INTRODUCTION

During his famous raid into al-Andalus in 1125-26, Alfonso I, the Christian king of Aragon, encountered a number of Christian com• munities living under Islamic rule.1 The contemporary Norman historian Orderic Vitalis reported, in fact, that at one point during this raid some ten thousand of these Christian subjects of Muslim rulers gathered together to appeal to Alfonso to help them flee to Christian Spain. In the course of this appeal, these Christian natives of Islamic Spain commented on their complex cultural and religious circumstances: We and our forefathers up to the present have been reared among infidels, and [yet], having been baptized, we freely embrace the Christian religion.2 Orderic was far from southern Spain when he wrote these words, and the source for his observations is not known. Yet Orderic's acount of the ambiguity felt by Christians living in Islamic Spain rings true, for in the twelfth century there were indeed a large number of baptized Catholics who had been reared among Mus• lims in al-Andalus, Catholics who had adopted the Arabic lan• guage, taken Arabic names, and acquired Arabic customs all without ceasing to embrace the Christian religion. Such Spanish Christians reared among the Muslims have long been referred to in Spanish as Mozarabes and in English as Mozarabs. Both words are derived, apparently, from the Arabic mustcfrab or mustcfrib meaning "arabicized" or "one who claims

1 On these encounters see F. Simonet, Historia de los mozarabes de Espana, ch. 39, pp. 745-57, and esp. V. Lagardère, "Communautés mozarabes et pouvoir almoravide," passim. ^ "Nos, inquiunt, et patres nostri hactenus inter gentiles educati sumus, et baptizati Christianam legem libenter tenemus" (Orderic Vitalis, Historia ecclesiastica 13.6, vol. 6, pp. 404-06, cf. F. Simonet, Historia de los mozarabes de Espana, pp. 747-48). For the translation of gentiles as "non-Christians," see D. Millet-Gérard, Chrétiens mozarabes et culture islamique, pp. 31-32. 2 INTRODUCTION to be an Arab".3 The Mozarabs are one of the unusual ethnic groups which developed in the Iberian peninsula as a result of medieval Spain's pluralistic circumstances: for centuries Christendom and the Islamic empire met and overlapped there, and for generations a very large minority of Jews likewise called Islamic or Christian Spain home. The Mozarabs' exact counter­ parts were the so-called Mudejars—Muslims who lived for gener­ ations under Christian rule. Unlike the Mudejars and the Spanish Jews, however, who have been the subjects of very extensive study in our times,4 the Mozarabs of the twelfth century and later are in some respects "a forgotten community" as far as modern scholarship is concerned.5 Though a great deal has been written about the Spanish Christians living under Islamic rule in the early Middle Ages, the Mozarabs of the period after about the year 1000 have received relatively little scholarly attention.6 This is especially so with regard to their

3 The precise etymology of this word and its original meaning as applied to Christians in Spain is still a topic of some controversy; for bibliography, see M. de Epalza, "Mozarabs: an Emblematic Christian Minority," p. 148, "Mozarab," EI2 7:246-47 [art. P. Chalmeta]. 4 For brief introductions to Mudejar studies together with abundant biblio­ graphy see J. O'Callaghan, "The Mudejars of Castile and Portugal," passim, and J. Burns, "Muslims in the Thirteenth-Century Realms of Aragon," passim. On the Jews of Spain see especially E. Ashtor, Ttie Jews of Moslem Spain, and Y. Baer, Λ History of the Jews in Christian Spain. 5 The quote is from D. Wasserstein, Tlie Rise and Fall of the Party States, p. 224, but see also P. Guichard's very important reflections on the historiography of the Mozarabs in his "Les Mozarabes de Valence et d'al-Andalus," p. 20; and C.-E. Dufourcq, "Les Mozarabes du Xlle siècle," p. 125. One must note, however, that certain very important contributions to the study of the Mozarabs in this period have been made in the last two decades. Mostly notably, see Was• serstein, Vie Rise and Fall of the Party States ch. 8, pp. 224-46; R. Pastor de Togneri, "Problèmes d'assimilation d'une minorité. Les Mozarabes de Tolède," passim; Id., Del Islam al Cristianismo, passim; V. Lagardère, "Communautés mozarabes et pouvoir almoravide," passim. See also the many articles referred to below in chapter one, n. 28, on the heavily disputed question of whether and where sizable communities of Mozarabs existed in the twelfth century and after• ward. 6 The bibliography on the early period is sizable; see esp. A. Cortabarria Beitia, "Les études mozarabes en Espagne," passim; but also J. Rivera Recio, "La iglesia mozarabe," HIE 2/1, pp. 21-22; "Mozarab," El2 7:246-49 [art. P. Chalmeta]; M. de Epalza, "Mozarabs: an Emblematic Christian Minority," pp. 167-70; and K. Wolf, "Christian Views of Islam," passim. For the later period