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

a mercenary economy 81

is that he would keep this conversion a secret for another twenty- eight

years.^32

In his relationship with Abū Zayd, the secret convert, Jaume estab-

lished a pattern that later Aragonese kings would follow, one in which

they would assert their authority over Muslims through the legacy of the

Almohads rather than against it. After his conquest of Valencia, Jaume

faced both challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, he now ruled

over a majority- Muslim population, one that would remain restive for

decades to come. One the other hand, the conquest of Valencia allowed

Jaume and his advisors to experiment with new ideas of royal authority.^33

In Valencia, Jaume invoked the Roman principle of absolute jurisdiction

(merum imperium) and established the first fully Romanized law code in

Europe. These traditions marked a profound shift in Christian political

theology, which is to say, ideas and claims about the relationship of divine

to earthly authority. Enthusiastic legists tried to recast the Aragonese

king as a divinely inspired lawmaker and judge over all his subjects, Chris-

tian, Jewish, and Muslim.

Recently and provocatively, Maribel Fierro has also argued that these

ideas bear more than a passing resemblance to Almohad concepts of uni-

versal sovereignty.^34 The revolutionary ambitions of the Almohads had

been grounded in the theological doctrine of tawḥīd, radical monothe-

ism or unitarianism. And although earlier historiography saw this fer-

vent belief as a source of intolerance, Fierro has argued that Almohad

policies toward Jews and Christians aspired less toward their conversion

than the reversion of all believers, above all Muslims, to an uncorrupted

monotheism.^35 Ibn Tūmart, the founder of the Almohads, had developed

a messianic and universalist political theology that aimed at the integra-

tion of all Muslims, Christians, and Jews into one community under the

leadership of the caliph.^36 Far from blind adherence to dogma, the Almo-

hads argued for the supremacy of knowledge and reason as an instrument

for this social, moral, and political transformation.^37 They developed high

degrees of legal and administrative centralization.^38 And most famously,

they patronized the rationalist political philosophy of Ibn Rushd (Aver-

roes), whose works would have a profound impact on Europe.^39 Within

all these ideas, the Almohads saw the caliph as a divinely inspired and

sovereign lawmaker. Although North Africa and al- Andalus eventually

rejected the Almohads, their ideas arrived in Latin Christendom through

the translation of key texts.^40 In the figure of Abū Zayd, a Muslim be-

fore Muslims and a Christian before Christians, these overlapping and