The development of mudéjar society was a direct consequence of Catalano-Aragonese domination but it was not created ex nihilo. Hence a study of the first centuries of mudejarismo should begin with an analysis of the pre-conquest society. Further, Christian control was neither immediate nor uniform, but came in stages: first military, then political, finally social and cultural, and was effected at a rate which varied locally. The gradual character of this process resulted from the fact that contemporary Christian political and administrative entities were anything but militarily invincible or institutionally mature. Alfonso “the Battler” was king of what recently had been nothing more than an insignificant mountain principality; his phenomenal successes against his Muslim neighbours were the result of a gambit to forestall Castilian ambitions in the region – a campaign which was as accidental as the eventual union of Aragon and Catalonia in the years following his death.

Traditionally, relatively little attention has been paid by historians to the society of the Thaghr al-Aqṣā'; like contemporary chroniclers, modern historians of al-Andalus have tended to focus on events at the caliphal court rather than in the provinces. Nevertheless, a few general studies and a number of scholarly articles have sketched out a basic history of the region under Islamic rule. The analysis in the first chapter is built largely on these works and their sources: contemporary and later Latin and Arabic-language chronicles, geographic treatises, biographical dictionaries and fatwā literature, complemented by the conclusions of topographical and archeological investigations.