Read Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain Online
Authors: Matthew Carr
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BOOK: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain
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Many similar gatherings took place in sixteenth-century Spain. In some cases, Moriscos attended secret meetings with their friends and neighbors, where they read from the Koran or heard sermons from
alfaquis
and itinerant Muslim preachers. At other times, Islamic worship was carried out within the home under the supervision of the male head of the family. Some of the most tenacious guardians of Islamic tradition were women, who were frequently cited by clerics and ecclesiastics for their “obstinate” resistance to Catholicism. The records of the Inquisition contain numerous examples of such obstinacy, such as Isabel de Madrid, who was arrested because she responded to Christian taunts of “Moorish bitch” by declaring “I am a Moor, my father and mother were Moors and died as Moors, I am also a Mooress and I will die as a Moor.”
3
The Morisca María la Monja told the Inquisition of Cuenca that “not for all the world would she cease saying that she had been a Moor, so great a source of pride was it for her.”
alfaquis
and itinerant Muslim preachers. At other times, Islamic worship was carried out within the home under the supervision of the male head of the family. Some of the most tenacious guardians of Islamic tradition were women, who were frequently cited by clerics and ecclesiastics for their “obstinate” resistance to Catholicism. The records of the Inquisition contain numerous examples of such obstinacy, such as Isabel de Madrid, who was arrested because she responded to Christian taunts of “Moorish bitch” by declaring “I am a Moor, my father and mother were Moors and died as Moors, I am also a Mooress and I will die as a Moor.”
3
The Morisca María la Monja told the Inquisition of Cuenca that “not for all the world would she cease saying that she had been a Moor, so great a source of pride was it for her.”
Morisco defiance was not always so overt. For the most part, Moriscos paid lip service to Catholicism in public, while privately affirming their own Muslim identities. One way of doing this was to neutralize Christian sacraments. After baptizing their children in churches, some Morisco families would take their children home and wash off the baptismal chrism with hot water or bread crumbs. They would then perform the traditional
fada
name-giving ceremony and give the infant a Muslim name that would be used privately. Other Moriscos continued to circumcize their male children and invite their friends and relatives to attend the traditional festivities that followed.
fada
name-giving ceremony and give the infant a Muslim name that would be used privately. Other Moriscos continued to circumcize their male children and invite their friends and relatives to attend the traditional festivities that followed.
The same tactics were often applied to marriage. In some cases, Moriscos spurned Christian weddings and married according to their own ceremonies. The ecclesiastical authorities often took pains to suppress these practices and force Moriscos to marry in the Christian fashion, but many families followed these obligatory church weddings with their own Muslim nuptials, preferably on the same day. The most contentious and hard-fought battles were often waged over the dead. The Church was insistent that dying Moriscos should receive extreme unction and make their last confessions, and Morisco families who failed to inform their local priest that their children or relatives were dying or seriously ill could be fined and punished. Moriscos were equally determined to ensure that their loved ones “died as Moors” so that their souls would enter paradise, and they often pretended that their relatives had died suddenly without giving them time to call the priest.
This struggle continued even after death. Islamic burial practices, such as washing the corpse in scented water or dressing it in clean clothes, were strictly forbidden, and Morisco burials sometimes had to be delayed until priests had inspected the corpse to confirm that their fingernails and toenails had not been cut and that they had been laid on their backs with their hands crossed on their chests in the Christian manner. If Moriscos were unable to bury their dead in Muslim cemeteries, bereaved families would sometimes lay the corpse on a bed of stones, blessed whenever possible by their
alfaquis
, so that the body would not touch the earth. If the local gravedigger was a Morisco, relatives would try to ensure that the deceased was buried in virgin soil by asking for the grave to be dug deeper than usual. There were also cases in which Moriscos dug up bodies that had been buried in Christian graveyards in order to give them a proper Islamic burial in virgin soil. The same process worked in reverse, and there were cases in which Moriscos were prosecuted by the Inquisition after suspicious officials had ordered the bodies of their relatives to be dug up, sometimes years later, and found them lying on their sides.
alfaquis
, so that the body would not touch the earth. If the local gravedigger was a Morisco, relatives would try to ensure that the deceased was buried in virgin soil by asking for the grave to be dug deeper than usual. There were also cases in which Moriscos dug up bodies that had been buried in Christian graveyards in order to give them a proper Islamic burial in virgin soil. The same process worked in reverse, and there were cases in which Moriscos were prosecuted by the Inquisition after suspicious officials had ordered the bodies of their relatives to be dug up, sometimes years later, and found them lying on their sides.
Dissimulation was not easy to maintain in a society where Moriscos might find themselves denounced to the Inquisition for yawning in church, failing to show the correct body posture, or wearing clean linen on Fridays. Public bathing was generally prohibited, but even Moriscos who washed in their own homes could find themselves charged with performing Islamic ritual ablutions. In the city of Cuenca, the Morisca María de Mendoza was arrested because a witness saw her collect a pitcher of water from an orchard and followed her into her house, where, the Inquisition was told, she had been observed “as stark naked as her mother had been the day she was born, and that she was barefoot even though it was summertime, in June or July, and that she was kneeling down and washing her hair.”
4
4
To the Inquisition tribunal, such behavior was evidence of the all-body Islamic religious ablution known as the
guadoc
. In Murcia in the 1550s, a Morisco named Juan de Spuche was brought before the corrupt inquisitor Cristóbal de Salazar after someone had seen him washing his hands and face in a fountain after chopping wood. Subjected to “the torment,” the unfortunate Morisco confessed to Mohammedanism and denounced a number of his neighbors, only to revoke his confession immediately afterward. Salazar then had him tortured a second time, till his hands were so badly damaged that he was unable to dress himself and he died in prison shortly afterward.
guadoc
. In Murcia in the 1550s, a Morisco named Juan de Spuche was brought before the corrupt inquisitor Cristóbal de Salazar after someone had seen him washing his hands and face in a fountain after chopping wood. Subjected to “the torment,” the unfortunate Morisco confessed to Mohammedanism and denounced a number of his neighbors, only to revoke his confession immediately afterward. Salazar then had him tortured a second time, till his hands were so badly damaged that he was unable to dress himself and he died in prison shortly afterward.
Was de Spuche merely cleaning himself after work, or was he washing his hands and face in preparation for prayer? The records of the Inquisition are filled with similar incidents in which seemingly innocuous behavior was construed as evidence of the “sect of Muhammad.” Moriscos could be denounced because they rejected an invitation to supper during Ramadan or because they had no religious images or crucifixes in their homes. Juan de Flores, a Morisco from Toledo, was denounced to the Inquisition because “ordinarily he didn’t sit in a chair or eat at table.” In some parts of Spain, Christian officials routinely visited Morisco homes at mealtimes to check that they were not eating their food on the ground.
Such vigilance was not the same everywhere. On the more remote estates of rural Valencia and Aragon, Moriscos could dispense with clandestinity for much of the time, secure in the protection of their Christian lords. Where they lived in closer proximity to Christians, however, a single stray remark or word out of place could bring disaster. The victims of an auto-da-fé in Granada in 1571 included Ramiro de Placencia, a Morisco from Burgos, who was seen yawning and murmuring “May Muhammad close my eyes,” and a Morisca woman named Mayor García, who asked, “How could a married woman remain a virgin after giving birth?” during a discussion about the Virgin Mary. Luisa Hernández, a Morisca in the town of Tinajas, in Cuenca, was brought before the Inquisition because she had lost her temper and shouted, “A Moor is worth more than a Christian” on hearing a Morisco child insulted in the street. Francisco de Córdoba was denounced by his Christian neighbors because he kept refusing invitations to lunch during Ramadan. The Morisco salesman Jorge de Peralta was arrested because he muttered the name “Muhammed” in exasperation after someone had refused to buy his wares.
Invited for lunch by her Christian neighbor, the Morisca Isabella Garda was told afterward that her meal included pork. She immediately stuck her fingers down her throat and vomited—and was denounced to the Inquisition as a result. We cannot know whether her revulsion was an instinctive physical reaction to a religious/cultural taboo or whether it was motivated by concern for the salvation of her soul if she ate proscribed food. But there must have been many Moriscos who found themselves in a similar predicament to that of the elderly tinker charged by the Inquisition in 1528 with abstaining from wine and pork and “using certain ablutions,” who protested that he was already forty-five years old at the time of his conversion and had never been able to acquire a taste for pork.
If some Moriscos were unable or unwilling to break the habits of a lifetime, others consciously chose to “live as Moors.” Some Moriscos did so because they were terrified of eternal damnation, like Juan Carazón, a Morisco from Cuenca who confessed to having performed ritual ablutions in order to save himself from the “fires of Chiana, which is hell.” Others were persuaded by their
alfaquis
, by relatives, or peer-group pressure to remain steadfast in their faith. Some clung to their Islamic past as a defiant response to persecution. Whatever their motivation, many Moriscos continued to live this psychologically demanding and dangerous existence throughout their lives and succeeded in passing on these same dual identities to their children and grandchildren.
alfaquis
, by relatives, or peer-group pressure to remain steadfast in their faith. Some clung to their Islamic past as a defiant response to persecution. Whatever their motivation, many Moriscos continued to live this psychologically demanding and dangerous existence throughout their lives and succeeded in passing on these same dual identities to their children and grandchildren.
This continuity is even more remarkable considering the isolation of so many Morisco communities from the wider Islamic world. Without mosques or religious institutions, with their books burned or prohibited and their religious leaders driven into clandestinity, many Moriscos faced the dilemma described by the Morisca Ana de Padilla, who told the Inquisition that “she did not perform Moorish ceremonies because she did not know them but she had the will to perform them if she knew them.” Some Moriscos tried to glean these banned rituals and beliefs by listening carefully to the detailed lists of forbidden Islamic practices contained in Inquisitorial edicts. Others taught each other what they knew or studied under
alfaquis
and itinerant preachers. Many Moriscos retained contact with their Islamic past through the underground literature known as
aljamiado
, from the word
aljama
(community). These writings consisted of handwritten texts, generally in vernacular Castilian, Catalan, or Portuguese but using Arabic characters, for reasons which have never been made clear. Some scholars contend that Arabic was used in order to conceal their contents, others argue that the use of Arabic was a deliberate affirmation of cultural resistance, while another school of thought depicts these writings as another example of the cultural hybridization that was already intrinsic to al-Andalus.
alfaquis
and itinerant preachers. Many Moriscos retained contact with their Islamic past through the underground literature known as
aljamiado
, from the word
aljama
(community). These writings consisted of handwritten texts, generally in vernacular Castilian, Catalan, or Portuguese but using Arabic characters, for reasons which have never been made clear. Some scholars contend that Arabic was used in order to conceal their contents, others argue that the use of Arabic was a deliberate affirmation of cultural resistance, while another school of thought depicts these writings as another example of the cultural hybridization that was already intrinsic to al-Andalus.
The idea that Arabic was a form of concealment does not seem plausible, since the Inquisition regarded all
aljamiado
manuscripts as evidence of the “sect of Muhammad” regardless of their content, and anyone caught in possession of them was liable to arrest and punishment. Such warnings were undoubtedly seen by some of those who wrote and read them as a form of resistance. In the course of the sixteenth century, thousands of
aljamiado
texts were confiscated and burned, particularly in Aragon, where Arabic was not widely spoken. These manuscripts were discovered in wall cavities, under floors and rugs, and even, in one case, among weapons hidden in an Aragonese cave. Nevertheless, they were not always so difficult to find, if Cervantes is to be believed. In the early part of
Don Quixote
, Cervantes interrupts his protagonist’s battle with a giant to inform the reader that the rest of the novel is a co-authored “translation” from an Arabic manuscript written by “the Arabian and Manchegan author” Cide Hamate Benengeli. In Cervantes’ authorial conceit, this manuscript is discovered by chance in a Toledo market, when he stumbles on a boy selling “parchment books,” including one “with characters which I recognized as Arabic.” Excited by this discovery, Cervantes finds a “Spanish-speaking Moor” who translates what most of his readers would certainly have recognized as a proscribed
aljamiado
manuscript in order to continue his narrative of Don Quixote’s adventures.
5
aljamiado
manuscripts as evidence of the “sect of Muhammad” regardless of their content, and anyone caught in possession of them was liable to arrest and punishment. Such warnings were undoubtedly seen by some of those who wrote and read them as a form of resistance. In the course of the sixteenth century, thousands of
aljamiado
texts were confiscated and burned, particularly in Aragon, where Arabic was not widely spoken. These manuscripts were discovered in wall cavities, under floors and rugs, and even, in one case, among weapons hidden in an Aragonese cave. Nevertheless, they were not always so difficult to find, if Cervantes is to be believed. In the early part of
Don Quixote
, Cervantes interrupts his protagonist’s battle with a giant to inform the reader that the rest of the novel is a co-authored “translation” from an Arabic manuscript written by “the Arabian and Manchegan author” Cide Hamate Benengeli. In Cervantes’ authorial conceit, this manuscript is discovered by chance in a Toledo market, when he stumbles on a boy selling “parchment books,” including one “with characters which I recognized as Arabic.” Excited by this discovery, Cervantes finds a “Spanish-speaking Moor” who translates what most of his readers would certainly have recognized as a proscribed
aljamiado
manuscript in order to continue his narrative of Don Quixote’s adventures.
5
So effective was the Inquisitorial suppression of
aljamiado
that its existence was largely forgotten until the nineteenth century, when a number of these manuscripts were discovered by chance during building works. In one incident in Aragon that is redolent with irony, a priest saved one of these books for posterity when he stopped a group of local boys from tearing its pages and throwing them into a bonfire. When
aljamiado
manuscripts were first translated by the Spanish Arabist Pascual Gayangos and other scholars in the nineteenth century, some Spanish intellectuals expressed the hope that they might constitute a lost literary Indies filled with undiscovered literary masterpieces. So far, these expectations have yet to be realized.
6
Though there were some Morisco poets who wrote in
aljamiado
, the primary concern of these writings was cultural and religious survival rather than aesthetic expression. Most of the texts that have been uncovered so far consist of anonymous anthologies and compilations from other sources, whose main objective appears to have been the preservation of a religious and cultural world that was in danger of extinction. Their contents range from extracts from the Koran and Koranic commentaries, writings on Islamic jurisprudence, and folkloric accounts of the life of Muhammad to collections of medicinal cures, spells, and magical charms, such as
The Book of Marvelous Sayings
, or miscellaneous almanacs, such as
The Book of Divination
.
7
aljamiado
that its existence was largely forgotten until the nineteenth century, when a number of these manuscripts were discovered by chance during building works. In one incident in Aragon that is redolent with irony, a priest saved one of these books for posterity when he stopped a group of local boys from tearing its pages and throwing them into a bonfire. When
aljamiado
manuscripts were first translated by the Spanish Arabist Pascual Gayangos and other scholars in the nineteenth century, some Spanish intellectuals expressed the hope that they might constitute a lost literary Indies filled with undiscovered literary masterpieces. So far, these expectations have yet to be realized.
6
Though there were some Morisco poets who wrote in
aljamiado
, the primary concern of these writings was cultural and religious survival rather than aesthetic expression. Most of the texts that have been uncovered so far consist of anonymous anthologies and compilations from other sources, whose main objective appears to have been the preservation of a religious and cultural world that was in danger of extinction. Their contents range from extracts from the Koran and Koranic commentaries, writings on Islamic jurisprudence, and folkloric accounts of the life of Muhammad to collections of medicinal cures, spells, and magical charms, such as
The Book of Marvelous Sayings
, or miscellaneous almanacs, such as
The Book of Divination
.
7
Some texts also contain accounts of journeys and travels, anti-Christian polemics, and legends and epics from early Islamic history. Many of them feature legendary Muslim heroes invested with superhuman powers who triumph over human and demonic enemies, such as Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, and the seventh-century Muslim general Khalid Ibn al-Walid. One of the most popular
aljamiado
texts was the tale of Carcayona the Handless Maiden, who is converted to Islam by a golden dove and has her hands cut off by her pagan father. Driven from her home because of her beliefs, Carcayona lives in a cave, where she is tended and cared for by wild animals until the king of Antioch falls in love with her and makes her his wife. When a jealous clique at the king’s court drives her into the wilderness once again, she is saved by her animal friends, and her hands are miraculously restored, as a reward for her faith and purity, before her husband finally rescues her and restores her to the throne.
8
aljamiado
texts was the tale of Carcayona the Handless Maiden, who is converted to Islam by a golden dove and has her hands cut off by her pagan father. Driven from her home because of her beliefs, Carcayona lives in a cave, where she is tended and cared for by wild animals until the king of Antioch falls in love with her and makes her his wife. When a jealous clique at the king’s court drives her into the wilderness once again, she is saved by her animal friends, and her hands are miraculously restored, as a reward for her faith and purity, before her husband finally rescues her and restores her to the throne.
8
BOOK: Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain
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