The Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X of Castile contain a
vast array of Islamic features, chief among them are the
similarities in plant and animal imagery and distinguishing of
Arab and non-Arab figures along racial lines. This paper will
explore how a diverse Islamic manuscript tradition in the Near
East and North Africa - including the Maqamat of al-Hariri, the
De Materia Medica of Dioscurides and Kalila wa Dimnah -
influenced the figural motifs and natural elements present in
Alfonso's Cantigas, as well as how the climate of the thirteenth
century and Alfonso's personal taste influenced the construction
and inclusion of figural imagery in the illuminated miniatures
of the Cantigas de Santa Maria. By 1280, when Alfonso X, King of
Castile, had the Cantigas de Santa Maria commissioned,
reconquest efforts on the Iberian Peninsula had all but
demolished Muslim land holdings leaving only the southern city
of Granada and the immediately surrounding territories left
fig.1. The presence of Muslims in Spain sin