I need to find some in depth research on what relations were like between the Christians and the muslims in the area of Southern France and/or Spain in the late tenth century (around 960 to 1010). This is sometime after the invasion that was turned back at Tours and comfortably before the Crusades. OTOH it is well into the Reconquista. So what was the actual situation with trade and politics between Christendom and Islam at the time? I've read some about Fraxinetum, but I need to know where it fits into the larger picture.
Also, had romantic love been invented by the troubadours yet? I've always heard it was sometime later in the 12th century but it's hard for me to entirely credit that such a complex concept wouldn't take centuries to originate and I know it has roots going back to deep Antiquity. Was it just the form of literature that originated at that time? Was falling in love a fashion that caught on or had people been doing it all along, or both?
Also, had romantic love been invented by the troubadours yet? I've always heard it was sometime later in the 12th century but it's hard for me to entirely credit that such a complex concept wouldn't take centuries to originate and I know it has roots going back to deep Antiquity. Was it just the form of literature that originated at that time? Was falling in love a fashion that caught on or had people been doing it all along, or both?
