The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050–1300

Brian A. Catlos

Aug. 2004 · Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series Boek 59 · Cambridge University Press

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This is a revisionary study of Muslims living under Christian rule during the Spanish 'reconquest'. It looks beyond the obvious religious distinctions and delves into the subtleties of identity in the thirteenth-century Crown of Aragon, uncovering a social dynamic in which sectarian differences comprise only one of the many factors in the causal complex of political, economic and cultural reactions. Beginning with the final stage of independent Muslim rule in the Ebro valley region, the book traces the transformation of Islamic society into mudéjar society under Christian domination. This was a case of social evolution in which Muslims, far from being passive victims of foreign colonisation, took an active part in shaping their institutions and experiences as subjects of the Infidel. Using a diverse range of methodological approaches, this book challenges widely held assumptions concerning Christian-Muslim relations in the Middle Ages, and minority-majority relations in general.

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Brian Catlos is an Associate Professor in the Religious Studies faculty at the University of Colorado, Boulder, with cross appointments in Humanities, History and Jewish Studies. Previously an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, he completed his PhD in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto in 2000, followed by three years of postdoctoral work at the Concejo de Investigaciones Superiores in Barcelona and the Institute for Medieval History at Boston University. He has served as President of the American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain and is Book Review Editor (late medieval) for Speculum. His fields of research include medieval Spain and the Mediterranean, and ethno-religious identity and relations in the pre-modern Christian and Islamic worlds.