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

the unpaid debt 115

the indebted jenet with whom this chapter began, settled in Murcia.^89 A

great deal recommended these places. Among the Mudéjares, the jen-

ets would have found speakers of Arabic, Islamic institutions, and people

who adhered to the same or familiar customs, rituals, and practices. One

might imagine that all this promoted a sense of belonging for the jenets

and the potential for the uncomplicated marriage of these communities.

Islamic belief and practice, however, were not uniform. Indeed, it is

worth recalling that the opinions of jurists varied widely on the status and

requirements of Muslims living in non- Muslim territories. Mālikī jurists,

jurists from the school of law that dominated Spain and North Africa,

however, took a relatively consistent position on the matter.^90 Most con-

sidered emigration (hijra) from conquered territories obligatory ( farīḍa)

upon all Muslims who were physically and economically capable. In fail-

ing to do so, Mudéjares had also failed in their religious duties.

Is it possible that the jenets, relative newcomers from North Africa,

shared the Mālikī’s contempt for the Mudéjares and their leaders? From

this perspective, one might read as significant the fact that the jenet Daut,

who retired to Valencia, chose to reside in the city — that is, the Christian

city — rather than in the nearby morería. Although the morería was by no

means a ghetto — which is to say that there was no rigid line between dwell-

ings of Muslims and those of Christians — the privilege of living within the

city walls of Valencia specifically was unusual for a Muslim, shared only by

the occasional visiting Muslim dignitary.^91 By living near but nevertheless

apart from the Mudéjares, was Daut asserting his superiority? In a simi-

lar vein, in December 1286 , Çehit, a jenet— perhaps the same notorious

Ghuzāh captain of the Miraculos romanzados (there called “Çahit”)— was

accused of attacking a Mudéjar judicial official (alaminus) and his son.^92 Al-

though the cause of the conflict is unknown, the incident required the inter-

vention of a royal bailiff, who stepped in to free the jenet and absolve him of

any charges, circumventing Mudéjar leaders and perforating the illusion of

communal autonomy. This kind of privilege was not occasional but rather

continual and manifest: the jenets were exempted from the sumptuary laws

that bound all but a few of the most privileged Mudéjares; they could ride

horses and wear rich and colorful garments without fear of the law.^93 The

Crown, in other words, was an unavoidable presence in the relationship of

the Mudéjares and the jenets, a third party to their marriage. And these

privileges could only have driven a wedge between these Muslims.

Two seemingly contradictory examples from the Crown’s chancery

registers will suffice to lay bare the problem of defining this community.