Diplomatics in the Service of Diplomacy: Was the 692/1293 Truce Negotiated by the Kingdom of Aragon Ever Ratified?

In 692/1293, the envoys of James II, king of Aragon, negotiated with the then ruling sultan, al-Ashraf Khalīl, a truce that included several provisions. Most of these provisions had to do with trade, but some others had such a political impact that the truce has been labelled by some modern historians as an unheard-of military alliance between two antagonistic Mediterranean powers. The truce has also largely been regarded as validated by both sides. The Arabic version of the truce and a Catalan version are nowadays preserved in the Archives of the Crown of Aragon (Barcelona). Both documents have also been considered as the originals that were prepared as a result of the 692/1293 negotiations. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that this truce (as well as the 689/1290 truce that served as a model for it) was never ratified on the Aragonese side and that the two documents (the Arabic and the Catalan versions) are not the originals that were delivered to the Catalan envoys that year. The demonstration will be largely based on a diplomatic analysis and will be corroborated by contemporary documents preserved in Barcelona and Mamluk sources.