Religious Pluralism and Religious Conversion in Al-Andalus and Early Reconquest Spain

As the only western European territory to be incorporated into the Islamic Empire, Iberia created a unique situation for its Muslim conquerors, as well as for the Christians and Jews who already resided there. Religious pluralism was a complex reality of Islamic and early Reconquest Spain; it became further complicated by the conversions of non-believers who found themselves under the rule of a faith not their own, first Christians and Jews under Muslim rule, and then over the course of the Reconquest, Muslims and Jews under Christian rule. The struggle of both Christians and Muslims to keep their religions untainted by heresy or wrong practice while at the same time accepting converts (or re-converts) created significant tensions in an already often highly charged religious environment. This paper proposes to examine various Muslim and Christian policies of accommodation and exclusion as attempts at coexistence, with particular attention to conversion and the converted.