The Learned Conquerors and Their Muslims: Intercultural Conflict and Collaboration in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the Llibre dels fets

Two thirteenth-century works, the autobiographical narrative Llibre dels fets and the compilation of poems Cantigas de Santa Maria, were either written or sponsored by two Iberian kings, Jaume I of Aragon and Alfonso X of Castile, with parallel political and cultural views on how Christian rulers should interact with Muslims. Despite their own personal rivalries, both monarchs aspired to conquering and administrating lands populated by Muslims and both works show the alternation between conciliatory and aggressive gestures used by Christians to transform their Muslim enemies into allies or subjects. In these textual worlds, Muslim characters are contradictory stereotypes that cannot escape from their colonial fate: either because of their benevolence or because of their wickedness, Muslims are destined to be killed or subjugated by Christian rulers.