On the Edges of Christendom

Abstract

On the Edges of Christendom explores the life and thought of Bishop Maurice of Burgos, and through him, what it meant to live on the border between the Latin West and Islamic al-Andalus in the thirteenth century. Bishop of Burgos from 1213 until his death in 1238, Maurice was a highly ambitious figure: a scholar, reformer, ambassador, and judge, and the founder of the Gothic cathedral of Burgos. He was deeply preoccupied with the Islamic frontier to his south, and preached crusade against al-Andalus. He was also interested in Islamic philosophy, and was an active member of the intellectual milieu of Toledo, where he patronised the translation of texts from Arabic into Latin, including the Qur’ān. Drawing on archival research in Latin, Arabic, and Spanish, as well as material culture, architecture, and inscriptions, this book traces Maurice’s extraordinary career within the Church and society of medieval Castile. In so doing, it reveals the reception of some of the key intellectual, theological, and cultural developments of the thirteenth century on the edges of the medieval Christian world.