King John's Delegation to the Almohad Court (1212): Medieval Interreligious Interactions and Modern Historiography

Is Matthew Paris's story of an English diplomatic delegation, sent by King John to the caliph of Morocco, nothing more than fiction, or does it report actual events occurring in the summer of 1212? Did King John offer to subjugate his kingdom to the Muslim caliph, and did he consider conversion to Islam? Was one of John's diplomats a converted Jew with whom the Muslim ruler conversed about theological issues? How may a new reading of this medieval chronicle in its appropriate historical context contribute to our understanding of King John and his rule? This book attempts to answer these and other questions. The first full-scale study of Matthew Paris`s report, this work proposes a completely new interpretation of the text and portrays a multifaceted and inherently complex picture of the interactions between Christians, Muslims, and Jews around 1200, straddling law, politics, statecraft, history, culture, and religion. This study also prompts an evaluation of the delegation story, in its historical background of Christian-Muslim encounter on the frontier, as a test-case for John's measures during his reign, and intends to advance our understanding of a crucial era of political and diplomatic transformation.