Religion, Culture, and Ideology on the Late Medieval Castilian–Granadan Frontier

Abstract

This chapter deals with frontier institutions and the peace-keeping mechanisms of the late medieval frontier between Christian Castile and Muslim Granada but concentrates on their religion, culture, and ideology. However, the same political background is common to both concerns and, given its importance, some salient aspects should be briefly re-emphasised at the outset. Plagued by civil wars and the military intervention of foreign powers, it is hardly surprising that Castilian kings tried to avoid involvement on yet another military front. During the period 1350–1460, for example, the frontier enjoyed some eighty-five years of ‘official’ truce and only twenty-five years of ‘official’ war. Such a situation, it might be thought, implied a degree of ordered relationships between the Castilian Christians and the Granadan Muslims, and this in turn prompted collaboration, respect, and even admiration, and a marked degree of acculturation.