La diplomacia y las embajadas como expresión de los contactos interculturales entre cristianos y musulmanes en el Mediterráneo occidental durante la Baja Edad Media

Abstract

The approximation to the political and diplomatic relationships between Christendom and Islam with an open point of view can provide a number of elements to refl ect upon regarding the modes of interaction, exchange and cultural transmission and how these are spread. The diplomatic activity lead in the XVth. century between the Crown of Aragon, Castile and Genoa, from the Christian side, and the Nasrid sultanate of Granada and the Maghreb, from the Muslim side, allows us to assess the weight that religion, knowledge of the Other and cultural proximity to the embassy receivers had in the nomination of diplomatic agents; to study the embassies’ development; and to explore their inherent and almost compulsory gift exchanges. For the sake of a greater understanding of the Christian-Islam contact peculiarities, these topics are considered, as far as possible, in a comparative approach with the diplomatic procedures displayed between Christian powers.