The making of a crusade: the Genoese anti-Muslim attacks in Spain, 1146–1148

Abstract

This paper reviews the series of military attacks the city of Genoa launched against several Spanish Muslim port cities before and during the Second Crusade. It shows that the attacks themselves were militarily successful and that in the years following the attacks, the leaders of the city carefully incorporated these victories into their city's physical fabric and political identity. The Genoese celebrated their victories against the Spanish Muslims in their churches, on their city walls, and in their civic histories. The motive behind this multi-media programme was to demonstrate the Christian devotion of the Genoese to the rest of Latin Christendom, especially the rulers from whom the commune of Genoa sought political acknowledgement and legitimation. It was an important goal of the Genoese who financed and executed these campaigns to be perceived by the rest of the Latin West as good Christians. This paper argues that modern historians of Genoa have always interpreted these attacks as a failure because they have assumed that the motives for Genoese behaviour in the Middle Ages were directed exclusively outwards, towards economic growth and commercial expansion.