Mudéjar. Style of architecture and decorative art, partly Islamic (from the Moorish and Mozarabic traditions) and partly Gothic, that evolved in the Iberian peninsula reconquered by Christians (C11–C16). It incorporated horseshoe-shaped arches, Kufic inscriptions, arabesques, stalactite work or muqarna, and ceramic tiles. The Salón de Embajaderes in Alcázar, Seville (C14), is one of the most sumptuous examples of the Mudéjar style, which persisted well into Plateresque C16 buildings, and aspects of it were revived in C19 and early C20, usually called the Moorish style.

Bibliography

Chueca Goitia (1965);
Jayyusi (ed.) (1992);
G. King (1927);
Kubler & and Soria (1959);
Jane Turner (1996)

Mudejar a subject Muslim during the Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors (11th–15th centuries) who, until 1492, was allowed to retain Islamic laws and religion in return for loyalty to a Christian monarch. After 1492 such people were treated with less toleration, dubbed Moriscos, and forced to accept the Christian faith or leave the country.

The name is now used to designate a partly Gothic, partly Islamic style of architecture and art prevalent in Spain in the 12th to 15th centuries.

Mudejar is Spanish, and comes from Arabic mudajjan ‘allowed to stay’.