The Mercenary Mediterranean_ Sovereignty, Religion, and Violence in the Medieval Crown of Aragon - Hussein Fancy

a mercenary economy 87

soldiers in his armies and entourage.^72 Finally, the historian al- Maqqarī

described Christian soldiers, dressed in parade uniforms, paying obei-

sance to the caliph al- Ḥakam II (r. 961 – 976 ).^73 However scattered and

fleeting this evidence from the Umayyad period may be, key elements of

the later tradition were already in place.

The decline and splintering of Umayyad authority in Iberia that fol-

lowed, known as the Ṭā’ifa period, increased the opportunities for mili-

tary alliances between Muslims and Christians.^74 In this climate, various

rulers competed to cast themselves as the legitimate successors to the

Umayyads. For instance, in imitation of the caliphs, the ruler of Valen-

cia, Ibn Jaḥḥāf, was said to parade with an army of Christian military

slaves (‘abīd) before him.^75 The fragmentation of political authority also

precipitated the movement of free Christian political exiles into Islamic

courts.^76 For one example among many, one need only mention the noble-

man, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, also known as El Cid, who served the Mus-

lim ruler of Zaragoza in the eleventh century before establishing his own

principality.^77

Superficially, the events of the eleventh and twelfth centuries appeared

to be less propitious to such border- crossing activity on the peninsula.

Two Berber dynasties, the Almoravids and Almohads, successively united

al- Andalus under a single authority and appeared hostile to religious in-

teraction. Simultaneously, from north of the Pyrenees, crusade ideology

entered into the Iberian Peninsula from as early as the reign of Pope Al-

exander II (r. 1061 – 1073 ). All this did little, however, to impede the move-

ment of men and arms into armies of the other faith. The enthusiasm for

crusading quickly dissolved.^78 And individuals like Fernando Rodríguez

de Castro ( 1125 – 1185 ), a Castilian nobleman, enrolled in the armies of

the Almohads seemingly without compunction. His son, Pedro Fernán-

dez, fought with the Almohads at the battle of Alarcos in 1194 against

Alfonso VIII of Castile.^79

Although the Christian realms of Iberia united briefly to deal a devas-

tating blow to the Almohads at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 ,

the fragmentation of political authority that followed — a second Ṭā’ifa

period — encouraged political exiles and warlords to cross into Islamic

kingdoms once again. Despite papal censure, noblemen from Navarre,

Castile, and Aragon regularly took up residence in Muslim territory.^80 For

instance, during the reign of King Jaume I, several rebellious Aragonese

knights took refuge in Islamic Valencia, perhaps the most famous of these

being Blasco de Alagón, who defected during Aragon’s crusade against