The Afterlife of al-Andalus: Muslim Iberia in Contemporary Arab and Hispanic Narratives

380 Pages·2017·3.11 MB·English

by  Christina Civantos

THE AFTERLIFE OF
AL-ANDALUS
SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture
Jorge J. E. Gracia and Rosemary Geisdorfer Feal, editors
THE AFTERLIFE OF
AL-ANDALUS
Muslim Iberia
in Contemporary Arab and Hispanic
Narratives
CHRISTINA CIVANTOS
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system
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magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Jenn Bennett
Marketing, Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Civantos, Christina, author.
Title: The afterlife of al-Andalus : Muslim Iberia in contemporary Arab and
Hispanic narratives / Christina Civantos.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Series:
SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian thought and culture | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016049764 (print) | LCCN 2016051884 (ebook) | ISBN
9781438466699 (hardcover : alk. paper) | 9781438466705 (pbk : alk, paper)
| ISBN 9781438466712 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Spanish literature--20th century--History and criticism. |
Arabic literature--20th century--History and criticism. | Andalusia
(Spain)--In literature. | Spanish literature--Arab influences. |
Spain--Civilization--Islamic influences. | Comparative literature--Spanish
and Arabic. | Comparative literature--Arabic and Spanish.
Classification: LCC PQ6042.A4 C58 2017 (print) | LCC PQ6042.A4 (ebook) | DDC
860.9--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016049764
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments vii
Notes on Translations, Transliterations, and Terminology xi
Introduction:
Part I: Cultural (SUhna)rteradn Lselagtaacbiielist ya nadn dC oNnanrreacttievdes H oifs tIodreinetsi t y 515
in Representations of Ibn Rushd/Averroes
Chapter 1 
Borges and His Arab Interlocutors: 59
Chapter 2 
Orientalism, Translation, and Epistemology
Ibn Rushd and Freedom of Expression: 91
The Construction and Fragmentation
Part II: To ando ffr Iodme natl-iAtyn dNaalursr:a Mtivigersation and Coloniality 111
Chapter 3 
The Migration of a Hero: The Construction and 113
Chapter 4 
Deconstruction of Tariq ibn Ziyad
Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad XII (Boabdil) and 165
Other Migrants
Part I II: F lorinCdoad, aW. Caolllaudma,b aunsd a Sncdh eChoeloranziaadliet,y or the 220261
Women of al-Andalus and the Stories They Tell
Chapter 5 
Florinda and Wallada: Subjugation, Seduction, 225
Chapter 6 
and Textual Transformation
Conclusion Sc heherazade: al-Andalus as Seduction and as Story 267
Reweaving Narratives of al-Andalus, Identity, 283
and Tolerance
Notes 295
Bibliography 321
Index 347
v

Preface and Acknowledgments
During various research trips to Damascus in the late 1990s and early
2000s, for what became my first book and the seed for this second book,
,
I often accompanied friends on excursions to beat the heat at Masbah
al-Andalus or al-Andalus Swimming Pool. Although this pool, with its
modest entrance fee and equally modest gardens on the outskirts of the
city, bore little resemblance to the lush splendor of the famous gardens
and reflection pools that Spain has inherited from al-Andalus, for the
people of the neighborhood it was a much enjoyed refuge for the senses
and a place of relaxation and fun. This pool is just one small example
of how al-Andalus is part of popular discourse and everyday life in the
Arab as well as Hispanic worlds. As I worked on this book, every so often
I remembered the entrance sign to that recreation area, proclaiming
through its name the aspiration to offer a slice of al-Andalus, and I won-
dered what might have become of the adults and children who used to
swim and play there since violent conflict erupted in Syria in 2011. While
I carried out final corrections to the manuscript at the beginning of 2017,
religious tensions were escalating in North America, the Middle East,
and Europe. I hope this book can contribute in some way to resolving
these conflicts that are tied to conceptions of ethnoreligious identity as
played out in the discourses surrounding al-Andalus.
The earliest beginnings of this book can be traced far back. I grew
.
up seeing a framed photograph of my parents decked out in faux
Oriental garb in a real-life “Oriental” palace The photo was taken in
1976 during one of my father’s first trips back to Spain since leaving
,
with his family during the civil war, he was accompanied by my Cuban
mother who was visiting for the first time the Andalusia from which
.
some of her grandparents hailed. A stop in the portrait studio set
up inside Granada’s Alhambra palace was de rigueur Seeing that
photograph every day and the many questions that it raised in my
mind certainly contributed to my pursuit of this project.
More specifically, this study grew out of my particular academic
trajectory. I started my graduate training in comparative literature as a
vii
viii Preface and Acknowledgments
medievalist and then shifted to postcolonial studies. This book, then, is
a melding of my first love—medieval Iberian studies—with my passion
for understanding the world through the impact of colonialism. In
Between Argentines and Arabs: Argentine Orientalism, Arab
particular, this project developed from the research I did for my first
Immigrants, and the Writing of Identity
book,
. A subset of texts by Euro-
and Arab-Argentines invokes al-Andalus but did not completely fit
,
within the parameters of that book. As I continued to work on those
texts I decided to place them within their broader thematic context
and analyze them in relation to other works depicting or invoking
al-Andalus.
As a result of this long process, there are many people and
institutions to whom I am deeply grateful for many different types
of support. Shawkat Toorawa has been a truly extraordinary mentor
from my undergraduate days, when he first introduced me to the
literature of al-Andalus, to his generous invitation to give the 2008
lecture that became the first tangible building block of this project, to
his valuable comments on my first draft of this book. I am grateful to
James Monroe for sharing his expert knowledge of the literature and
culture of al-Andalus with me. More recently, Pedro Martínez Montávez
,
generously shared texts from his personal library and put me in touch
with Carmen Ruiz Bravo-Villasante who also provided important
texts and leads. I thank Daniel Rivera for facilitating my contact with
Martínez Montávez. I also acknowledge Gonzalo Fernández Parrilla,
who provided excellent suggestions for my nascent project. Dwight
Reynolds, George Yúdice, Alex Elinson, and Gema Pérez-Sánchez
provided important support, advice, and encouragement. While
Gema provided detailed and astute comments on my first draft of the
introduction, Ranen Omer-Sherman expertly pointed me to the key
Wallada bint
texts regarding the afterlife of Sepharad. I thank Mohsine Elhajjami,
al-Mustakfi fi Fas
whom I met in Fez, for his helpful comments on the novel
. Randa Jarrar kindly provided me with a copy of the
Arabic typescript version of Hussin’s “Yawm Bwinus Ayris,” long before
I was able to obtain the print volume in which it appears. My thanks
also go to Silvia Bermúdez, Ross Brann, Jane Connolly, miriam cooke,
Aman De Sondy, Ehab Hafez, Nebil Husayn, Nada Naami, Rachida Salama
Primov, Mazen Rabia, Khaled El-Rouayheb, Jonathan Shannon, and Mona
El-Sherif for their valuable input on different pieces of this project.
I thank Alexandre Vigo, “Té y kriptonita,” and an anonymous
Wikipedia contributor for the use of their maps of Iberia and my sister
Gloria for sharing her skills as a digital artist to remake these maps
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
in a larger format and with standard spellings. I thank Riad Ismat for
.
graciously giving me permission to quote from his unpublished play
“Columbus”
Over the years I have presented sections of different chapters at
various conferences. I thank Irene Oh for her thought-provoking
comments at the 2009 American Council for the Study of Islamic
Societies Conference. Similarly, Gema Perez-Sánchez and Hakim
Abderrezak were excellent interlocutors at our 2010 WOCMES panel
and beyond. I also thank my fellow panel members in the 2013
ACLA panel “Muslims, Jews, and Mediterranean and Middle Eastern
Diaspora Literatures,” the 2015 MESA panel “Authenticity, Memory, and
Modernity in Contemporary Moroccan Literature,” and the University
of Seville 2016 liLETRAd Congress.
The University of Miami assisted with the development and
completion of this project by granting me the 2013 Provost’s Research
Award, the 2013–14 Center for the Humanities Fellowship, and my
2014–15 sabbatical leave. Special thanks go to the Center for the
Humanities fellows who made our colloquium such an enriching
experience. I am also grateful to my department chair, Lillian Manzor,
and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of
,
Miami, Leonidas Bachas, for their support.
As I developed and finalized this project I had the good fortune to
be able to teach four courses related to it. I taught two undergraduate
courses on campus in Miami focused on this book’s texts and issues:
Arabic 310, “The Legacy of Muslim Spain” in fall 2011 and Spanish 501,
“What to Do with the Past?” in spring 2016. In the summer of 2014 I
led a study abroad program in Morocco and as part of that I taught
Arabic 310, “Morocco: A Cultural Crossroads,” which incorporated
various elements of this study. As I finalized the manuscript, I taught
a graduate course at the University of Miami on history and narrative
that drew from this study and enriched it. I thank all of my students in
these courses, particularly Sam DeFreze, Alfred Kilzi, and Ron Porcelli,
for their inspiring comments, questions, and enthusiasm.
I thank my editor, Beth Bouloukos, her assistant, Rafael Chaiken, my
production editor Jenn Bennett, and their colleagues at SUNY Press
for their interest in my project as well as their professionalism and
patience. I am especially grateful to SUNY’s two anonymous evaluators
of the manuscript who provided specific and fruitful suggestions for
revision.
Other colleagues and friends, as well as my extended family, have
provided valued support and encouragement during the book-writing