Opposing Identity: Muslims, Christians and the Military Orders in Rural Aragon

Opposing Identity: Muslims, Christians and the Military Orders in Rural Aragon

Gerrard, Christopher

Medieval Archaeology, Vol.43 (2000)

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of identity among Christian and Muslim groups in medieval Spain after the Reconquest in the 12th century. A wide variety of archaeological evidence, including artefacts, graffiti, settlement morphology and standing buildings, demonstrates that ethnic and racial divides were etc. led into material culture and endured unlil thefinal expulsion 0f the Muslim population atlhe beginning qfthe 17th century.

Aragon, in the NE. of the Iberian peninsula, is a particularly revealing arena forthe study of medieval identity, for in the years following the Christian Reconquest in the 12th century a number of ethnic and religious groups lived side by side. Amongst these were the Christians, mostly new settlers in the first instance, Franks and Jews, who were to be found mostly in urban areas, and Muslims, descendants of a mix of Arabs, Berbers and other tribes. The Muslims were permitted to retain liberties, customs, laws and religion in return for recognizing their subordinate political posicion and for the payment of taxes.

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