Hussein Fancy. . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016, pp. xviii, 310.

The Archive of the Crown of Aragon has provided the foundation for some of the most compelling medieval research of the last half century. Classics by Robert I. Burns, John Boswell, David Nirenberg, and Brian Catlos, to name a few, have helped nuance our understanding of inter-religious interaction in the medieval Mediterranean. Indeed, Hussein Fancy’s acknowledgements section reads like a “who’s who” of medieval Iberian scholarship, and so it is no wonder given such support that he has presented this master-work. Fancy, nevertheless, manages to stand apart from his venerable colleagues. He possesses the admirable quality of being able to interweave disparate historical strands into a cohesive narrative tapestry that is both intricate and profound yet also accessible and never condescending.