Biography

J. Santiago Palacios Ontalva is a professor of medieval history at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. His work has focused on the ideological and material aspects of the Reconquest, the history of the Crusades, and the military orders in Spain. He has participated in several research projects and is the author of numerous articles, as well as three books, the most recent titled Crusades and Military Orders in the Middle Ages (Madrid, 2017). He currently leads, together with Carlos de Ayala, the project “Religious Violence in the Peninsular Middle Ages: War, apologetic discourse and historiographic narrative, X-XV centuries.”

Abstract

Forced Migration by War and Colonization in Medieval Spain: Between al-Andalus and the feudal world

The border between the feudal world and al-Andalus in Spain during the Middle Ages was a permeable and dynamic boundary. The progressive growth of the Christian kingdoms resulted in the domination of extensive territories occupied by the mostly Muslim Andalusi population, who faced the dilemma of staying in their homes or emigrating and undertaking a forced exile. This paper has two objectives. Firstly, to show the different situations experienced by the civilian population of al-Andalus after the feudal conquest. And secondly, to define the formulas that the Christian used to colonize the conquered space through the introduction of new populations. In short, analyzing the migratory phenomena that occurred on the border between Christians and Muslims will help us to better understand medieval Spain. A society developed between intransigence and coexistence; between the violence and the assimilation that was able to also generate an enormous intellectual, cultural and artistic richness.

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