Sometime in April 1285, five Muslim horsemen crossed from the Islamic kingdom of Granada into the realms of the Christian Crown of Aragon to meet with the king of Aragon, who showered them with gifts, including sumptuous cloth and decorative saddles, for agreeing to enter the Crown's service. They were not the first or only Muslim soldiers to do so. Over the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Christian kings of Aragon recruited thousands of foreign Muslim soldiers to serve in their armies and as members of their royal courts. Based on extensive research in Arabic, Latin, and Romance sources, The Mercenary Mediterranean explores this little-known and misunderstood history. Far from marking the triumph of toleration, Hussein Fancy argues, the alliance of Christian kings and Muslim soldiers depended on and reproduced ideas of religious difference. Their shared history represents a unique opportunity to reconsider the relation of medieval religion to politics, and to demonstrate how modern assumptions about this relationship have impeded our understanding of both past and present.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
The University of Chicago Press
ISBN-13
9780226329642
eBay Product ID (ePID)
220779475
Product Key Features
Author
Hussein Fancy
Publication Name
The Mercenary Mediterranean: Sovereignty, Religion, and Violence in the Medieval Crown of Aragon
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Subject
History
Publication Year
2016
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
296 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height
235mm
Item Width
162mm
Item Weight
586g
Additional Product Features
Title_Author
Hussein Fancy
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States
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