Currently, thanks to the work of various researchers, it has been clarified that there is a real historical Cid, and a literary Cid, a legendary and mythical hero.

However, the poem El Cantar del Mio Cid continues to be studied in schools, but the truth of the historical Cid is not. The reality of the historical El Cid is that he began as a warrior in the army of Sancho II, king of Castile, and later entered the service of Alfonso VI, king of Castile and León. Over time he became an important political figure, not a mere cross-border character, but someone who championed syncretism, that is, he knew how to coexist and function with ease in two cultures and religions (feudal lord in the Christian context, protector and guarantor of the law in the Islamic context). This made him a crucial man in the complex diplomacy of his time, which ran between conflicts and alliances in lands governed by Christian kings as well as in lands governed by Muslim rulers.

In addition to leading several armies (made up of Muslims and Christians), he was able to forge alliances and close friendships with several Muslim rulers of al-Andalus, such as Al Mu'tamid, king of the Taifa of Seville; Al Muqtadir and his son Al Musta‘in II, kings of the Taifa of Zaragoza and Al Qadir, king of the Taifa of Valencia, defending his interests in different contexts. He also fought against the Almoravid dynasty (North African Berbers, 1162-1147 CE), who were beginning to dominate lands in al-Andalus, and he liberated Valencia from its siege. Finally, El Cid became – in the last years of his life – the only ruler of the Taifa of Valencia, independent of the Castilian-Leonese Crown and the Crown of Aragon, the County of Barcelona and the Almoravids (García Fitz, 2019). The series "Game of Thrones" seems like a children's story compared to the real and historical context of El Cid and the political complexity of the 11th century CE in the Iberian Peninsula.

In this brief article, I deal with El Cid´s multiculturalism, specifically on how El Cid would have dressed in adult life, taking into account that being Christian and Castilian, he lived three quarters of his life with Muslims, sharing their customs, traditions and their art and material culture.

In his youth, Rodrigo Díaz initially collected the ´parias´ (tributes paid by the Taifa kings to the Christian kings in order to avoid war; payments were made in coins and precious valuable objects, especially silk and gold textiles), in the name of Alfonso VI. During the years that he was in the service of the Taifa kings he was remunerated with riches and given gifts of precious objects, while in his position as ruler of Valencia he already possessed a significant patrimony.

None of El Cid's clothing has been preserved. However, in the Cantar del Mio Cid, the Arabic names of silks and precious fabrics (produced in Islamic contexts) which were used to decorate the palaces of Muslim kings, as well as the richness of El Cid magnificent clothing (textiles made with fine silk and gold) are mentioned with detailed descriptions. El Cantar mentions El Cid's cloak twelve times – sometimes simply with the term cloak, other times, most of them, it mentions cloak together with Arabic terms: mobatana, barragan, alifate, feruci, zoramen, adurra (Montaner, 2007).

Despite this information, since the late Middle Ages, the visual representation of El Cid’s image in his adult life has tended to ignore his multiculturalism (evidenced in both the historical Cid and the literary Cid) employing instead simplified, standardised iconography; he has been represented dressed with a chainmail or mail armour (a type of warrior clothing made with metal rings) and a plain cape on the shoulders, as we see for example in the statue of El Cid in the city of Burgos, as well as in the numerous illustrations in books, comics, series and cultural events that focus on his figure.

An unexpected and interesting exception to this general trend is the American film EL CID (1961), produced by Samuel Bronston, directed by Anthony Mann, filmed in Spain, and starring Charlton Heston in the role of El Cid and Sofia Loren in the role of Jimena, El Cid's wife. One of the academic consultants of the film was the philologist and historian Ramón Menéndez Pidal, a scholar of the Cantar del Mio Cid and the history of El Cid; he was also the editor of the encyclopaedia titled “History of Spain” until 1968, the year of his death.

Menéndez Pidal knew about the richness of textiles produced during the Muslim dynasties that ruled al-Andalus, due to the fact that a considerable number of those fabrics have been preserved in monasteries and royal collections in Spain. It was probably Menéndez Pidal himself who advised the film's producer to dress El Cid in a cape inspired by an Andalusian fabric. The silk fabric chosen as inspiration for El Cid's cape was actually part of the funerary vestments of Bernardo Calbó (1180-1242), Bishop of Vic (Catalonia), considered of Andalusi production. Fourteen fragments of this fabric are housed at the Vic Museum and another eleven fragments at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The fabric´s iconography consists of rows of large double-headed eagles which display outstretched wings, carrying a jewel in each beak and having two quadrupeds under their claws. Each double-headed eagle is framed by a decorated double-banded oval and at the intersections between ovals, decorated medallions are inserted. Although we do not know whether this fabric originally included a band of Arabic calligraphy, as it was usual in this type of fabrics, it has been related to other similar pieces of Almoravid production that do have Arabic inscriptions (Shepherd 1952).

Compared to the numerous fabrics produced under the Almoravid dynasty that have survived, very few specimens of Taifa production have been preserved to the present day. These Taifa fabrics would have been most probably the textiles El Cid wore. However, at the time of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar and in preceding centuries, it was not unusual for the elite court members at the Christian kingdoms to incorporate the precious textiles of their rivals in their vestments, which would be used at the Christian court both during their life time as well as in their burials. This is the case of King Alfonso VII, who battled against the Almoravids, and gave at least two textiles produced under this dynasty to San Juan de Ortega, the king´s confessor and right-hand man, who wore them in religious ceremonies as well as in his funerary vestments (Ali-de-Unzaga 2020). It is perhaps for this reason, Menéndez Pidal approved the use of an Almoravid fabric in the film, even though the Almoravids were staunch rivals of El Cid? Or perhaps the fragments from the Cleveland Museum were accessible to the American producer, and his designers would have an easier time seeing the complexity of the decoration?

We will never know! Be that as it may, as David Porrinas (2018, 2019) has argued “Rodrigo Díaz not only lived in Muslim territory for a significant part of his existence, but his relationship with the people of those areas conditioned some essential aspects of his biography.” Ignoring this fact means ignoring a significant part of the relations between Christians and Muslims in the history of the Iberian Peninsula.

Sources:

Ali-de-Unzaga, Miriam, "De medallones, halos y estética almorávide: revisión y nuevas aportaciones sobre las sedas almorávides de las vestiduras de San Juan de Ortega," in Arqueología del al-Andalus Almorávide, ed. R. Azuar Ruíz (MARQ Museo Archeológico de Alicante, 2020), pp. 103-138

García Fitz, Francisco, "Mio amigo es de paz» political alliances between Christians and Muslims in the Edad Media ibérica," Al-Andalus y la Historia, 2019
https://www.alandalusylahistoria.com/?p=1410

Montaner, Alberto, Cantar del Mio Cid. Critically annotated edition, Barcelona, 2007

Porrinas, David, El Cid Campeador y los Musulmanes, al-Andalus y la Historia, 2018
https://www.alandalusylahistoria.com/?p=752

Porrinas, David, El Cid. Historia y mito de un señor de la guerra, 2019
https://www.despertaferro-ediciones.com/revistas/numero/el-cid-historia-y-mito-de-un-senor-de-la-guerra/

Shepherd, Dorothy, G., “The Third Silk from the Tomb of Saint Bernard Calvo,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 39, no. 1 (1952), pp: 13-14

Archival images:

"Dos españoles en la Historia: El Cid y Ramón Menéndez Pidal" in the BNE: 4. El Cid, A. Mann, 1961, fragmento del NODO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SZ3vw-t8Rg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC6t-nUYpHQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axBVGBIQuUU