. The capacity for Muslims, Jews and Christians to interpenetrate each others cultures over centuries is much underestimated in contemporary political and social thought. While this inter-religious/cultural traffic was never straightforward and indeed was frequently caught up in a complex range of countervalent forces it nonetheless From PISA and TIMMS to endured for around 5 centuries. the pedagogies of religious education, education itself along with other social practices, has witnessed the elision of the different in favour of the apparently common. At the nexus of migratory and intercultural tensions, I argue for a return to some of the principles of self-doubt and tolerance for the other, evident in some measure in early medieval Spain. We should look to the recuperation of self-questioning as a preliminary to other-questioning and the refurbishing of estrangement and the re-thinking of estrangement as providing a more considered ground for education in and for pluralism.