Traitors to the Faith? Christian Mercenaries in al-Andalus and the Maghreb, c.1100–1300

Abstract

On 16 July 1212, at Las Navas de Tolosa on the southern slopes of the Sierra Morena, a Christian army under the leadership of Alfonso VIII of Castile and his allies Pedro II of Aragón and Sancho VII of Navarre inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Muslim forces commanded by the Almohad caliph Muḥammad alNāṣir. In the aftermath of the battle, large numbers of Muslims were slain (100 000 or maybe more, according to Alfonso VIII’s own boastful reckoning), yet others taken prisoner, and untold quantities of booty captured. 1 Later generations were to view the triumph as the defining moment in the centuries-long struggle for hegemony in the peninsula between Christian and Muslim, prefiguring as it did the reconquest of most of what remained of al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) by the Christian rulers between 1225 and 1250. 2 Contemporaries were scarcely less aware of its significance. News of the spectacular victory spread rapidly throughout Europe. 3 Alfonso VIII himself sent a lengthy report of the battle to Pope Innocent III, who had the letter read out before a large gathering of clergy and laity in Rome. 4 As the bishop of Cremona later put it, Spain, and more especially Castile, had saved not just herself, but Rome too, and Europe as a wholes. 5 Alfonso VIII’s much-vaunted claim, echoed on his coins and charters, to be the ‘defender of Christendom’ had been triumphantly vindicated. 6 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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