On the Edges of Christendom

This book will be available open access upon publication. 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 and reformer, ambassador, judge, instigator of crusade in al-Andalus, and founder of the first Gothic cathedral in Castile. He was deeply preoccupied with the Islamic frontier to his south, engaging not only militarily but also intellectually with Islam, and patronising translations from Arabic into Latin, including the Qur'an. This monograph provides a detailed study of this important prelate for the first time, drawing on archival materials in Latin, Arabic, and Spanish. 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.