Muslim Mudejar Women in Thirteenth-Century Spain: Dispelling the Stereotypes

This article attempts to redress the lack of attention in modern scholarship on women and gender, and to the status of Muslim women in medieval times, particularly those in non-Muslim societies such as the Mudejar women in Spain. Focusing on this community, the paper will demonstrate that Muslim women were active participants in the social and legal affairs of their community, even though Christian and Islamic law codes imposed severe limitations on the Mudejar or Muslim women who lived in late thirteenth-century Spain. One of the most regulated areas was female access to law courts. The records from the court of the justiciar or chief judicial officer in Cocentaina include cases in which Mudejar women appeared in a Christian court as both defendants and plaintiffs. In addition to inheritance disputes, married and single Mudejar women went by themselves to Christian court to defend the honor of their family. Thus, the examination of historical records shows that far from being the submissive and segregated individuals described in the law codes, Mudejar women took the leadership in protecting themselves and their kin against the challenges that the newly established Christian society imposed on the entire Mudejar community.