Project Details
Projekt
The Mozarabs of Toledo between imperial monarchy, Roman church and indigenous Christian tradition (11th - 14th century)
Applicant
Professor Dr. Wolfram Drews
Subject Area
Medieval History
Term
since 2023
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 465372539
In the 11th and 12th century, Spain was situated at the crossroads of different imperial ambitions originating in the Christian and Islamic worlds. A unique multireligious and multiethnic contact zone developed in Toledo, which was chosen as the focal point of this project. The city, conquered by Castile in 1085, was inhabited by an Arabic speaking majority, which was also capable to use the Romance vernacular. This Arabic speaking majority consisted of Muslims, Jews and Christians. Following the conquest, they were joined by Castilians and French, who may be referred to as an imperial elite par excellence in this context. Royal administration was conducted in French and Latin, but in everyday life, Arabic and Romance prevailed; in addition, the latter two languages acquired certain additional, semi-public functions in local administration, the dispensation of justice and on the property market. The projects starts from the assumption that foreignness can be pinpointed in the juxtaposition of the Roman and Visigothic liturgies, in the privileges (fueros) for the interaction of different groups and perhaps also in the case of oral translations during business transactions on the property market. In this function, Arabic was replaced by the Romance vernacular only at a very late stage. In Toledo, administration can be grasped by looking at the implantation of Castilian and papal elites, which had to interact with the indigenous population of different denominations in order to assert their positions. After the conquest, a new administrative elite emerged, comprised of the Arabic speaking Christian notaries and of the two alcaldes governing the city. Toledo provides a test case for a microhistorical approach to the documentary tradition of a society characterized by highly complex regulations that were constantly changing. There are examples for imperial-meaning making from the Papal, Castilian, Almoravid and Almohad side, as well as religious, linguistic and judicial groups that reacted to such initiatives. In some cases, such reactions consisted in acts of resistance to imperial ambitions, for instance by emigration. Taking this complex situation as a starting point, the project proposes to analyse how representatives of imperial xenocratic powers interacted with members of different indigenous and immigrant groups; a second line of analysis focusses on changes of cultural practices related to administrative procedures; a third line addresses changes in the cultural profile of groups over time.
DFG Programme
Research Units
