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

the unpaid debt 117

revolt of al- Azraq. All the same, throughout the period of sovereign crisis,

the Aragonese kings continued to recruit jenets and allow their interac-

tion with the Mudéjares. Why did the Mudéjares and the jenets, who had

surrendered Valencia to the Crown in recent memory, not unite to seize

the kingdom back? Why did a new al- Azraq not present himself in these

moments? And why were the Aragonese kings so confident in their use of

these foreign Muslim soldiers?

At the end of 1286 , while his jenets were dispatched to Aragon to fight

the Unions, King Alfons began to mobilize a mass of forces to send to

the Valencian frontier. Among others, he called upon Templars, Hospital-

lers, the Knights of Calatrava, and almogàvers in order to prepare for a

rumored attack of “jenets from Granada,” which is to say, of Ghuzāh.^98 By

the following April, the calls became more urgent as Granadan attacks

began, threatening to overrun Valencia.^99 Bishoprics were called upon to

lend horses, and royal revenue from the kingdom was redirected to pay

the salaries of troops on the frontier.^100 The battle, which the Crown came

to call the Guerra Jenetorum, the War of the Jenets, lasted only a few

months.^101

Given the fact that two decades earlier the jenets had been so integral

to al- Azraq’s uprising against the Crown of Aragon, one might have ex-

pected the Valencian Mudéjares to embrace the Guerra Jenetorum as a

new opportunity for rebellion.^102 In this case, however, the threat seemed

more contained, and the Mudéjar response, muted and uncertain. In April

1287 , for example, the Mudéjares of Alhavir received permission to with-

draw from service in the king’s army, citing their fear of both “the Moors

entering Valencia” and the almogàvers.^103 On the one hand, the Crown

may have thought better of testing the Mudéjares’ allegiance. On the other

hand, caught between warring armies, the Mudéjares may have recognized

that they were in a vulnerable position and earnestly sought to stay out

of the battle. Indeed, even the rumor of a jenet attack was fuel enough

for local Christians, some “young men,” to attack the Valencian Muslim

communities.^104 In other words, the constant threat of jenet raids from

Granada may have ironically promoted Mudéjar quietism and passivity.

Some Muslims, to be sure, did choose to throw in their lot with the jenets,

and in the wake of the war’s failure, they retreated into Granada alongside

these soldiers. Despite this treason, the Crown of Aragon welcomed some

of them back after the war’s cessation.^105 Others chose to remain loyal to

the Crown throughout: in his accounts for the war, for example, King Al-

fons recorded a payment to a “Saracen spy.”^106 Thus, during the last two