The Mercenary Mediterranean : Sovereignty, Religion, and Violence in the Medieval Crown of Aragon / Hussein Fancy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fancy, Hussein, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Soldiers of fortune--Spain--Aragon--History--13th century.

Soldiers of fortune.

Soldiers of fortune--Spain--Aragon--History--14th century.

Foreign enlistment--Spain--Aragon--History.

Foreign enlistment.

Mudéjares--Spain--Aragon--History.

Mudéjares.

Muslims--Spain--Aragon--History--13th century.

Muslims.

Muslims--Spain--Aragon--History--14th century.

Muslims--Africa, North--History--13th century.

Muslims--Africa, North--History--14th century.

Aragon (Spain)--History, Military--13th century.

Aragon (Spain).

Aragon (Spain)--History, Military--14th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2016]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

On Names, Places, Dates, and Transcriptions

Introduction: A Mercenary Logic

Chapter 1. Etymologies and Etiologies

Chapter 2. A Sovereign Crisis

Chapter 3. Sovereigns and Slaves

Chapter 4. A Mercenary Economy

Chapter 5. The Unpaid Debt

Chapter 6. The Worst Men in the World

Epilogue: Medievalism and Secularism

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780226329789

022632978X

OCLC:

944912111