Thirteenth-century Spanish kings fused crusade and reconquest ideology and mosque conversion

Evidence

The ideological justification of the conquest and domination of Muslim communities in Spain had various interpretations: the concept of crusade in Jaume I’s Llibre dels Feyts, restoration of Gothic hegemony in Lucas de Tuy and Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, and for all these authors, the reconversion of mosques into churches. It is Alfonso X of Castile and León (1252–84) who weaves these different ideological strands together into an ideology that affirms his right and duty, as “king of three religions,” to rule over the entire population of the Iberian peninsula: Muslims, Christians, and Jews. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 963

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Gives the genealogy of the reconquest legitimation narrative underlying later Islamophobic tropes in the vault (Anidjar/Aziz genealogies of Christian Europe defining itself against Islam).