Abstract This paper analyzes a group of homilies composed in Middle Egypt around the early ninth century CE by monastic leaders who had to cope with unsettling changes in local politics and society. The corpus deals with issues of taxation, economic distress and conversion to Islam in subtle and indirect ways, showing the inside perspective of Christian leaders on developments on which we are informed primarily from documentary papyri and historical works. It highlights the view of a certain segment of Egyptian Christianity on Islam and ongoing processes of Islamization, adding to the better-known literary sources from the area of Alexandria, and revealing the existence of internal tensions within the monastic world.

Abstract This article investigates a previously neglected aspect of diplomatic relations between the Carolingians and the Umayyads of al-Andalus, the camels sent by Emir Muḥammad I to Charles the Bald, King of the West Franks, in 865. In addition to being placed within a diplomatic and historiographical context, the meaning of these animals needs to be understood within the traditions both of the donor and the recipient. The unusual nature of camels for both al-Andalus and Francia is explored. For both Muḥammad and Charles and their respective courts, camels would have been resonant of eastern monarchy, strengthening a claim to parity with other Islamic rulers for the former, while contributing to Charles’s presentation of himself as a Solomonic king.

Abstract The textiles currently housed in the treasury of the collegiate church of San Isidoro de León are part of a centuries-long process of collecting relics at the heart of an emblematic royal mausoleum. Instead of studying them through the prism of the “charter of 1063,” this investigation proposes a wider look at the place of luxurious textiles in Castile and León before and after the arrival of Saint Isidore’s relics. What emerges is an intricate relationship between the mythification of the city of León as a civitas regia, the Leonese monarchy’s concept of antiquity in legitimizing their rule, and the refinement associated with the royal court and its sacred performance of the cults of saints.

Abstract This paper presents the first in-depth analysis of the textiles held by the Museo de la Real Colegiata de San Isidoro de León, providing a careful investigation of textile features and raw materials, in addition to carbon-14 dating and archival research. These new data have allowed us to redate the fabrics, placing them within their tenth- through early thirteenth-century Mediterranean and European contexts. The result is a more complex image than was previously assumed, and it offers a significant starting point for further research into the roles played by textiles in medieval Iberia.

Abstract This article presents the Responsio in quaestione de muliere sarracena transeunte ad statum et ritum iudaicum (1451) by Alonso Fernández de Madrigal, “El Tostado” (1410–55), as a rich source for the study of conversion across minority groups. A trial conducted before the archbishop of Toledo concerning a Muslim woman turned Jew by her lover in Talavera de la Reina (Spain) caused a scandal in Christian society. As one of the most outstanding legal scholars at the University of Salamanca, Madrigal established the right of the archbishop of Toledo to judge an issue involving the two minorities and decided in favor of the woman returning to her faith of origin, instead of imposing the death penalty. While conversion superseded issues of illicit sexual relations, gender acted as a mitigating circumstance. This article will also consider how the three communities contributed to the survival of “cohabitation,” defined by Madrigal as social peace, and the preservation of the status of the different religions living together in Castile.

Abstract This article offers a preliminary survey of the miniatures illustrating the Biblia romanceada held at the Escorial Library under the shelf number I.I.3, whose precise date and provenance have been a matter of dispute among scholars for decades. The scrutiny of the stylistic features of these illustrations together with a reassessment of the scarce archival sources related to this work allows for a definite association of Escorial, MS I.I.3 with Enrique de Guzmán, 2nd Duke of Medina Sidonia (d. 1492). However, the contextualized analysis of this lavishly decorated manuscript—which was part of a trend in aristocratic patronage and the epitome of already established traditions in Bible illustration—may contribute not only to a re-appraisal of this singular work but also to a better understanding of the multifaceted phenomena lying behind the production and reception of the remaining fifteenth-century illustrated Bibles in the vernacular, all of them translated from Hebrew but intended for a Christian audience.