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Sixteenth Century Morisco Devotional Manuscripts in Their Mediterranean Contexts

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Sixteenth Century Morisco Devotional Manuscripts in Their Mediterranean Contexts Sixteenth Century Morisco Devotional Manuscripts in their Mediterranean Contexts Amina Nawaz, St. John's College September 2014 Supervised by Dr. Amira Bennison This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Sixteenth Century Morisco Devotional Manuscripts in their Mediterranean Contexts By: Amina Nawaz Summary This thesis examines the religiosities of sixteenth century Morisco communities. By exploring the language, composition and contents of their devotional manuscripts, I demonstrate an alternative perspective from the current historiography. While the predominant narrative tends to focus upon the Moriscos as 'crypto-Muslims' and 'minorities', this was not the case for all Moriscos. The manuscripts examined here demonstrate the presence of communities less interested in dissimulation and far more focused on 'normative' Islamic beliefs and practices. Also, these works reveal religious interests, shared not only by the Moriscos, but also other confessional communities in the wider early modern Mediterranean. I argue that the Moriscos should be understood as complex and dynamic communities and participants in the spaces in which they lived. The thesis begins with an historical overview of Morisco communities in sixteenth century Spain. I demonstrate that far from being on the peripheries of their world(s), Morisco communities were at the centre of emerging and conflicting notions of 'Spanishness' during this period. Similarly, the language and composition of their written works evidence Morisco participation in broader social and intellectual trends. The thesis next turns to a sample of their extant sixteenth century devotional manuscripts in order to explore what the contents reveal about the textual interests of these communities. Rather than finding dissimulation and hybridity at the forefront of these works we instead see the largest textual emphasis upon Islamic beliefs and practices in their 'normative' conditions. The thesis then explores the way in which these contents are presented and demonstrates that the overarching textual focus of these works concerns the sacralisation of time with a programme of structured devotion. Once again, in exhibiting this textual interest, these Moriscos show themselves to be vibrant contributors to a Mediterranean-wide shared interest in structured devotions and sacred time. While many scholars continue to propose that the Moriscos were a 'tragic minority', these works attest to the presence of other more 'positive' narratives. In the numerous ways in which the manuscripts facilitate the sacralisation of daily life they normalise the 'everyday' rather than the 'crisis'. The thesis concludes by discussing the implications of this more complex understanding of Morisco communities in Mediterranean studies and Islamic studies more generally. This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text. 1 This dissertation does not exceed the word limit set by the Degree Committee of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge 2 Acknowledgements This work would never have been possible without the help and support of so many people. I am grateful to the Cambridge Overseas Trusts and St. John's College for their generous funding during my time as a student and to my tutor at St. John's, Dr. Mattias Dörrzapf who not only eased any financial worries during the PhD but also gave an even more precious gift, in the unceasing positive encouragement he offered whenever we met. To his secretary, Denise Fear, who passed away before the end of this project, I hope that I may follow her example of always offering a smile to whoever enters my door. St. John's was home to one of the great scholars of our age, Sir Jack Goody, whose intellectual output was only matched by his kindness to students. He passed away in July 2015, before I could thank him one last time. Dr. Vincent Barletta, was the first person to introduce me to the wondrous world of the Moriscos and I am so thankful to him for setting me on this path and guiding my early steps. It was around this same time that Professor Fred Anderson and Professor James Jankowsi also played a huge role in deepening my love for history. I am so grateful for their wisdom and encouragement and hope I may be as wonderful an advisor and friend to someone, as they have been to me. I can say without any doubt that my PhD would have been a wholly different entity had it not been for the steering and guidance of my supervisor, Dr. Amira Bennison. I am very much indebted to her wisdom, patience and integrity both as a scholar and as a friend, and am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have worked with her and benefit from her insightful knowledge of the 'field', in academia and more importantly, in life. I am indebted to both of my PhD examiners Professor David Abulafia and Professor Gerard Wiegers for their feedback and comments on my submitted dissertation and for making the viva such a fruitful discussion. That the same two people who first inspired my studies of the Mediterranean and Morisco communities respectively, are the ones to have assessed my own contribution to these fields, is indeed a most cherished honour. I am also very grateful to Professor James Montgomery and Dr. Elizabeth Drayson for their helpful comments on my first year PhD report which shaped my thinking about the Moriscos in significant ways. Other guides along the way included Dr. Mercedes García- Arenal who first introduced me to the works of Morisco Aḥmad B. Qāsim al-Hajarī, the librarians at the Escuela de Estudios Árabes in Granada, particularly Miriam Font Ugalde 3 and Sidi Yusuf Idris, for their help with the library and many other sundries, Munira Mendonça in Granada for being a wonderful landlady and true friend, Aziza Spiker in Cambridge for being an ocean of tranquility and for her careful proofreading of my early drafts and Professor Geoffrey Khan who perhaps gave me the most important advice about manuscripts I ever received: “the page is itself, a fact”. I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to the people in the Cambridge community who made my time there so rich and full of meaning. To the Winters, who are the heart and soul of a community much wider than they will ever know, no thanks will be enough for the many blessings which their friendship has given and for their tireless khidma to so many worthy causes. I am similarly thankful to the Keelers, the other pillars of Cambridge, whose friendship has been the source of so much intellectual and spiritual nourishment. To my dear friend, mentor and abla, Dr. Lejla Demiri, words cannot convey the depth of my gratitude for her friendship, love and care, both in Cambridge and after. To Dr. Sohaira Siddiqui, I am especially thankful, for her true kinship and for her endless patience with my questions about Islamic law. While I can never adequately thank all the friends along the way, I am particularly indebted to Annis and Saba Araim, Ariana Patey, Ausaf Farooqi and Mohini Ver, Aziz Brown and Karima Sbitri, Dinushka Desilva, Isam Faik and Sarah Elgezzar, Mohsin Badat and Nora Outaleb, Neighbours for Life© Muhammad Irfan and Sharmeen Lodhi, Phoebe Luckyn-Malone, Rana Chawla, Rizwan Rahman, Samir Mahmooud, Sarah Ludin, Shahid Hanif and Aiysha Malik and last but certainly not least, Sughra Ahmed. Perhaps those to whom I owe the largest debt are my family. I am immensely grateful to my in-laws, the Zamans, who have been a source of overflowing love and support throughout the PhD and through the challenges we have faced together. My father in law, Muhammad Sher Zaman, who left us before the end of this project, is among those treasured people to whom I did not have a chance to express my thanks, for his tender smile and words of encouragement. Being a part of this family has been a great blessing and I am grateful, everyday, for this gift. My sister Ayesha painstakingly walked me through the last six months of writing, patiently reading drafts, offering critical and valuable feedback and coaching me to the finish line; she was my hero long before she saved my PhD. Fatima, my “twin”, has been my comfort and trusted confidante throughout everything; She will always be the most cherished visitor during my time in Cambridge and wherever I live. To their husbands, Dawud and Fahad, my dear brothers in law, who cheered me all the way, I am grateful for 4 the treasure of their friendship. I am also especially thankful to my nieces, bug and bee, both born during the PhD, who fill our lives with endless glee! If this PhD is anyone's it is my parents, the very people to whom 'expressions of gratitude' will always be paltry offerings of what I really feel. How much Ayesha, Fatima and I owe to them and to their forbearers, to my grandparents and great grandparents, who believed that education frees a soul from worldly bondage and took pains to see their children seek knowledge, if not as far as China, then certainly as far as San Francisco. For my parents, two exemplary models of excellence and do-gooders to the stars, “What can be the reward for good, except good”? The other person to whom this PhD belongs is my husband Mujadad Zaman. He is perhaps the only person in the world to know the daily pain and pleasure that accompanied the writing of this PhD, and I am always going to be indebted to his patience, care, forbearance and encouragement. He is many things; Gentleman, scholar, the best companion and friend, but most of all, he is my Champion.
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