ABSTRACT
The history of Jewish–Christian relations in the lands of the Latin Mediterranean is intimately linked to the history of the Muslim conquest of Spain from 711, Sicily in 827, the Balearic Islands in 902 and Muslim incursions to southern France. The sway of the Umayyad caliphate of Cordoba, which was established in 929, reached deep into the north of Spain where the fledgeling Christian kingdoms of Leon, Navarre, Castile and Aragon were emerging. Christian rule had already been restored to Barcelona by 802. As the caliphate disintegrated into numerous competing states or taifas from the start of the eleventh century, the Christian kingdoms and taifas vied with each other for territorial gains and tribute. The capture of Toledo in 1085 by Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile gave Christians an important edge in the frontier area between the Tagus and Guadiana rivers. The Muslims of al-Andalus responded to this by calling in the help of the Berber Almoravids from north-west Africa. Although the Almoravids resisted further Christian advances, they were not able to retake Toledo. The annexation of al-Andalus to their African empire stretched their resources. This situation was exacerbated when the fundamentalist Almohads from Morocco replaced them. The Almohads did win an important victory at Alarcos in 1195 which gave them the upper hand along the Guadiana. But in the long run they could not consolidate their gains. Both the Almoravids and the Almohads espoused strict forms of Islam which had little sympathy for the tolerant Muslim courts of the taifa states of al-Andalus. Their hardline policies not only caused Jews and Christians to move northwards to Christian Spain and southern France or Jews to migrate eastwards to more tolerant Muslim lands, it seems to have stimulated Christians within Spain to be more receptive to ideas which had already stimulated French knights to fight Muslims in Spain from the 1060s. With hindsight one can see the battle at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 as the turning point in the gradual but steady Christianisation of Spain. Gathered at Las Navas de Tolosa were the kings of Castile, Navarre and Aragon together with French crusaders. The mastermind behind the operations was the Archbishop of Toledo, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada (r. 1209–47), who had garnered backing for the battle with papal support from within and outside Spain and who in his later writings presented the battle as a mighty confrontation between Christianity and Islam. Over the following years it became clear that the Almohads were not able to retaliate; their hold over Spain dissipated when in 1224 the caliphate became embroiled in a power struggle after the death of Yusuf II. As different taifa kings competed with each other and with different scions of the Almohad dynasty to take the lead in Iberia, Fernando III was able to combine Leon and Castile under his rule. All these factors made it possible for Fernando to take Cordoba in 1236 and Seville in 1248. Majorca had been seized by King James I of Aragon-Catalonia in 1229; the city of Valencia was conquered in 1238; the kingdom of Murcia was taken over by Castile in 1265–6. By the end of the thirteenth century Muslim power in Spain had been effectively restricted to the kingdom of Granada. 1
