While Latin expansion stalled in the Eastern Mediterranean in the late Middle Ages, Islam lost ground to Christendom in the west - in the Spanish Levant, the islands of the Western Mediterranean, and even on the Maghribi coast, where conquerors and colonists from the northern shore of the sea established footholds. Edited by Eleanor Congdon, with an introduction by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and James Muldoon, this collection of classic studies illuminates the problems of how the expansion occurred and why it was slow and limited. The volume broaches fundamental questions of Mediterranean history formulated by Henri Pirenne and Fernand Braudel. The place of the late medieval Western Mediterranean in the history of the sea as a whole and of European overseas expansion generally emerges with new clarity, as the reader re-traces the process of formation of one of the world's great frontiers between civilizations. Important work by Maria Teresa Ferrer I Mallol appears in translation for the first time, alongside pieces by such leading authorities as David Abulafia, Robert I. Burns, S.J., Miguel Angel Ladero Quesada, and Hilmar C. Krueger
Contents: Introduction; Bibliography; Part I The Rise of Pisa and Genoa: The Mahdia campaign of 1087, H.E.J. Cowdrey; The politics of violence and trade: Denia and Pisa, Travis Bruce; The routine of commerce between Genoa and North-West Africa during the late 12th century, Hilmar C. Krueger; Genoese merchants in Catalan lands, Ma.T. Ferrer I Mallol. Part II The Coming of the Normans and the End of Islam in Italy: The occasion of the coming of the Normans to Italy, John France; End of Muslim Sicily, David Abulafia; Muslim-Christian relations in medieval southern Italy, Julie Anne Taylor. Part III The Conquests of the House of Barcelona: Free Moslems in the Balearics under Christian rule in the 13th century, Elena Lourie; Journey from Islam: incipient cultural transition in the conquered kingdom of Valencia, Robert I. Burns; Social riots on the Christian-Moslem frontier: 13th-century Valencia, Robert I. Burns. Part IV Latin Colonisation in the Maghrib: Christian-Islamic confrontation in the West: the 13th-century dream of conversion, Robert I. Burns; Conversion and St Louis's last crusade, Michael Lower; The Christian community of Tunis at the time of St Louis' crusade - 1270, Ronald A. Messier. Part V The Conquest of Granada: Captives, children and conversion: a case from Nasrid Granada, Manuela Marin and Rachid El Hour; Mudejares and repobladores in the kingdom of Granada, 1489-1501, Miguel Angel Ladero Quesada; The cannon conquest of Nasrid Spain and the end of the Reconquista, Weston F. Cook Jr; Index