L'Iberie Chretienne et le Maghreb (XIIe - XVe siecles)

The late Ch.-E. Dufourcq was one of the first to map out the relations between the Christian and Muslim coastlands of the medieval western Mediterranean. These studies reveal the extent of the contribution he made to the subject, and the care and attention with which he handled the scattered documentary sources. There are three main themes to the volume: one group of articles focuses on the political and diplomatic aspects of the relations between Spain (Catalonia in particular) and the Maghreb (the lands of the modern Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia); a second is concerned more with commercial contacts and with a comparison of the economic conditions north and south of the Mediterranean, and with the day-to-day life of the sailors and merchants who formed the link between the two. A third theme, most prominent in the final articles, is the social and economic history of Catalonia itself, a subject to which he returned in the final years of his life. Le regrette Ch.-E. Dufourcq a ete l'un des premiers a etablir les grandes lignes des rapports existant entre les pays cotiers chretiens et musulmans de la Mediterannee occidentale durant le Moyen Age. Ces etudes revelent l'entendue de la contribution de l'auteur a ce sujet, ainsi que le soin et l'attention avec lesquels il en a manie le s sources documentaires dispersees. On retrouve trois themes principeaux au travers de ce volume : un groupe d'articles se concentre sur les aspects politiques et diplomatiques des rapports entre l'Espagne, plus particulierement la Catalogne, et le Maghreb; le seconde s'attache plus aux contracts commercieaux, comparant les conditions economiques du Nord et du Sud de la Mediterranee, et a la vie quotidienne des marins et des marchands qui formaient le lien entre les deux. Un troisieme theme, plus proeminent dans les derniers articles, ecrits par l'auteur vers a la fin de sa vie, est celui de l'histoire sociale et economique de la Catalogne elle-meme.