2011/12/01 by Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo · 14 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Medieval Iberian Studies #Historical Studies of Medieval Iberia #Medieval History and Crusades #Scrutiny #Politics #Faith #Power (physics) #Historiography #Peninsula #Poetry #Perspective (graphical) #History #Sociology #Political science #Law #Literature #Philosophy #Art #Epistemology #Archaeology
paper · doi:10.1080/09503110.2011.623910
published in Al-Masāq 23(3), 217-236 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2011/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Religious beliefs and creeds have contributed to define identities and a sense of belonging for both individuals and entire communities over the centuries, generating in some cases unsurpassable social barriers. This also applied to the situation of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages: a melting pot within which Muslims, Christians and Jews interacted, not always without animosity and friction. The questions which I endeavour to answer in this study are how did Christian powers consider and interact with Muslim rulers and subjects? What were the motivations behind the agreement of such relationships? To what extent were they morally and officially accepted? What were the differences, if any, from the customary vassal bonds? These are the main objects of scrutiny of my analysis which will focus on the fragile borders which existed between personal and political inter-faith relationships, examined through the perspective of the historiographical and poetic production attributed to the scriptorium of Alfonso X of Castile (1252–1284).