Introduction

Fictionalizing Identity: Race and Religion in Muslim and Christian Scholarship of the Seventeenth Century Introduction “I am a steadfast sentinel,” wrote friar Francisco de Torrejoncillo, “against cruel Judaism.”1 It is this preamble that Torrejoncillo opens Centinela contra Judíos in 1674. Centinela is emblematic of Christian anti-Semitic thought. In fact, it is one of the earliest evidences of anti-Semitism in literature and marks a shift from anti-Judaism to anti-Semitism. Anti-Judaism is the opposition to Judaic beliefs and practice, usually from the perspective of a competing belief system such as Christianity and Islam. Conversely, anti-Semitism is the opposition of the Jewish people on the perception of them as a separate race.2 Anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism are not necessarily mutually exclusive. As seen by Torrejoncillo, it is possible to simultaneously oppose Jewish religious practices and classify Jews as a race. The combination of these attitudes underscores the intersection of race and religion during the seventeenth century. The blurred lines between anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism is part of the theological and intellectual evolution from the Middle Ages. Undoubtedly, Christian and Islamic opposition towards the Jews began solely based on religion. The introduction of the concept of race served to justify already existing social discriminations, not create them. Race provided a new avenue to emphasize ‘otherness’. In this sense, race exacerbated what was already an effective method of defining a social hierarchy: religion. 1 Francois Soyer, Popularizing Anti-Semitism in Early Modern Spain and its Empire: Francisco de Torrejoncillo and the Centinela contra Judíos (1674) (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 107. 2 "Medieval Anti-Judaism". In obo in Jewish Studies, https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199840731/obo-9780199840731- 0171.xml (accessed 6 Apr. 2020). Torrejoncillo argued that “nature itself attempted to redeem her reputation by offering evidence in the birth of the Jews that they were monsters of hers and deformed offspring of her perfection not only for their past deed, but also in the propagation of their descendants.”3 In this text, Torrejoncillo is utilizing both anti-Judaism (nature here is presumably understood as Divine intervention, marked the Jews as others) and anti-Semitism (the negative traits are inherited and unchangeable). It is clear that Torrejoncillo gives more credence to the fact that God marked the Jews as inferior than any scientific reasoning that would emerge the following century. Some forty years before Torrejoncillo published Centinela, Ahmed ibn Mohammed al- Maqqari composed what is perhaps the most comprehensive history of al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) in the early modern period. Unlike Centinela, The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain was not written for the sole purpose of defining and villainizing a race. Instead, al- Maqqari’s History was a homage to al-Andalus, a land that many saw as the pinnacle of the Islamic world. Within it, however, all al-Maqqari provides insight into the diversity of al- Andalus and how the ‘other’ was perceived. The less recognizable value of the text is the commentary on different racial, ethnic, and religious groups that inhabited and surrounded al- Andalus. From al-Maqqari’s narratives, it is evident that he and the scholars he cites are categorical; he regularly organizes groups of people based on their geographical origins and links that to overall quality. He describes the Galicians, an ethnic group from Northwestern Iberia, as prized slaves, implies that African Berbers are inferior to Arab-Andalusians, and suggests that Jews are intellectually deficient when compared to Muslims. Al-Maqqari is not as blatant in his process of ‘othering’ as Torrejoncillo, but he ultimately accomplishes the same result. Through 3 Soyer, Popularizing Anti-Semitism, 237. al-Maqqari, a world emerges in which geographical origins, color, and religion become intimately tied to the institution of slavery and the social hierarchy of al-Andalus. Both Torrejoncillo and al-Maqqari produced texts that show the implementation of ancient and medieval proto-racial thinking and the advent of a new racialized paradigm that defined the seventeenth century. They reveal the intersection of race, religion, and color that was influenced by previous centuries and eventually cumulated into modern concepts of race. These two scholars also encourage a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences of racial theories in the Christian and Islamic worlds. Comparing the scholarship of Torrejoncillo and al- Maqqari is relevant as it produces the opportunity to study how racial theories deviated as a result of religion and the seventeenth century socio-political climate. Furthermore, a comparative analysis between the two reveals that race is an evolving concept. There are benefits in studying the concept of race throughout not only time, but between cultures. Beyond the changes over time, the continuities across time and between cultures are among the most important aspects of studying race as it has the most relevance to modernity. The intellectual foundations of both al- Maqqari and Torrejoncillo extend to the Middle Ages and Antiquity. Likewise, the foundations for modern racial thinking extend to the early modern period during which al-Maqqari and Torrejoncillo wrote. It is these intellectual links that demonstrates that race was not spontaneously formed in a vacuum without the influence of historical context and previous ideologies. There are precedents that have led to modern concepts of race that challenge the narrative that race spontaneously emerged in the eighteenth century. Race was a concept in which the nascent was the prejudicial practices of Greece and Rome, matured through the Christian and Islamic rationalization of the Middle Ages, and was sanctioned by the science of the Enlightenment. Historical Background Ahmed Ibn Mohammed al-Maqqari was a well renowned polymath from a distinguished family of scholars. It is unknown if he is the descendants of Andalusian Muslims who escaped persecution, but al-Maqqari was connected to influential figures of high prominence in both Europe and the Arab world. Born in Tlemcen, Algeria in 1577, he lived in, and traveled throughout the Ottoman Empire. He was a devout Muslim who completed multiple pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Mecca. For a period, he lived in Fez (modern day Morocco), which is strongly connected to the history of Islamic slavery and color symbolism. Chouki El Hamel asserts that the connection between slavery and color was not the direct result of Islamic beliefs, arguing that “racial prejudice as it existed at the time of the Prophet was clearly culturally constructed.”4 This is in reference to the condemnation of racial prejudice by the Prophet in many hadiths. However, the reality of practices does not always coincide with religious beliefs and proto-racial thinking in the Islamic world can be traced to perceptions of Abyssinians known for their dark coloration. To the Arab world, their color meant something inferior. It was the Islamic state as an institution, not Islam itself, that would create racialize thinking. A similar phenomenon would occur in the Christian world as well. While in Fez, al-Maqqari was appointed mufti and imam of the al Qarawiyyin Mosque. Given its proximity to the coast of Spain and its importance as a cultural center, it can be presumed that al-Maqqari learned much of the history of al-Andalus there. Afterwards he traveled east to Damascus. There he relied on the sponsorship of Ahmed Ibn Shahin Ash- 4 Chouki El Hamel, Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 63. Shahihi, “a wealthy Turk” who was “a liberal patron of literature.”5 It was Ash-Shahihi’s curiosity on the subject that encouraged al-Maqqari to write the History beginning with the Arab conquest and ending with the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609. His work is framed within a religious context. Any success in conquest and advancement in science and art is regarded as a blessing by God. Any perceived failures such as the events of Reconquista were punishment for a lack of faith and devotion to God. Despite his expertise on al-Andalus, there is no evidence of al-Maqqari ever traveling to Spain. His work, however, suggests a sense of nostalgia. This nostalgia was not for a land he knew, but for one that he imagined. To al-Maqqari and the poets he cites, al-Andalus represented the glory and height of the Islamic world. This glory was ultimately ended by the Reconquista in 1492. This notion of Spain as the forbearer of Islamic decline was perhaps felt more profoundly given the political climate of the time. Al-Maqqari was born just six years after the Battle of Lepanto, during which the Holy League – a composite of multiple Catholic states – defeated the Ottoman fleet. This brought Ottoman expansion to a halt, an event often credited as the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. The fact that the Holy League was largely financed by King Philip II of Spain is symbolic of the tenacious relationship between Spain and the Islamic world. The relationship between Christian Spain and Islamic Spain would influence the racial theories of the late Middle Ages and early modern period. A witness to the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, it is unsurprising that al-Maqqari found an audience for The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain. His work may be regarded as a literary reaction to contemporary events, which was designed to glorify the past of Islamic superiority in Spain. This 5 Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Maqqari, The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain. Translated by Pascual de Gayangos, (London: W.H. Allen and Co., 1840), xxxiv. obsession with the past is directly associated with the making of a self-fashioning identity. A shared and unifying history is an essential component in the identity of ethnic groups, religious groups, and ultimately nations.

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