The World Of El Cid

The World Of El Cid

The late eleventh-century Iberian Peninsula that Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar inhabited was one of political fragmentation with numerous competing states, Christian as well as Muslim. Drawing on Richard Fletcher’s The Quest for El Cid, on The Poem of the Cid, and on at least two outside scholarly sources (either books published by academic presses or articles published in scholarly journals), write an essay of 4-6 pages that addresses the process of forging loyalties and alliances in Iberia at this time. Here are a few questions that might be helpful in developing a thesis:

The World Of El Cid

Were alliances drawn primarily along religious lines? How did people interact with members of other faiths? What seem to emerge as driving motives or considerations in alliance formation? Among both Christian and Muslim leaders, to what extent is warfare conducted “for the faith,” and to what extent is it conducted for other reasons (material gain, dynastic interests, etc.)? Does The Poem of the Cid (composed in the early thirteenth century) accurately reflect the Spain that Rodrigo Díaz inhabited?

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