The Mozarabs and their neighbours: a study of the Arabic documents of Toledo, 1083-1315

Thesis

This study examines the Mozarabs of Toledo (typically defined as Arabic-speaking Christians with lineal roots in Muslim-ruled Iberia) and their relations with the various communities of Christians, Muslims and Jews that inhabited the city in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It is based upon an analysis of 1175 Arabic-language legal documents pertaining to the transfer of property in and around Toledo in the two centuries following the Christian conquest of the city in 1085. These rich and hitherto neglected documents open a window on to the social and economic life of the wider population of Toledo and its environs, as they contain extensive data pertaining to local administrative practices and economic and social interactions between different communities. The thesis is rooted in a qualitative and quantitative analysis of this data, presented in appendices that include translations and new editions of key documents, genealogical tables, quantitative data and spatial analysis conducted using QGIS. While previous studies have focused on questions of Mozarabic identity, and tended to study the community in isolation, this thesis situates the Mozarabs in their social and economic context, exploring their relations with Castilians, Franks, Muslims and Jews, and their important role in local government in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It views the Mozarabic ‘community’ of the twelfth century as a distinctly post-conquest phenomenon, arguing that the meanings attached to the term ‘Mozarab’ did not fully stabilise until the late twelfth century, and that Mozarabic identity was forged in a Castilian context. Analysis of the Arabic documents reveals the complex social and economic milieu in which the Mozarabs negotiated their position and asserted their claims to property and status. By forming close social and economic ties with their Castilian, Frankish, Muslim and Jewish neighbours, and by carving out a central role for themselves as local administrators, the Mozarabs emerged as a powerful, propertied class that played an extremely important part in the development of the city in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Authors: Flatley, H

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-o5x1899nm
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: medieval Iberia; Toledo; Mozarabs
• Subjects: Islam; Iberian Peninsula; Christianity; History; Judaism