The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050–1300 by Brian Catlos (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 206 rounded look at sodomy, masculinity, and law, not to mention marriage, femininity , knighthood, courtly love, and romance, in medieval English and French literature. DANA POLANICHKA, History, UCLA Brian Catlos, The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050-1300 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2004) xxiv + 449 pp. Brian Catlos sets out ambitious goals for his recent book The Victors and the Vanquished. Not only does he hope to “examine the effects of Christian conquest on the indigenous Islamic population” (8) in the Crown of Aragon during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but also to “contribute to a methodology which broadens the context of mudéjar studies, calling into question some truisms and exploring new avenues of comparison and analogy” (10). As a contribution to the understanding of twelfth and thirteenth century mudéjar society in the Ebro region from the socio-anthropological perspective pioneered by Thomas Glick, the book is quite successful. Thorough archival research into Latin, Romance and Arabic sources, as well as a strong command of relevant historiographical and theoretical works, convince the reader of Catlos’ central claim that “the Islamic society of the region was not destroyed by the conquest, but had re-emerged as a mudéjar society by the thirteenth century” (390). A few questions remain at the end of the book as to what are the new avenues of comparison that Victors explores. Victors is divided into three parts. The first examines “Muslim domination of the Ebro and its demise” and concludes that this region, known in Arabic as the Thaghr al-Aqsa’ was “a full participant in the great venture of Islamic civilization which stretched from the Atlantic coast to the Indian Ocean” (68). Part II looks at Muslims under Christian rule and gives particular attention to the transformations of Islamic society following the conquest. Catlos finds that following the conquest “the Islamic society of the Ebro endured—not without drastic changes to its outward manifestations, but preserving its essence and identity in important senses” (323). Part III, “Individual and Community in the Christian Ebro,” consists of six microhistories whose purpose is to show mudéjar society “as far as possible, through the eyes of its actors” (328). These case studies show how individual characters pursued their aims within the complex social and cultural matrix described in the book’s first two sections. In the end, Catlos concludes that the Christian conquerors were too few and not well organized enough to successfully impose their social structures in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and were for a variety of reasons willing to extend considerable autonomy to conquered peoples. He notes that certain spheres of activity, such as sexual relations or the administration of justice were sites of greater conflict than, say, farming or craft, which witnessed a good deal of Christian-Muslim cooperation. These relationships are referred to as a “hierarchy of ritual incompatibility.” Many factors, especially a relative demographic balance and desire for agricultural and economic continuity in the new Christian territories, made the conquest of the Ebro region smoother and less hostile than the “crusader kingdom of Valencia” studied by Burns. Victors presents the mudéjars as forming “a stable society which preserved its identity in REVIEWS 207 the face of Christian domination while participating in the greater society of the Crown—a precarious balance between the victors and the vanquished” (408). An excellent piece of historiography overall, Victors does leave a few questions for further exploration. Catlos claims that most scholars overemphasize the importance of religion as a primary mode of identification in medieval Iberia, but it isn’t entirely clear how his own analysis of religion departs from major historiographical trends in mudéjar studies. In time, Victors may indeed “contribute to the general study of minority-majority interaction,” as Catlos hopes (10). Certainly his idea of a hierarchy of ritual incompatibility is intriguing , but it remains to be seen if twelfth and thirteenth century models of interaction can be translated to other places and periods without anachronism. SAM CONEDERA, History, UCLA Christopher S. Celenza, The Lost Italian Renaissance: Humanists, Historians , and Latin’s Legacy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins 2004) xx + 210 pp. Celenza opens...