- Origin
- characteristics
- Representatives and works
- Ginés Pérez de Hita
- Mateo Alemán
- History of Abencerraje and the beautiful Jarifa
- References
The Moorish novel is a literary genre that deals with the relations between Moors and Christians in Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries. This type of novel was based on real events to tell idealistic stories of how relations should be between Spaniards who were divided by their religious beliefs.
Maurofilia or Islamophilia is the admiration of everything related to Moorish culture, so this term is usually related to the Moorish novel: through these stories, whose protagonists used to be Muslims, the qualities and values of those who practiced the Islamic religion.
Ginés Pérez de Hita, author of the book whose cover appears in the image, was one of the main representatives of this genre. Source: Автор книги Хинес Перес де Ита
The chivalric character and themes related to religion and love make the Moorish novel part of what is considered the Golden Age of Spanish literature.
Origin
The Moorish story was born in the period after what is known as the Spanish Reconquest (8th to 15th centuries), in which the Spanish Catholic kings recovered the peninsular territory conquered by the Moors in the 8th century.
In the course of this Reconquest, the Inquisition was also born, through which Muslims, Jews and heretics were persecuted and tortured.
As a result of these wars and persecutions, in Granada (the last Muslim kingdom to be reconquered) there was a negative perception of the entire Moorish culture that reigned for eight centuries, causing the relations between Catholics and Muslims living in the same place to be conflictive.
At this time Muslims were forced to convert to Christianity, exile or practice their faith under the conditions established by the rulers.
Faced with this situation and with the rise of chivalric novels at that time, the Moorish novel originated as romantic and chivalric narratives set in this reality, but with fictitious Muslim characters endowed with courage and gallantry.
characteristics
-By mixing Christian and Moorish characters, the main characteristic of the Moorish novel is that its protagonists are Muslims.
-It seeks to show an ideal of what should be the peaceful coexistence between people with different religious beliefs and clean the image that was had of Muslims, describing its protagonists as good honorable and admirable people.
-Although it is idealistic in character and both its characters and its stories are fictional, it has the characteristics of a historical novel because the context of its narration is real events that occurred during the Muslim conquest and the Spanish Reconquest.
-The stories told are short, they are not usually very long since they are often found within another long novel.
-In these novels the environment or the decoration of the place where the events take place is described in great detail.
Representatives and works
Ginés Pérez de Hita
One of the main exponents of the Moorish novel is the Spanish Ginés Pérez de Hita, who directly lived through the social and military confrontations between Moors and Christians.
There are records of his life in the towns of Lorca and Murcia. Due to his trade as a shoemaker, there he related to Muslims who were experts in the area and, at the same time, had to fight against them in battles for the Moorish uprising.
His work has been studied by both historians and literary men, since it narrates conflictive situations in which he participated, to the point of giving documentary value to some of his stories and making it difficult to distinguish between reality and his imaginary.
Pérez de Hita illustrated a peaceful coexistence with equal rights for all, denoting a high esteem for Muslims and their values. His best known works are the following:
- History of the Zegríes and Abencerrajes sides. First part of the Wars of Granada, Zaragoza.
- The seventeen books of Daris of the Beautiful Trojan.
- Second part of the civil wars of Granada, Cuenca.
- Book of the population of the very noble and loyal City of Lorca.
Mateo Alemán
Mateo Alemán was a Spanish merchant and accountant who, due to his work, had the opportunity to travel through different Spanish provinces doing business inspections.
During these inspections, he was able to have contact with Moorish workers or slaves and wrote down the events narrated by them in minutes. After his retirement, he was able to finish writing and publishing novels based on the anecdotes collected during his travels and inspections.
Unlike Pérez de Hita, in his main work Historia de Ozmín y Daraja - contained in his book First Part of Guzmán de Alfarache - Alemán does not present Muslim culture as worthy of admiration and following.
However, it does propose respect for their rights by narrating the difficulties that its protagonists go through for the sole fact of being Muslims.
History of Abencerraje and the beautiful Jarifa
Although its author is unknown, this work is the highest representation of the Moorish novel, in addition to being considered the first known in this style, in chronological terms.
Its content is considered influence for Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Pérez de Hita and various authors from Spain and Europe.
It tells the love story between Abindarráez and Jarifa. Abindarráez is a Moor who falls prisoner and tells his Christian captor (Don Rodrigo de Narváez) the story of his love for Jarifa and how he had promised to marry her and flee.
Narváez, moved by Abindarráez's pain, frees him to go to meet Jarifa with the promise of returning to his prison after 3 days.
Abindarráez searches for Jarifa and returns with her to the prison. Seeing that Abindarráez keeps his word, Narváez releases him. The couple tries to financially reward Narváez, but he refuses.
The Abencerrajes, the family from which Abindarráez came, and Don Rodrigo de Narváez existed in real life, but there is no evidence of the existence of this love story.
This duality is one of the main characteristics of the Moorish novel and this, added to the chivalric tone and the friendship that arises between captor and prisoner of different religions, make this work one of its best references.
References
- Guerrero Salazar, S. "Spanish Literature II: centuries of gold" (nd) at the University of Malaga. Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from the University of Malaga: uma.es
- "Moorish novel: characteristics and representative works" (sf) in Life Persona. Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from Life Persona: lifepersona.com
- Martín Corrales, E. "Maurofobia / Islamophobia and Maurofilia / Islamophilia in 21st century Spain" (2004) in Fundació CIDOB. Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from CIDOB Magazine of d'Afers Internacionals, no. 66-67, p. 39-51: cidob.org
- "The Spanish Reconquest" (nd) in El Historiador. Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from El Historiador: elhistoriador.com.ar
- Carrasco Urgoiti, M. "The social background of the 16th century Moorish novel" (2010) in Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library. Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library: cervantesvirtual.com
- Carrasco Urgoiti, M. “Menéndez Pelayo before the literary maurophilia of the 16th century: comments on chapter VII of the« Origins of the novel »” (2010) in Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library. Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library: cervantesvirtual.com
- Gallardo, D. “El Renacimiento” (nd) in Google Sites. Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from Google Sites: sites.google.com
- Sanz Cabrerizo, A. "Projection of the Spanish Moorish novel (16th and 17th centuries) in the French gallant narrative (1670-1710)" (1991) at the Complutense University of Madrid. Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from the Library of the Complutense University of Madrid: webs.ucm.es
- Gil Sanjuan, J. "Ginés Pérez de Hita" (nd) in Royal Academy of History. Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from the Royal Academy of History: dbe.rah.es
- Cavillac, M. "Mateo Alemán" (nd) in Real Academia de Historia. Retrieved on March 16, 2019 from the Royal Academy of History: dbe.rah.es
- Geli, C. “The lesson of coexistence and dialogue from« El Abencerraje »” (2017) by El País. Retrieved on March 17, 2019 from El País: elpais.com