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

64 chapter three

representatives of Çahim Abennaquem received colored tunics and shoes

made with silks imported from France and the Levant.^79 Other sumptu-

ous cloths mentioned include vermillion presset and colored chiffon from

Saint Denis, the cult center of the Capetian kings.^80 These cloths may have

been used to make tunics or tie turbans.

What do all these lavish gifts tell us about the Aragonese kings’ under-

standing of the jenets? Far from an empty ritual, gift giving holds deep so-

cial significance.^81 Gifts materialize bonds and obligations between men,

and thus they might also help to reveal an unspoken but shared symbolic

vocabulary between the Aragonese kings and their Muslim soldiers. The

falcons they gave, for instance, were admired throughout Spain and North

Africa.^82 Red cloth was favored by both Aragonese and Naṣrid knights.^83

What is more, honorific gifts (tashrīfāt), including robes (khila‘), featured

regularly in ceremonies (marāsim) at Islamic courts.^84 Strong parallels be-

tween Christian ideas of chivalry and the Islamic concept of murū’a may

have further strengthened these connections. For both parties, the signifi-

cance of these martial and vestiary trifles was familiar. These gifts formed

part of a common cultural ground and a shared script. More precisely,

they were elements of both Christian and Islamic courtly rituals, rituals

that bound kings and elite soldiers. In other words, not only salaries but

also gifts tied kings to these elite soldiers. Thus, these gift- giving rituals

offer us another way to understand the authority of the Aragonese kings.

As opposed to purely bureaucratic rationalism, these gifts point to the

continuing charismatic power of Aragonese kingship in this period.^85

This shared sense of style and mutual esteem speaks to a bond between

Christian, Muslim, and Jewish elites that transcended religious difference.

It suggests, as Robert Ignatius Burns and others have argued, the existence

of a common “military- aristocratic” culture, a set of values — above all,

wealth and honor — that bridged elite men.^86 This shared culture allowed

them to see each other as equals, as members of the same community.

And it suggests despite the claims of earlier liberals and conservatives,

that religion was ultimately no impediment, that the Aragonese kings and

Muslim jenets were capable of seeing themselves and each other as some-

thing more than merely Christians and Muslims.

Exception

While this cultural reading is satisfying, there are other ways to make

sense of these privileges and gifts. If the privileges that the Aragonese kings