Abstract EN:

This study is an attempt at a reconstitution of the socio-political system of the valencia region during the later period of the muslim era (11-13th centuries), stressing the main causes of its destruction as a result of the catalano-aragonese reconquista and of christian repeopling in the 13th century. The first chapter offers the general hypothesis of a "tributary" society, whose organization was the consequence of two basic facts: the muslim state apparatus on the one hand, and local, mainly rural, communities, on which taxes are levied, on the other hand. The aristocratic class enjoyed little autonomy from the state and was hardly powerful enough to have its way with the peasantry. The sources used in this analysis are described, stressing the limited interest of arab texts, which have to be supplemented by christian documents of the time of the reconquista, and by the informations yielded by archeology. Chapter 2 provides a broad picture of the history of eastern muslim spain (sarq al-andalus) during the period of reference. Chapters 3 to 6 try to describe the ethno-geographic background of social organization (compared importance of arab, native and berber elements, and main features of population distribution). Chapters 8 to 10 are devoted to a study of the politico-administrative system: the centres of power, high public offices, the organization of government, administration, taxation, and the structure of justice and religion, which are very difficult to know in detail. Chapters 11 to 13 are more specifically devoted to the main elements of the homogeneous rural organization, and to the determination of the nature of its husun castra (as refuge centres or places of settlement, and also as intermediate relays on the ladder of state organization), qura or villages submitted to taxation, and rahal s or landed estates, presumably related to a form of iqta'. In chapters 14 and 15 the problem of socio-economic and fiscal organization is discussed (agricultural production, ownership of the means of production, role of the urban, commercial and industrial structures); also the question of the structural deficiencies of the socio-political system as a whole, and of military organization in particular. Finally these weaknesses are highlighted in a study of the main stages of teh reconquista and the suppression of muslim rebellions in the xiiith century, leading to the substitution of the christian manorial and feudal system to the ruined tributary system, in spite of the enduring presence of a large muslim population in the new kingdom of valencia.