sovereigns and slaves 63
in which participants dressed as “Moors,” or the moros y cristianos festi-
vals, mock battles between light cavalry, dressed as Muslims and Christians
(fig. 4 ).^72 A jenet named Gaylen, for example, was compensated the re-
markable sum of 500 solidi for wounds that he sustained during one such
event at the pleasure of the king.^73 In other words, well before early mod-
ern Spanish noblemen and princes rode a la jineta as a matter of taste and
social distinction, thirteenth- and fourteenth- century Aragonese elites —
both Christian and Jewish — already considered this style worthy of admi-
ration and imitation. This fascination may have also spread further afield.
In 1356 , King Pere III (r. 1336 – 1387 ) arranged to have a small contingent
of Muslim knights sent to the French court.^74 This ability to translate from
one context to another is what Georg Simmel had in mind when he said
that “style is always something general.”^75
Prominent jenets also received other valuable gifts. The Crown pre-
sented a handful of jenets with falcons.^76 Over the course of his career,
for instance, the jenet captain Mahomet Abendalil received five falcons,
including a goshawk (austurcus), which was a rarity in North Africa.^77
The most common gift given to these soldiers, however, was sumptuous
cloth. At first blush, these rich cloths seem fancy but rather utilitarian:
capes, shoes, bolts of cloth, and tunics. Among numerous other examples,
two jenets, Muçe and Çahit, received leather- lined capes made with Pa-
risian chiffon as well as tunics and boots made from colored cloth.^78 The
figure 4. Juego de Cañas in Valladolid ( 1506 ). Bibliothèque Royale Albert I, Brussels. Photo-
graph: Album / Art Resource, New York.