• Aljamiado retellings of the Hebrew Bible

    Author(s):
    David A. Wacks (see profile)
    Date:
    2022
    Group(s):
    CLCS Global Hispanophone, CLCS Medieval, CLCS Mediterranean, LLC 16th- and 17th-Century Spanish and Iberian Poetry and Prose, LLC Medieval Iberian
    Subject(s):
    Bible. Old Testament, Qurʼan stories, Spanish literature, Moriscos--Religion, Romances, Chivalry in literature
    Item Type:
    Article
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/5vtm-8c09
    Abstract:
    Stories from the Hebrew Bible were popular among the Iberian Peninsula’s Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Beginning in the 14th century, Muslims and Moriscos retold these stories in Aljamiado texts in Spanish or Aragonese written in Arabic characters. These fictionalized retellings drew on vernacular language and literary forms common to Christians and Muslims, and are a lens through which to study the cultural life of late Spanish Islam in its negotiation with the dominant Christian culture. The vernacular language and culture shared by Moriscos and Christians was a powerful medium for creating fictional Biblical storyworlds, mental models of the reality represented by the Biblical narratives. These retellings both exalt Islamic beliefs, traditions, rituals, and doctrines in the face of social marginalization and persecution, while at the same time validating their experience as speakers of Spanish and Aragonese and as participants in a vernacular culture shared between Moriscos and Christians.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Journal article    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    10 months ago
    License:
    Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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