The late fifteenth century holds a special fascination for scholars of interreligious coexistence, as it marks the end of a long period when Iberian Muslims, Christians, and Jews had been legally permitted to dwell alongside one another. How and why were the famously pluralistic (if deeply conflicted) lands of medieval Spain transformed into Christian-only early modern regimes? Why did complex patterns of rivalry and collaboration between religious groups, the phenomenon still problematically known as convivencia, give way to an apparently much more monolithic society characterized by forced conversions, expulsions, and inquisitions?

Questions of religious conflict and coexistence lie at the heart of Thomas Devaney's innovative and tightly focused study. Deploying a concept of “amiable enmity” to characterize the ambiguities of late medieval Iberian life, especially along the gradually dissolving frontier between Christian Castile and Muslim Granada, Devaney proposes a new lens through which to examine four decades of transition toward Christian hegemony. Where others have sought to understand that transition by exploring changes in theological teachings, literary or artistic representations, economic concerns, cultural traits such as foodways and clothing, or (more traditionally) political and military maneuverings, he has struck out in a fruitful new direction: examination of how public ritual celebrations and spectacles were orchestrated to express and shape popular opinions regarding religious Others.

Devaney's emphasis is on the viewpoint of the victors: the Christians who eventually purged Jews and Muslims from their midst (in the process erasing records which might have more fully told other sides of the story). Using both literary (chiefly chronicles and relaciones) and archival (municipal and cathedral) sources, he seeks to reconstruct how civic performances could be used by different members of the Christian community to express their evolving attitudes toward Muslim, Jewish, and recently converted neighbors. This is subtle work, as the precise meaning of such performances might be inflected by details of local context, insider knowledge, and even personal relationships between participants, which are often inaccessible to modern researchers. Nor were meanings necessarily simple or static. Patrons, performers, and audiences could all read a given spectacle in different ways, and memories could be colored by subsequent events.

Devaney is aware of these challenges, and the first half of the book is therefore devoted to broad theoretical discussions of how spectacle, audience, and space can best be read. Context is key. The “frontier” situation could both heighten a sense of threat and facilitate lucrative cross-border trade, for example, and so urban spectacles involving representations of Muslims might either embolden or antagonize a Christian audience, depending on the current popular mood. Acknowledging potential gaps between elite agendas and crowd responses to such events (which have not always been recognized in previous scholarship), Devaney is careful to reconstruct how different groups likely reacted to specific performances—such as the 1465 “Farce of Ávila.” Entire chapters are devoted to considerations of audience and space.

Part 2 turns to case studies. In chapter 3, the setting is Jaén in the 1460s—when the newly arrived nobleman Miguel Lucas de Iranzo badly needed local support for his plans to disrupt the peace by raiding neighboring Muslim communities. Rather than simply seeking to whip up religious sentiment through direct means, such as crusade preaching, however, Iranzo devoted time and resources to building up his own persona through celebrations and pious public performances. These included staged mass jousts with costumed “Muslim” warriors (who converted at the end), as well as elaborate biblical Magi processions, among other conspicuous evocations of “Islamic” culture being literally brought into the Christian fold. With much emphasis on context and backstory, Devaney persuasively argues that such spectacles were deliberately intended to reassure the inhabitants of Jaén that, whatever fighting might need to be done, local Muslims would ultimately be converted and brought into the community according to God's plan, for the benefit of all.

In contrast, chapter 4 focuses on an Easter riot and subsequent massacre that took place in Córdoba (and spread to other parts of Andalucía) in 1473. Sparked when a servant girl in a converso neighborhood accidentally spilled waste water on a statue of the Virgin that was being paraded through the narrow streets, this event quickly turned from regular civic performance of one religious ritual (commemoration of the Passion) to extraordinary enactment of quite another (violent pogrom). The event, Devaney suggests, demonstrates not only how Old Christian attitudes were hardening against even converted former Jews at this time but also how specific staged events, such as a Marian procession's passing through a particular quarter, could be used to mobilize and give vent to public anger in a civic context rife with factional division.

Finally, chapter 5 examines a series of celebrations held in Murcia to commemorate Spanish Christian victories in the years leading up to the fall of Granada. These processions, feasts, games, and musical performances—all linked to the Christian feast of Corpus Christi—very deliberately involved the obligatory participation of local Jews and Muslims, who were pressed into service as funders and performers. Again, Devaney's emphasis is on context with much attention to the decades of strife leading up to these specific fraught moments when non-Christian involvement in civic festivities became increasingly ominous.

The level of scholarship is high. Devaney has a confident grasp of his subject, and his conclusions are convincing. Since he limits himself to only three case studies, one is left wondering whether there might be more to the story if a fuller picture were to be told. Comparisons to non-“frontier” urban spectacles, or to spectacles performed in other regions and periods, might also have provided further nuance and analytic depth. But, overall, this is a highly readable, engaging, and suggestive series of glimpses into how religious and civic tensions evolved in this fascinating period. Urban spectacles comprise a rich and significant aspect of late medieval (and early modern) Iberian life that deserves further exploration, and this study provides both an excellent introduction and a model for future work.