El discurso anti-islámico castellano: de disputa teológica a cimiento del proyecto universalista carolino (1460-1530)

Abstract

From a comparative perspective, I will study two anti-Islamic Castilian writings produced during the period of the transition between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era: Alonso de Espina’s Fortalitium fidei (1460) and Gonzalo de Arredondo’s Castillo inexpugnable defensorio de la fe (1528). This study compares the terms in which each of these works addresses (a) the confrontation with Islam, (b) dissensions within Christianity, and (c) the king’s role in the midst of those conflicts. The contrastive approach to these analogous works, which were written almost seven decades apart, will allow an analysis of two different articulations of anti-Saracen Christian discourse in Spain, both before and after some key milestones in European history. These different perceptions of Islam had an impact on the conception of Christianity and Europe itself at the very beginning of the early modern period.