955: Hrotsvit of Gandersheim on the Galician Hostage Pelagius at the Court of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III

Abstract

Written by the canoness and poet Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, the Passio Pelagii recounts the imprisonment of the Christian hostage Pelagius at the court of the caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III in Córdoba. The narrative material survived in several independent sources of the tenth century and was transformed by Hrotsvit into a Christian martyr account. The article investigates the author's possible motives for shaping the story in this way while situating the creation of the Passio in the context of the early diplomatic relations between the Ottonian realm and Umayyad al-Andalus, which significantly enhanced the transfer of knowledge between the two spheres.