ABSTRACT
Both Muslim and Christian rulers allowed their subjects who were of a faith different from their own to continue practicing their religion, provided they accept their acknowledged state of inferiority. The rulers nonetheless created different systems based on varying forms of legitimacy. The system created by the faithful of Allah was established by the Koran and therefore had a religious foundation, while in the system developed in the Christian kingdoms and Muslim subjects were classed in the category of ‘servants of the king.’ The ways in which the Christian and Muslim rulers managed to eliminate those religious minorities were different, but even this difference was due to very specific contexts rather than approaches dictated by religion. In the cases of the Sicilian and Iberian faithful of Islam, their elimination was no doubt facilitated by their status, which technically made them property of the Crown. In both cases, these were not immediate processes.
