Moors and Christians. Between Identity and Renewed Heritage in Mallorca
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Moors and Christians. Between Identity and Renewed Heritage in Mallorca Maria-Àngels Roque. European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) The island of Mallorca enjoys a hybrid tradition that is the result of the settlement of diverse peoples in the Mediterranean throughout history. This tradition is clear in many elements such as one of the most popular events on the island: the Moors and Christians Festival, held every 2 August in Sant Elm, near Andratx. This festival has evolved throughout the island’s different historical eras and has been the object of several attempts at institutional ownership that, in all cases, have sought the participation of civil society. The ethnographic model proposed here enables us to understand how the diverse traditions and political interests that have dominated each historical era have been gradually combined in a small area. History, legends and topography are elements 20th century and current publications, week- that form part of the local or national memory lies from different periods such as Andraitx, of peoples, but, over time, this memory has which appeared between 1920 and 1971, and been redesigned and interpreted differently the Catalan-language magazine N’Alí, from according to events. Under what conditions are 1986. I have also used local informants, some the objects and narrative practices constructed of whom hold political positions. as current cultural property? For anthropology scholars, a dynamic vision helps us to read, lis- ten to and interpret the factors that stimulate The Historical Context these practices. In this article we will see how stories are From the early 10th century, Mallorca was constructed based on historical events and pre- under Muslim rule, specifically independent eminence is given to one situation or another, Berber kinglets. With the conquest of King to one place or another. The stories serve to Jaume I of Aragon in 1229, a new Christian introduce, in one moment, hagiographical or order was established on the island. However, critical visions and to vindicate, in another, the geostrategic importance of the area in the controversial figures that form part of the Mediterranean and its closeness to Algiers hybrid tradition of the island of Mallorca. To meant, particularly in terms of the control carry out this study I have consulted the diverse of the Ottoman Empire of North Africa, contributions of local history, compiled in early that Turkish-Berber attacks increased. The IEmed27.indd 47 13/03/2019 12:18:26 48 Moors and Christians. Between Identity and Renewed Heritage in Mallorca Maria-Àngels Roque memory of these events is not only preserved swimming race from the port of Sant Elm to in the defence towers on the coast but also in El Pantaleu. Alí’s mother, who is a clairvoyant, folklore. Piracy did not end in Mallorca until had dreamt that a Christian king would come the conquest of Algiers by France in the second and rule the island. half of the 19th century. But with French colo- The publication of a study based on another nisation, trade with the Balearic Islands and medieval manuscript provided a counterpoint the peninsula, which had been carried out for to the Llibre dels feits. The Algerian professor centuries, sometimes with specific agreements Muhammad Ben Mamar found a 13th century even during the periods of privateer attacks, manuscript, the first Arab account of the con- was restricted. quest of Mallorca, the chronicle of Ibn Amira It is difficult to identify when the Moors and Al-Mahzumi, which was believed to have been Christians Festival began on the Balearic Is- lost and of which only a few quotations survive. lands, but apart from the theatre performances, The find was made in 2001, when Professor Ben which are older, it seems that the mass events Mamar was consulting a CD of microfilmed in open spaces as we know them today emerged documents in a library in Tindfuf, in Algerian in the 19th century and can be linked to the Sahara. Ibn Amira, the Almohad chronicler of romantic movement of the Catalan Renaixença the conquest of Mallorca, is an al-Andalusian (J. Massanet Vives, 2003: 466). The festivals, born in Alzira in 1184, who died in exile, per- in the towns where they are held today, com- haps in Tunis, between 1251 and 1259. He held memorate real battles such as Soller or Pollensa, high offices in the Almohad administration in the latter when Turkish privateers commanded Xàtiva, Seville, Murcia, Dénia, Valencia and by Dragut attacked in 1550. Morocco and at the time of the Christian siege was in Madina Mayurca. It is difficult to identify when the Moors Professor Muhamad Ben Mamar offered and Christians Festival began on the the manuscript copy to his Mallorcan Arabist Balearic Islands, but apart from the theatre colleagues who, of course, were enthusiastic performances, which are older, it seems about the find. With the help of the Arabist that the mass events in open spaces as we Nicolau Roser, the historian and archaeologist know them today emerged in the 19th Guillem Rosselló-Bordoy managed to translate century and can be linked to the romantic Kitab Ra’ih Mayurca, the Arab chronicle of the movement of the Catalan Renaixença conquest of Mallorca, finally published with the sponsorship of the Government of the This study will focus on Andratx, a town Balearic Islands on the 800th anniversary of located at the end of the north-eastern coast the birth of King Jaume I the Conqueror. The of Mallorca, the first setting of the Christian first edition appeared in November 2008 and at landing on the islet of El Pantaleu in 1129. Christmas it became a bestseller on the island. The Llibre dels Feits of King Jaume the Con- This story is not about Alí de la Palomera but queror features the character Alí, the moor of instead many others, and wali Abu Yaiha comes La Palomera – Sant Elm, in the municipal off quite badly. area of Andratx –, who tells the monarch After the arrival of the Almohads in the where the soldiers of wali Abu Yaiha, Almo- Iberian Peninsula and the consequent sudden had governor of Madina Mayurca, are. In the removal of the Almoravids, Mayurca spent over legend, Alí is a youth who arrives by swim- twenty years ruled by the Almoravid family ming – one of the festival events now is the Banu Ganiya. Consequently, these Mallorcans IEmed27.indd 48 13/03/2019 12:18:26 Quaderns de la Mediterrània 27, 2018: 47-60 49 Moors and Christians performance in Sant Elm, Andratx (Lorenzo Gutiérrez). attacked both Christian and Muslim ships, as The Religious Appropriation of they knew that both wanted to throw them Narration into the sea. After the Almohad conquest of the island, Ibn Amira explains the poor relations in The celebration of Moors and Christians on the Mallorca between Almohads and Almoravids, beach of Sant Elm, an area that belongs to the which produced chaos and unease exploited town of Andratx, is very recent, as it dates to by the Lord of Aragon and Barcelona, as Ibn 1996. However, in Andratx there was a festival Amira calls him, to conquer the island and that goes back to the 1950s. This festival com- commit many massacres. memorated the attack of the Turkish-Berber Kitab Ra’ih Mayurca, a rather erudite work, privateers on 2 August 1578. The celebration has been commented on by the media and has included a mass and a sermon on the battle, been used to encourage Mallorcans to more ef- a parade of carriages with people dressed in fectively integrate historical cultural diversity traditional costumes, and theatrical events. and thereby show a certain recognition of inter- The sermon given every year in the church culturalism, at a time when religious festivals comes from the version of the Historia de la are losing their sense of identity. Baronía de los señores Obispos de Barcelona y IEmed27.indd 49 13/03/2019 12:18:26 50 Moors and Christians. Between Identity and Renewed Heritage in Mallorca Maria-Àngels Roque Mallorca by Juan Bautista Ensenyat, who was angels that courted their celestial Queen and parish priest in S’Arracó, published in 1919. Lady” (Ensenyat, 1919: 474). Under the epigraph “Invasion of Moors “Although the festival with which all the in Andratx on 2 August 1578” (Juan Bau- earlier generations had celebrated the memory tista Ensenyat, 1919: 472), Ensenyat writes: of the triumph achieved by their ancestors on “Among the several raids and invasions by 2 August 1578 has been suspended (we suppose Turks and Moors in the village of Andraxt temporarily), we hold the hope that it will be that we have had heard about and recorded, held again with even greater splendour and that of 2 August 1578 deserves special at- solemnity than before” (Ensenyat, 1919: 475). tention; not because it is the most important and transcendental, but because it is the For the children of the village it was the only one the village remembers, thanks to day they played for the first time their the solicitude with which the Church from new clay whistles (siurells), in many year to year has reminded the succeeding different forms, and all without exception generations about it until today and to the went with their particular and esteemed care in conserving the monuments that still instrument forming two lines by the first pay witness to it […]. Therefore, in Andratx flags, enacting the happiness of the angels and in Soller or Pollensa they established a that courted their celestial Queen and religious civic festival on the same day of the Lady anniversary of one of its victories, holding the High Mass, attended by a large crowd and “There is no document that authentically presided by the Civil Corporation and other bears the date when the village started to cel- authorities and ostentatiously adorning the ebrate the festival of 2 August dedicated to Our church.