On Names, Places, Dates, and

Transcriptions

A

lthough they used both Catalan and Aragonese spellings for their

names, throughout this book, I refer to and number the kings of the

Crown of Aragon according to the Catalan tradition, e.g., Pere II rather

than Pedro III, to avoid confusion with the names of the Castilian kings.

Similarly, for the sake of simplicity, place names of towns are rendered

according to the standard modern forms. Countries and regions are given

in their modern English usage.

Records from the chancery registers of the Archive of the Crown of

Aragon are dated according the Incarnation calendar. I have regularized

these dates to the Common Era calendar. In the case that the year re-

mains ambiguous, I have noted the less likely date in brackets, e.g., 1283

[ 1284 ]. Similarly, dates according to the Islamic calendar have been con-

verted to the Common Era calendar. In notes, both Islamic and Common

Era dates are given when relevant, e.g., 681 / 1283.

All Arabic, Latin, and Romance documents were consulted directly,

and all transcriptions are my own unless otherwise specified. Wherever

possible, I have tried to acknowledge existing transcriptions or editions

of documents, particularly when they led me to additional sources. In

transcribing Latin, Catalan, Castilian, and Aragonese, the original capi-

talization, spelling, and punctuation have been preserved. Ligatures and

macrons have been silently expanded. The transliteration of Arabic fol-

lows the standards of the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.

The following notations are used: [.. .] = illegible; = uncertain

reading; [text] = interpolation; \text / = superscript; /text\ = subscript;

//text // = redacted. In the case of illegible text, the periods indicate the

estimated number of illegible characters.