Al-Azraq Treaty of 1245
The year 1000 saw the weakening of Islamic hold on the peninsula since al-Mansur left Córdoba in a weaker condition than he received it and the Umayyad caliphate finally broke apart in 1031.
They lost a large amount of land to Christian conquerors after their defeat at the Battle of Oqab or Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.
After this, they lost the Balearic Islands (1228-1232), Badajoz (1229), Córdoba (1236), Valencia (1238), Murcia (1243), Cartagena (1245), Seville (1248), Huelva (1250), Arcos (1262), Medina-Sidonia (1262), Jerez (1262), Cádiz (1262), and Tarifa (1294).
[2] Early on in the eleventh Century, the Catholic Church declared Muslims, specifically Moors, infidels as a way to unite all of Christendom around a single cause.
During the First Crusade, Pope Urban II actively worked to divert forces from Jerusalem to al-Andalus, calling the Moors a "threat" and arguing that they needed to be driven off their lands.
The inability of crusaders to keep Jerusalem under Christian control prompted many to blame outside groups for the losses instead of their own (lack of) military might, which led to the Inquisition.
According to historians Robert I. Burns and Paul E. Chevedden, the al-Azraq Treaty is a representation of the religious diversity of al-Andalus and illustrates how Muslims, Jews, and Christians were able to not just coexist, but work together at a time when the Catholic church was ramping up its persecution of those they deemed "heretics".
During the crusade, he tapped into his vast supply of vassals, "who had sworn 'homage and fealty'" to their king in exchange for land, in order to fill the ranks of his military.
His strategy when attacking a region was two pronged: 1. focus all troops on the strongest fortress (physical) and 2. instill as much fear into the surrounding populace as possible (psychological).
Historian Donald J. Kagay suggests that "sites might also come into the Conqueror's [James I's] hands without direct combat due to a combination of Muslim fear and the king's well known reputation for granting ostensibly liberal surrender terms.
This portion of the treaty is broken up into two parts: There are thirteen lines in Arabic (written in Maghribī script) that appear larger, more evenly spaced, and fainter due to oxidation of the ink.
Alfonso VIII's chronicler states that "A peace treaty was signed between them, which later the aforementioned Zayd of Valencia broke like a vile apostle, without any just cause.
[1] Historian R.J. Barendse states that, while feudalism has both Roman and Germanic origins, it "was essentially a new system, arising out of military changes and tensions with the agrarian economy and society in the tenth century rather than being a synthesis" of the other two.
[8] It existed in various forms in other parts of the world, but in Western Europe it developed during the Carolingian Empire's deterioration of authority in the tenth century.
"[8] During the tenth and eleventh centuries, as land was parceled out in smaller chunks, a new "class of mounted and armored warriors" was created in which the different Christian kingdoms were able to draw military power from.
[8] Mamluks went through years of intense training to be properly prepared for warfare and they were kept in isolation in order to prevent them from forming bonds with the local people and to encourage loyalty to their Sultan.
In 1238, James I issued the Regni Valentie, a territorial code dictating the governance of the newly conquered Valencia that was heavily inspired by Justinian's Digest.
In Aragón, a practice known as "defiance" allowed "aggrieved vassals ten days to formally abrogate ties with their lords" and those "who violated this 'cooling-off period' in any way would be considered a 'proven traitor'.
The Christians populace in this new city did not remain isolated; while not having property in the town itself, Mudéjars continued to hold lands surrounding Alcoi.
In the spring and summer of 1248, James I conducted sieges against the Mudéjar cities of Lucente and Xátiva, relieved the castle being attacked, and killed the rebel leader Ibn Bassāl.
Pope Innocent IV intervened multiple times throughout the war, dispatching members of the church to regions of James I's kingdom as well sending out financial appeals and letters as a way to garner aid.
[13] He stated that those who "take up the sign of the living cross, to give that king [James I] assistance against those people [Muslims]" via fighting in his army, would receive "full pardon of their sins.
"[13] With this bull, Burns states that Innocent IV made the war into a full blow crusade against al-Azraq and Mudéjars on the Peninsula.
In 1250, a diplomatic shift to the war began as al-Azraq sent a letter in Arabic to Queen Violante in which he acknowledged James I's rule over Valencia.
According to Burns, "The convention of accepting a Christian ruler as having some extrinsic claims over one's resources or territory was a ploy common enough in frontier warfare and rationalized in Islamic terms.
Berns states that this meant the king "had opened negotiations with his enemy at the very time he was seeking renewed crusade status and military aid from the pope."
[13] Like the Valencian Crusade, this war ended partially because James I bribed someone in al-Azraq's inner circle, depriving him of the funds he needed to buy grain to feed his troops.
In his autobiography, James I spends fifteen chapters speaking about the Mudéjar revolt of 1247 and tries his best to down play it, claiming it lasted "a good three or four years" instead of ten.
