James I the Conqueror , king of Araga-Catalonia, conquered Mediterranean Spain from Islam during 50 crusading years (1225-1276). From his many surrender treaties, only two survive in their interlinear bilingual originals, both presented in this volume. Each reflects the fragmentation of post-Almohad Islam, the warrior heroes of Islam carving recalcitrant principalities out of the confusion, the hard-fought local negotiations and the confrontation between two radically opposed mentalities. The full meaning of these battered and deteriorated bits of parchment emerges only from minute reconstruction of the Arabic and Latinate texts and especially from ever-widening circles of changing contexts in each world, an historical kaleidoscope.