Reconquista and convivencia: Post-conquest Valencia during the Reign of Jaime I, el Conquistador: Interaction between Christians and Muslims (1238-1276)

Reconquista and convivencia: Post-conquest Valencia during the Reign of Jaime I, el Conquistador: Interaction between Christians and Muslims (1238-1276)

Ritt, Travis William

Master of Arts, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY,  June 3, (2004)

Abstract

The Reconquista in Valencia has traditionally been viewed as an attack on Islam by the Christians of Muslim Spain. However, while there was certainly a religious component to the Reconquista, this was not the sole, or
even the most important motivating factor. Operating under a veneer of religious legitimatization were the driving secular ideals of increased political power and wealth. Jaime I of Aragon-Catalonia was not interested in ridding
the Iberian Peninsula of its Muslim influence, but rather substituting it with his own rule. This led to a situation in Valencia where Muslims not only survived in Valencia for multiple generations following the Reconquest, but were also allowed to keep many of the privileges that they had enjoyed under their Muslim overlords. The current work then looks not so much at the belligerent aspects of the Reconquista, but rather the oftentimes peaceful interaction between Muslims and Christians of the convivencia.

Click here to read this thesis from FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY