Abstract

ABSTRACT Religious beliefs and creeds have contributed to define identities and a sense of
belonging for both individuals and entire communities over the centuries, generating in
some cases unsurpassable social barriers. This also applied to the situation of the Iberian
Peninsula in the Middle Ages: a melting pot within which Muslims, Christians and Jews
interacted, not always without animosity and friction. The questions which I endeavour to
answer in this study are how did Christian powers consider and interact with Muslim rulers
and subjects? What were the motivations behind the agreement of such relationships? To
what extent were they morally and officially accepted? What were the differences, if any,
from the customary vassal bonds? These are the main objects of scrutiny of my analysis
which will focus on the fragile borders which existed between personal and political interfaith
relationships, examined through the perspective of the historiographical and poetic
production attributed to the scriptorium of Alfonso X of Castile (1252–1284).