What price a roof? Housing and the cost of living in 16th-century Toledo
Data on housing costs and rental markets for the early modern period are notoriously scarce. We build a database of rent paid on 183 properties belonging to the Cathedral Chapter of Toledo between 1489 and 1600.
The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: The Culture and Practice of Crusading in Medieval Iberia
This battle was both a major Christian victory over the Almohad Empire of Morocco and its Andalusian allies, and the most successful crusade of the papacy of Innocent III. As such, it serves as an ideal case study for the practice and culture of crusading in the early thirteenth century.
Conversion, Sex, and Segregation: Jews and Christians in Medieval Spain
From the late eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth, significant populations of Jews and Muslims lived under Christian domination in the lands we now call Spain. Their coexistence was not easy, for each of the three religious communities felt at risk, both physically and spiritually, from the others
The Andalusi origins of the Berbers
How could the Berbers originate in al-Andalus when everyone knows they are the original inhabitants of North Africa? One of the goals of this article is to show that asking the question in this way is part of the problem and that it stands in the way of securing the soundness of historical interpretations of the past.
The Muslim/Mudejar in the Cantigas of Alfonso X, el Sabio
A great deal of current interest has been sparked regarding Alfonso X’s attitudes towards the various minorities which comprised his dominions. An excellent place to begin any serious re-assesment of alfonsine ideas of tolerance and intolerance is provided by the Cantigas of Santa María, the king’s greatest contribution to medieval art and letters.
President Obama to award National Humanities Medal to medievalist
UCLA’s Teofilo F. Ruiz, an internationally recognized historian whose work focuses on medieval Spain and Europe, will be awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama today.
The continuity of Roman water supply systems in post-Roman Spain: the case of Valentia, a reliable example?
This paper will thus be structured in several sections. First it will be necessary to approach the topic of Roman water supply systems as a whole, their direct relationship with urbanism and city-dwellers, and how these monuments were a clear indicator of Romanitas, even in the post-Roman period.
The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso VI, 1065-1109
The reign of Alfonso VI was also to be the setting within which León-Castilla joined in the emergence of a new western Europe and itself also assimilated the new norms and structures that were being erected everywhere there.
The Art of a Reigning Queen as Dynastic Propaganda in Twelfth-Century Spain
This study, however, will focus on Urraca of Leon-Castile (reigned 1109-26) to examine the unusual role of a reigning queen, that is, the king’s daughter and heir to his throne, whose position carried a greater dynastic weight than did a queen consort’s.
Communities and sustainability in medieval and early modern Aragon, 1200-1600
This paper examines the case of sheep raising in Aragon from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century to explore the political dynamics and social criteria that rural communities used to manage their common land, and their role in larger economic and political frameworks.
On the Language of Conversion: Visigothic Spain Revisited
In fifth-century Spain, the Visigoth conquerors – Christians and Arians – had to live with the native Hispani, who were Roman by culture and law and Catholic by faith.
The Inquisition featured on a special issue of Hispanic Research Journal
Hispanic Research Journal has released its February 2012 issue today, with a special issue entitled Negotiating Power in the Iberian Inquisitions: Courts, Crowns, and Creeds. Five articles dealing with the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions are published in the issue, which will be freely available until mid-February.
The foundational rape tale in Medieval Iberia
When one reads Medieval historiographic texts—whether written in Latin, Arabic or Romance—it appears that both the Moorish invasion and the Christian Reconquest of Spain are linked to a rape episode.
Sales, swindles and sanctions: Bishop Salla of Urgell and the counts of Catalonia
Salla moved in a world in which churchmen and lay magnates could be hard to distinguish. They did not just share families, and sometimes offices, but outlooks…
Greeks in Early Medieval Barcelona?
The aim of this article is to draw attention to a group of persenal names which occurs almost exclusively in the city of Barcelona in tilese decades around the year 1000, which may throw some additional llght on the range of externa1 cgntacts. The name in question is that of Greco.
Culture in the Time of Tolerance: Al-Andalus as a Model for Our Time
It existed in any number of different political configurations over nearly eight hundred years, and it was and has been called many names, all of them imprecise for different reasons: al-Andalus in Arabic, ha-Sefarad in Hebrew; the names of a half-dozen different cities when they were at its center; Castile at other moments.
Polish Pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostella: Way of St. James in Poland
It is very difficult to estimate the exact scope of Polish pilgrimages to Santiago de
Compostela in the Middle Ages on the basis of preserved historical sources. The presence of pilgrims from Poland was mentioned in the Pilgrim Records of the Middle Ages found in the archive of the Kingdom of Aragon in Barcelona…
Silencing the Bells: A Statement of Power in Medieval Spain
Much scholarship has been devoted to researching and documenting the significance and metaphysical qualities of the ringing of the bells within Christian culture. Specific efforts have been made to capture bells from defeated cathedrals as symbols of victory throughout history.
Natural Qualifications of a Medieval Poet According to Moshe Ibn Ezra
The most important attainment of the Arabs, in Ibn Ezra’s opinion, is the distinction they achieved in the field of rhetoric.
Maimonides: an early but accurate view on the treatment of haemorrhoids
Moses Maimonides was not only one of the most influential religious figures of the middle ages, but also a pioneer in a wide variety of medical practices.