Possessing the land : : Aragon's expansion into Islam's Ebro frontier under Alfonso the Battler, 1104-1134 / / by Clay Stalls.

• Superior document: The Medieval Mediterranean ; Volume 7
• VerfasserIn: Stalls, Clay,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, New York : : E.J. Brill,, [1995]; ©1995
• Year of Publication: 1995
• Language: English
• Series: Medieval Mediterranean ; Volume 7.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (355 pages)

Possessing the Land is the first comprehensive treatment of Christian Aragon's expansion under Alfonso I (1104-1134) into a major arena of medieval Christian/Islamic contact: the Islamic Ebro River march of Aragon. Based on an extensive examination of primary and secondary sources, the book's insights into the social and political processes of Christian settlement and the fate of post-conquest Islam are of particular importance. Its conclusions that the freeholding of land characterized the Ebro's Christian settlement, and not heavy seignorialization, and that Christian settlement relied on the Muslim infrastructure, challenge significantly the neo-Marxist thesis of the "feudalization" of twelfth-century Christian Iberian society and the corresponding Christian break with Iberia's Islamic Past. This book constitutes a fundamental work in Iberian frontier studies.

Table of Contents

Preface -- Abbreviations -- Map -- I. The Geography and History of Alfonso's Ebro Conquests -- II. Possessing the Land: The King as Agent and Governor of Settlement -- III. The Nobility of the Ebro -- IV. Non-Noble and Non-Royal Settlement of the Ebro -- V. The Church of the Ebro Frontier -- VI. The Dilemma of Conquered Muslims Under Christian Rule: The Aragonese Solution -- Conclusion -- Bibliography 321 -- Index.