Using Cuerda Seca Ceramics as a Historical Source to Evaluate Trade and Cultural Relations between Christian Ruled Lands and Al-Andalus, from the Tenth to Thirteenth Centuries

Abstract

Historical studies show that military confrontations between Muslims and Christians in the Western Mediterranean during the medieval period were frequently the result of a conflict of interests between communicating and thus permeable worlds. Military confrontations and trade issues are often inter-linked, for instance exchange can be disrupted due to the destruction of productive or transport capacities. However, the same confrontations may ultimately have led to trade agreements that improved and regulated exchange. Furthermore, military confrontations did not prevent trade between Islamic and Christian countries. Instead trade and military conflict co-existed, with the exception of goods with potential military use. Works of art are also considered a meaningful source of information, complementing written documents, and contributing to the understanding of the nature and depth of the interactions between Christian and Muslim areas of Europe in the medieval period. This paper provides a synopsis of a wider research project that aims to investigate the viability of using cuerda seca ceramics as a historical source of information on the commerce, culture and society of al-Andalus between the fourth/tenth and seventh/thirteenth centuries.