Name: Ms. Maria del Mar Rosa-Rodriguez DISSERTATION PROJECT Give a brief title of your dissertation. Simulacra and Religiosity: Muslim, Jewish and Christian Hybridity in 16th Century Spain Give a brief abstract of your dissertation. My dissertation examines Islam, Judaism and Christianity as portrayed in Aljamiado Literature, Judeo-Spanish Literature and a 1504 fatwa. These uncanny and hybrid texts exist on the borderline between the alphabet of one language and the sound of another, (e.g. Spanish written with Arabic letters). They reveal covert and subversive gestures of religious and linguistic hybridity contrary to the hegemonic definition of Imperial Spain. Based on a 4-year extensive archival research of these manuscripts in the archives in Madrid, my dissertation incorporates these marginalized texts into the Spanish Literary History and explains the religious passing that takes place when a subject lives between the simulation of Catholicism, and the dissimulation of Islam and Judaism. If there is a web page associated with your project, please provide the URL here: Broad Humanistic Significance of Project: Your proposal will be reviewed by scholars within your specific discipline and in other disciplines in the humanities and related social sciences. State the significance of your project for the humanities and related social sciences. Indicate how and why the project might be of interest to scholars in other disciplines. Please avoid discipline-specific jargon that may pose a problem for non-specialists. In a polemic 16th Century fatwa, the Mufti of Oran advised the Muslims of Spain to dissimulate Islam while simulating Catholicism. The Inquisitorial Catholic power was stronger than ever and the Jewish community of Spain was brought closer to the Muslim community in the complicity of simulating Catholicism and dissimulating their respective faiths, languages, and cultures. Simultaneously, Aljamiado Literature (a secret phenomenon in Spanish Language written with Arabic and Hebrew characters) was flourishing and escaping the eyes of the inquisitors. In this complex setting of simulations and dissimulations, of persecution and complicity, of 3 religions in struggle, religiosities in transit between Islam, Judaism and Christianity emerged. Reviewing this 16th-century world and how they resolved their issues towards the Other might help us answer our questions about today’s hegemonic intolerance. I will analyze specific and bizarre manuscripts (listed in proposal document) written in one language with the alphabet of another language. These texts portray a conception of religion that goes beyond its time and beyond the linguistic hybridity encrypted in them. All archival work has been completed and my next step is to explain the religious integration associated with this literary corpus in three chapters about: the linguistic form, the religious content, and the collaboration in which Muslims, Jews and Christians engaged to preserve these texts. This linguistic-religious-and social phenomenon of hybridity reveals an intimate conception of faith and values that crosses the borders of institutionalized dogma, and opens a possibility of real tolerance. The complexities approached in this project are original because of the rare expertise these texts require, and their relevance is not only to Spanish Literature, but also to Religion, Politics, History and to everyone that can use the 16th-Century Spanish “melting pot” to reflect upon our 21st-century globalized world. If you are planning to conduct your proposed research project in a particular location, please specify where and when you plan to do so. American Council of Learned Societies 633 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 5 María del Mar Rosa-Rodríguez Proposal Document & Timeline 1 ACLS Dissertation Fellowship 2008-09 Simulacra and Religiosity: Jewish, Muslim and Christian Hybridity in 16th Century Spain I. PROPOSED WORK In response to the worries of many crypto-Muslims living in Spain in the 16th Century, suffering persecution from the Inquisition for their practice of Islam; the Mufti of Oran writes a very revealing fatwa (legal response from an Islamic authority). He allows them to practice Catholic rituals, drink wine, eat pork and profess that Jesus was the Son of God, as long as the intention of their hearts was faithful to Islam. A lost version of this polemic fatwa arrived in my hands after many months of work in the dusty archives of Madrid. I was conducting extensive research on the linguistic hybridity of Aljamiado manuscripts, legends, and short stories (written in Spanish language with Arabic or Hebrew characters). My encounter with this uncanny fatwa triggered a stronger approach in respect to the hybridity of the documents I was studying. I noticed that the questions posed by these texts went beyond language and literature and into the realm of religious ethics. To what extent could these religious minorities dissimulate their religious rituals and keep their true faith? Should they be martyrs of their faith and die in the hands of the Inquisition or should they lie about their religion and let their children assimilate in order to save their lives? How should they relate to the other religious subjects around them? Should they be accomplice of other minorities struggling like them? How could they relate to Christians when the Institution of Christianity was persecuting them? These texts portray the struggle of faith under hegemonic intolerance where the powerful are declared righteous, and the powerless resist in complicity and in hybridity. My dissertation proposes that these 16th-century documents will help us understand the struggles and religious identities of the peoples of Spain, and furthermore, it argues that the many levels of hybridity of these texts reveal a conception of religion and ethics towards the other that do not necessarily follow the institutionalized dogmas of Islam, Judaism or Christianity. María del Mar Rosa-Rodríguez Proposal Document & Timeline 2 ACLS Dissertation Fellowship 2008-09 II. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND SOURCES The main theoretical argument of the dissertation is the development of a hybrid conception of religiosity that enables an unusual ethics toward the other and the other’s culture. This new theoretical approach is sustained by extensive archival research throughout the past five years (explained in detail in Part III). This archival research (constituted by the process of collecting, transcribing, translating and analyzing each manuscript) is what supports the theoretical framework developed throughout the three stages (form, content, context) or chapters of the dissertation. The first stage will focus on the hybrid form of the documents found. When three languages with sacred connotations (Arabic, Hebrew and Spanish) are written each, in the scripts of the other two, a chaos of representation occurs. The linguistic chaos is also religious, since these languages are referential signs of Islam, Judaism and Christianity in the context of Imperial Spain. Some examples of the documents I found are an Aljamiado Koran and a book on Islamic Law both written in Spanish Language with Arabic script (BRAH 11/9414 and BRAH 11/9396), a Torah written in Hebrew language with Spanish script (BNM Ms 5468), a Jewish Law document in Arabic Language with Hebrew Script (ACH 2-8-438), the Catholic Hail Mary Creed in Arabic Language written in Spanish Script (Alcala 58983). All transcriptions have been finished and the necessary permits to reproduce this material in my dissertation have been granted. All of these combinations between the language of one religion and the script of another religion present symbols of hybridity that will also be illustrated in the content. The second stage is focused on the religious hybridity found in the stories and legends. By closely reading the content of these texts (which is an innovative approach since most scholars focus on the bizarre form and overlook the religious content), I will discuss an Aljamiado Legend where the Muslim figure of Amina, mother of Muhammad is fused and influenced by the Catholic figure of Mary, mother of Jesus in (Libro de las Luces BRAH 11/9413 T-17). Two different legends where Moses is portrayed untraditionally for the three religions (BRAH T-8 and María del Mar Rosa-Rodríguez Proposal Document & Timeline 3 ACLS Dissertation Fellowship 2008-09 BRAH T-19), and the autobiography of a crypto-Muslim named Mancebo de Arevalo (CSIC Ms LXII), whose multicultural identity develops an ethical consciousness towards his Jewish and Christian friends, and at times adopts their ways. The third stage of this research will deal with the religious consequences of these prohibited documents in the lives of the people who read them. The Holy Office of the Inquisition forbade the use of any other language than Spanish; consequently these documents represented a real danger for their keepers and readers. Part of this chapter will focus on the inter-religious set of ethics developed between crypto-Muslims, crypto-Jews and accomplice Christians who decided to safeguard these documents. The other part will focus on the consequences of the fatwa of the Mufti of Oran (BRAH 11/9410 T-13) in the religiosity of crypto-Muslims. The advice of the fatwa revolutionized the conception of traditional dogma and the importance of ritual practice for faith and belief. III. PREPARATION AND SKILLS The completed archival research was possible thanks to several grants and fellowships. I started research about inquisition trials at the Archivo Historico Nacional (AHN) and the Biblioteca Nacional (BN), both in Madrid (Archival Grant from Spanish Graduate Program 2004). I spend 4 in months in 2006 at the Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia (BRAH) and the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid (Dissertation Research Grant from GSAS). I spent Spring 2007 between Salamanca and Madrid researching in various archives, and studying Islamic Jurisprudence at the University of Salamanca, while I was collaborating with Emory’s Study Abroad Program in Spain. During 2007-2008 I taught a class on my dissertation research, (Dean’s Teaching Fellowship) while advancing my dissertation.