MUSLIM ALJAMAS IN THE KINGDOM OF CASTILE AND LEÓN (13th–15th CENTURIES): STRUCTURE, FUNCTIONS, AND LEGAL STATUS
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Abstract
This article examines the institutional organisation of Muslim aljamas in the Kingdom of Castile and León between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries as a specific form of collective existence of a religious minority under Christian rule. It analyses the structure of Muslim communal self-government, their administrative, fiscal, and judicial functions, as well as the distinctive features of the legal status of the aljamas. Particular attention is paid to the hybrid nature of aljama institutions, which emerged at the intersection of Islamic legal tradition and Castilian administrative practice. On the basis of royal ordinances and municipal acts, the article shows that the autonomy of Muslim communities was conditional and derivative in character and strictly limited by the framework of Christian law. The study identifies the regional variability of the legal position of the aljamas and demonstrates how their status depended on the form of subordination to the Crown, secular lords, or military orders. It traces the transformation of Muslim communities under the conditions of the demographic crises of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the intensification of fiscal pressure, and the growing impact of discriminatory and segregationist royal policies. The article concludes that Muslim aljamas should be regarded as an element of the fiscal and administrative infrastructure of the Christian state, integrated into the system of power on the basis of asymmetric rights and obligations. It further argues that the institutional existence of the aljamas represented a compromise form of managed integration of the Muslim population into the social space of the kingdom, in which elements of limited autonomy coexisted with rigid mechanisms of subordination and control.
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