The Afterlife of al-Andalus

Christina Civantos

Description

Around the globe, concerns about interfaith relations have led to efforts to find earlier models in Muslim Iberia (al-Andalus). This book examines how Muslim Iberia operates as an icon or symbol of identity in twentieth and twenty-first century narrative, drama, television, and film from the Arab world, Spain, and Argentina. Christina Civantos demonstrates how cultural agents in the present ascribe importance to the past and how dominant accounts of this importance are contested. Civantos's analysis reveals that, alongside established narratives that use al-Andalus to create exclusionary, imperial identities, there are alternate discourses about the legacy of al-Andalus that rewrite the traditional narratives. In the process, these discourses critique their imperial and gendered dimensions and pursue intercultural translation.
Preface and Acknowledgments
Notes on Transliteration, Translation, and Terminology

Introduction: Shared Legacies and Connected Histories

Part I: Cultural (Un)Translatability and Narratives of Identity In Representations of Ibn Rushd/Averroes

1. Borges and His Arab Interlocutors: Orientalism, Translation, and Epistemology

2. Ibn Rushd and Freedom of Expression: The Construction and Fragmentation of Identity Narratives

Part II: To and from al-Andalus: Migration and Coloniality

3. The Migration of a Hero: The Construction and Deconstruction of Tariq Ibn Ziyad

4. Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad XII (Boabdil) and Other Migrants

Coda: Columbus and Coloniality

Part III: Florinda, Wallada, and “Scheherazade,” Or The Women of al-Andalus and the Stories They Tell

5. Florinda and Wallada: Subjugation, Seduction, and Textual Transformation

6. Scheherazade: al-Andalus As Seduction and As Story

Conclusion: Re-Weaving Narratives of al-Andalus, Identity, and Tolerance

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Portugal
• Islam
• Caribbean
• Spain (groupe)
• History of Europe
• History of religions
• Latin America
• Spain
• Latin American

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 21 novembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438466712
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

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 or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, 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) | 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
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Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Notes on Translations, Transliterations, and Terminology
Introduction: Shared Legacies and Connected Histories
Part I: Cultural (Un)translatability and Narratives of Identity in Representations of Ibn Rushd/Averroes
Chapter 1 Borges and His Arab Interlocutors: Orientalism, Translation, and Epistemology
Chapter 2 Ibn Rushd and Freedom of Expression: The Construction and Fragmentation of Identity Narratives
Part II: To and from al-Andalus: Migration and Coloniality
Chapter 3 The Migration of a Hero: The Construction and Deconstruction of Tariq ibn Ziyad
Chapter 4 Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad XII (Boabdil) and Other Migrants
Coda. Columbus and Coloniality
Part III: Florinda, Wallada, and Scheherazade, or the Women of al-Andalus and the Stories They Tell
Chapter 5 Florinda and Wallada: Subjugation, Seduction, and Textual Transformation
Chapter 6 Scheherazade: al-Andalus as Seduction and as Story
Conclusion Reweaving Narratives of al-Andalus, Identity, and Tolerance
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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 wondered 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 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 particular, this project developed from the research I did for my first book, Between Argentines and Arabs: Argentine Orientalism, Arab Immigrants, and the Writing of Identity . 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 texts regarding the afterlife of Sepharad. I thank Mohsine Elhajjami, whom I met in Fez, for his helpful comments on the novel Wallada bint al-Mustakfi fi Fas . 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 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 cours