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tkc-info · 2 years

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The Carranzas's sobriquets pt1

Leonila Carranza de Vera (1320-∅): la Sultana o la Atesoradora de Memorias o la de los Dedos Ágiles

AKA, the sultana or the safekeeper of memories or she with the fast fingers

Leonila is a native of the nazarí kingdom of Granada, where the utmost figure of power and representation was the sultan. She's the Carranzas's 'sultana' because she, too, has been the one in control of the family since it's constitution and is the first person people think of when the Carranzas are mentioned.

Her second sobriquet is a nudge to the fact that she's the one who remembers all the Carranzas that have lived in the 8 centuries the family has existed.

Finally, she received her third sobriquet because Leonila's a known 'collector' of stolen artifacts she herself steals. As a believed-christian in Al-Andalus, she used to steal from the wealthier families partly to pay off her and her friends's jizya, and partly to finance her careless life of medieval luxury. As the centuries passed, Leonila began stealing various bases and other artifacts of different historical importance. Her skills have been of use to The Kinship several times.

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Khadija Carranza Al-Ru'ayni (1342-1432): la Precursora

AKA, the precursor

Khadija's (Leonila's daughter) entering and graduating Emtikax and then acquiring an important position in the Archaic Army opened the door for her daughter and descendants to follow in her footsteps. Thus, she's the precursor of the Carranzas.

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Nayda Hroswitha Carranza Al-Magribi (1364-1444): la Escriba

AKA, the scribe

Nayda is famous for having been a spy --disguised as a scribe-- in the courts of Muhammad V, Yusuf II, Muhammad VII, Yusuf III, Muhammad VIII, Muhammad IX and Yusuf IV. Her transcriptions on the political goings-on in the Aboveground Kingdom of Granada helped predict the future evolution of its relationship with the Christian kingdoms of Castille and Aragon, as well as it's future demise.

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Safya Carranza Al-Safi'i (1385-1437): el Espíritu de los Pies Descalzos

AKA, the ghost with the bare feet

Among her family, Safya was the Carranza who struggled the most to adjusting to Aboveground Andalusí society. She didn't like going leaving Mirror, and the one time she did, humans in a small village in the outskirts of Granada mistook her for a ghost.

It had all been a mistake. At one point during the Departure Night celebrations of 1398 --which Safya had spent dancing in the flames with her feet bare, as was tradition among doppelgängers-- her friends dared her to brave the streets of Aboveground. Safya, a tad too inebriated, accepted, and took the closest portal to Aboveground Granada without a care that there were still flames licking up her legs and that her bare feet contrasted starkly with the rich garments she wore (better fit for a time when the Moors had just begun conquering Iberian territory). Humans instantly thought her the apparition of a tortured Arab noblewoman, and, much to Safya's horror, quickly fled from her. But the damage had already been done: Safya would become an urban legend of the village, and this would believe to be cursed by the whole of the Kingdom of Granada.

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Sayyida Carranza Al-Safi'i (1410-1482): la Dama de las Bestias o la Nueva Sacerdotisa

AKA, the lady of the beasts or the new priestess

In her youth, Sayyida enjoyed surrounding herself with beasts, be them naturally present in the Iberian peninsula or not, and train them to see her as the leader of the odd pack. A difficult task, considering she was a historian, but one she achieved nonetheless.

Sayyida brought her pack everywhere she went, including her occasional journeys to Aboveground (which her mother didn't want her to dwell into). There, Sayyida presented herself as some kind of divine priestess capable of taming any sort of creature. After all, the prerroman Iberian clothing she always wore and her knowing of Iberian helped strengthen her disguise.

Sayyida quickly built a cult of sorts around herself, and had a web of human minions paying and doing her biding so that she could live her life doing what she truly liked: expanding her menagerie.

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Hajara Carranza Al-Walid (1432-1496): la Risueña

AKA, the bubbly one

Everyone who crossed paths with her remarked that Hajara was much unlike her mother, Sayyida: always smiling, willing to cheer everyone and unimaginably kind. When the Reconquista was finalised and the Kingdom of Granada became a territory of the Kingdom of Castille, she didn't hesitate to help the Muslims and Jews --forced to convert to Catholicism-- maintain their religion by hiding them from the Inquisition.

The Inquisition tried to apprehend her to no avail. Hajara killed the inquisitors it sent her way, and carved 'why can't we all just laugh together?' in each of their bodies, both in Ancient Castillian, Andalusí Arabic, and Judeospanish.

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Fawziya Carranza Al-Tunayzi (1459-1501): la que No Está Aquí

AKA, she who isn't here

Fawziya was the Carranzas's first greatest artist. She was always staring off into space, thinking of her next creation, like this very self-portrait*

*This painting's actually by Enrique Serra y Auque

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Nizar Carranza Al-Bahrani (1472-1535): el Hombre

AKA, the man

Nizar was the first man in the Carranza family (and the only man until Dario's birth six centuries later), and, as such, has been remembered from being The Man of the family. However, everyone who remembers him knows there was much to Nizar than his gender. For once, he became one of the greatest Conductor Emblem leaders.

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Zoraida Carranza Rodríguez (1499-1568): la Maestra o la Cautiva

AKA, the teacher or the captured woman

Despite being extremely intelligent, Zoraida didn't want to attend Emtikax (which had become something the young Carranzas had to do). So she made a school for herself in the heart of Aboveground Granada.

The school, named Isabel la Cautiva as her mythological Christian counterpart, was originally an all-girls centre of education disguised as a Christian convent. In the 18th century, Isabel la Cautiva was publicly recognised as an all-girls school, and after the Spanish dictator Franco died, it opened its doors to male students --though most of the alumni are still girls.

Even to this day, Zoraida's school provides an education to the Carranzas who don't seek to attend Emtikax (currently Bella, Preciosa, and Gala Carranza), as well as Saz like the Twaddle brothers.

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Sofía Carranza de Solís (1523-1585): la Centinela

AKA, the sentinel

Saz children are warned to behave well, otherwise Sofia will come for them as she came for the many criminals that tried to dodge their punishments by hiding Aboveground.

For years, Sofia worked alongside the sentinels --finding the criminals they couldn't get to and imparting the due sentence-- to the point they began seeing her as one of their own. Indeed, very few Saz have had the privilege of befriending the Xeluas (the highest of sentinels) nor gaining entrance to their home.

When she died, the sentinels requested her tomb be placed near them, so that they could remember their 'sister'.

#the kinship chronicles #random stuff really #btw what sayyida is wearing is an ancient iberian headwear #and by ancient I mean important women wore that before the romans came and the romans came before any a.D.

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cincinnatusvirtue · 3 years

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Jan Janszoon also known as Murat Reis the Younger (c. 1570-c. 1641) Dutch Barbary Pirate and founder/leader of a pirate republic, Republic of Sale...

Mention pirates and you may well conjure a number of images in the mind. It depends on the context you’re discussing in terms of history and placement in the world. The western world usually has an image of a swashbuckling and misunderstood rogue or misfit outcast who has been rejected from their society or can’t tolerate authority so they take to a life on the high seas in search of freedom, adventure and plunder. Edward Teach (1680-1718) better known as Blackbeard is sometimes cited as the archetypal pirate in many modern works of fiction. Or one might picture the character of Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. Images that are based in elements of truth but probably watered down from the reality of the harsh existence pirates found themselves in and the harsh price they exacted from others.

Another type of pirate, widely talked about but not perhaps as well known in some parts of the world is that of the Barbary pirate or Barbary corsair. The Barbary pirate were privateers or pirates from an Islamic background typically and sometimes used a nominally religiously infused perspective to ply their trade. They usually hailed from or were based out of the so called Barbary Coast of North Africa, so named for the native Berber peoples who made up the majority of these lands, Berber being a corruption of the ancient Greek for Barbarian a term applied to all non Greco-Roman peoples in antiquity. These lands were the modern nations of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia & Libya in particular. These pirates were largely in operation from the 16th-19th centuries with their zenith being in the early to mid 17th century. The modern states of North Africa were not full fledged nation states as they are today, in fact they were instead made up of various city states that with the exception of Morocco were nominal parts of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. These locations while part of the Ottoman sphere of influence had relative degrees of autonomy that fell to their local governors called dey or bey or pasha. All honorific titles taken from Turkish to roughly mean leader or governor. The pirates on behalf of their dey or pasha or sometimes on behalf of themselves had virtual control of over their city-states and the surrounding seas.

The most prominent grounds to find these pirates and their bases was the Western Mediterranean and Atlantic seaboard of Western Europe. Their primary focus was to engage in the plunder of merchant ships and occasionally raid coastal villages and towns. The main target wasn’t so much goods like money or inanimate objects but rather in the capture of people, mostly Europeans and later Americans to become part of the greater Islamic slave trade within the preexisting Ottoman and Arab slave trades which spanned from Asia to Africa and Europe. Now keep in mind slavery was not exclusive to any one society, culture or location, slavery and human trafficking was commonplace on virtually all continents among all peoples during the 16th-19th centuries. However, the focus of this post will be on the Barbary slave trade and to provide a snapshot of the practices within that context.

Not all Barbary pirates were born within the Islamic world, in fact some of the best known were originally Christian or Jewish and later converted to Islam. One of the best known was a Dutchman named Jan Janszoon (Jan Jansen) who took on the later moniker of Murat Reis the Younger...

Early Life...

-Not much of Jan’s early life is documented, other than he was born in the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands in roughly the year 1570. Sources don’t definitively state who his parents were other than we can determine his surname followed the Dutch patronymic naming system of Janszoon or Jansen meaning “son of Jan or son of John” in English.

-At the time of Jan’s birth, the Netherlands was technically part of the Catholic Spanish Empire. However, the ethnic Dutch who were primarily Protestants of the Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church were increasingly at odds with Spanish rule, what resulted was the Eighty Years War or War of Dutch Independence (1568-1648). Seven northern provinces of the Netherlands, one of the most powerful being Holland formed the united nucleus of new country determined to breakaway from Spanish rule. This became the Dutch Republic. What followed was a period of off and on warfare, colonial expansion and a flowering of cultural expression in art, commerce and the establishment of relatively tolerant values based in individualism. This was reflected in the largely Protestant personalized philosophy of their religion. The Dutch Republic became a place of comparative religious freedom within Europe and its government was run more by a legislative body than a monarch, though it had monarch like figures with varying degrees of power, more symbolic than absolute. This contrasted with the absolute monarchy and centralizing of power in most of 17th-18th century Europe.

-Jan’s profession wasn’t known either, other than at some point he took to a life at sea, it is speculated by some sources that he was apprenticed on merchant ships as a teenager which enabled him to learn the skills of sailing and nuances of trade and diplomacy in all dealings that would later serve him in life.

-In 1595, Jan is recorded as marrying a woman, presumably named Soutgen Cave with whom he had at least one daughter and possibly a son, Edward The daughter, Lysbeth, was definitively confirmed by virtually all sources and would play a role in her father’s later life.

-Jan would eventually abandon his family in the Netherlands and would never return to them in a long lasting fashion. Jan appears to have been restless and turned to a life at sea, first as a Dutch privateer on behalf of the Dutch Republic, raiding Spanish merchant ships in an effort to hurt the economy of the nation that nominally ruled over the Dutch Republic.

-However, in the early 17th century a nominal period of peace or truce was established between Spain and the Netherlands, though the war and issue of independence wasn’t officially resolved. Jan during these years appears to have left the official capacity of serving under the Dutch flag and instead made his way to Spain and North Africa and largely went into business for himself.

Algiers and Spain “Turning Turk”...

-The timeline is somewhat confused based on the sources we have but Jan’s adventures appear to have taken him to the Canary Islands off Africa’s coast where he was captured by Barbary pirates, possibly under the Ottoman privateer of Albanian extraction, Murat Reis (The Elder). Jan was conveyed to Algiers (modern capital of Algeria) where he was most likely considered for a life of slavery. However, it appear Jan either made the conversion to Islam outright to officially spare him the pain of slavery, since nominally Islam forbids the enslavement of other Muslims, though this was not always practiced since other Muslims were occasionally enslaved by the Barbary pirates. The other possibility is that Jan convinced his captors of his suitability as a sailor and guide and offered his services if not his faith, though it most likely he converted to Islam at this time, probably as a practical matter. The conversion in European circles was known as “turning Turk” since Turk became a blanket misnomer to all Muslims regardless of ethnicity at this time.

-Jan also made his was to Spain, in particular the port city of Cartagena where in the first decade of the 17th century, some of the last sizable remnants of a Muslim community lived, descended from Muslims that once controlled most of the Iberian Peninsula in the semi-autonomous province of Al-Andalus (Andalusia) from the 8th century to the year 1492.

-Since 1492, the Christian kingdoms of northern Spain and Portugal pushed backed the Muslims and “reconquered” Iberia from Muslim rule. The Spanish monarchy overtime changed from relative tolerance of Muslims and Jews to threats of expulsion, forced conversion or death for non-Christians. In the midst of all this Jan, either not yet a Muslim or a Muslim who as a European could pass for a Christian met a new woman, sources can’t confirm her identity beyond the Spanish name Margarita. Margarita was known to be a Spanish Moor or Muslim of mixed ethnic background, most likely Arab-Berber with roots in Morocco. She was part of a community known as Mujedars or Moriscos, Moors who nominally were converted Christianity but in private secretly maintained their Islamic faith and customs. Sources also vary on whether Margarita was a woman of high birth or nobility or a domestic servant to a Christian family. There is even a source that speculates her genealogy can be traced in part to the then ruling dynasty of Morocco, the Arab Saadi dynasty which claim descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through the Prophet’s daughter Fatima.

-What is known is that Margarita would become Jan’s wife, the first of four permissible simultaneous wives under Islamic law. It is not known if Jan ever took another wife. His first Christian marriage in the Netherlands would be viewed as invalid under from the Islamic viewpoint. Jan and Margarita also had four sons whose names are Abraham, Anthony, Philip & Cornelis. All four would have been raised as Muslims by their parents, from this point on this became Jan’s family. His Dutch family is variously reported to have been ignored or still the recipients of child/spousal support from Jan who would send portions of his earnings to them. There is evidently truth to this given that his daughter Lysbeth later visited him late in life, suggesting a good enough relationship if distant.

Sale...

-In roughly the period 1609-1612 the family would have left Spain for Algiers and later Morocco and settled in the city of Sale, today a twin city of the capital of Rabat. Sale had a long history but a number of thousands of expelled Muslims from Spain would come together to form the nucleus of a new period of history in Sale. These Muslims would have differed from the Berbers of Morocco despite their overlapping ethnic similarities, in that they grew up speaking Spanish probably in addition to Arabic and would have had Spanish influenced customs, this put them at odds with their fellow Moroccans.

-Jan in his travels would have been multilingual. In addition to his native Dutch he would have known Spanish and likely Arabic, English and possibly French at the very least.

-1619 saw the city of Sale which had a small Barbary pirate operation already declare itself an independent republic, not subject to the authority of the Sultans of Morocco, then ruled by two brothers of the Saadi dynasty in a virtual state of civil war At the center of this “revolt” was Jan himself, now known as Murat Reis (The Younger), taken after his former captor who had passed away a decade before. Jan was already successful in conducting raids for Algiers on European shipping, mostly of Spanish shipping and other nations. Though he was known to release or ransom his fellow Dutch from captivity in many instances.

-Sale in its newly declared independence was helmed by a ruling council of 14 leading pirates who elected Jan at its Grand Admiral (head of the fleet) and President. The newly minted Republic of Sale, was a functioning de-facto city-state that was run by and for Barbary pirates who enriched themselves off of the slave trade and sale of plunder of other goods taken from European ships.

-Sale’s fleet was small at first, numbering 18 ships, mainly of the “polacca” design, the ships were small, sleek and fast. The harbor at Sale was the mouth of the Bou Regreg river which divided Sale & Rabat on the north and south banks respectively. The harbor was protected by a sandbar and due to the small design of the ships with they had the ability to slide over the sandbar and dock in the shallow harbor, where European ships typically required deep ports for docking due to their deep and large hulls. Sale at the time also benefitted from relative isolation with next to no roads leading to the city from land and it was purely a port city.

-Jan is noted by all sources as an intelligent and brave fighter as well as able administrator, the docking fees, percentages of profits from slave sales and others good sold made Sale blossom financially under Jan’s administration. Nominal fees to the Sultan also helped maintain their semi-autonomy, in recognition of this and due to other deeper difficulties Sultan Zidan Abu Maali of the Saadi dynasty made Jan the ceremonial Governor of Sale.

-Jan and the Sale Rovers as his fleet was called in English sources was known for their guile. Carrying multiple flags on board Jan and fleet were known to approach ships and like a chameleon adapts to their surroundings by changing colors, the pirates would fly friendly flags as they approached their prey. This meant they kept informed on the latest diplomatic changes of the day and using this ruse got close to their quarry and then suddenly would raise their own flag of the two conjoined sabers on a field of green or the crescent moon of Islam and frighten their victims. Barbary pirates in general speaking foreign tongues with a fearsome appearance of swords and pistols in hand and dagger in mouth relied on intimidation and very often tried to capture their victims without an actual fight. Since the goal was enslavement harm or death to their prisoners was not ideal and psychological terror was their foremost weapon hence why they chose merchant and passenger ships and usually fled at the sight of military ships.

-According to the known accounts Jan and his men treated their prisoners relatively humanely given the circumstances as Barbary piracy was well known by this time, most knew their fate would not be good, few slaves ever returned to their homeland or another destination. Typically, women and children would be separated from the men, meaning families were often divided. Once arrived at port, they would be separated according to age and gender since they served different purposes. Men would typically be used for forced manual labor to their Muslim masters or serve as oarsmen or servants on ships, rarely setting foot on land for long periods of time. Children would be taken to serve as domestic servants in Muslim homes and women would typically be sold to become domestic servants as well. Occasionally women were made into sex slaves to their masters, sometimes ending up in the harems of the Sultan or other Muslim rulers. On the auction block as is true of slaves anywhere, one would be publicly displayed sometimes naked or asked to run and jump or to be prodded and inspected by prospective buyers. Those in good health commanded the highest price. Some slaves were also ransomed through funds raised by the family, government or Christian religious orders, though this fueled the Barbary pirates economy and perpetuated the cycle of enslavement. Jan is known to have made large profits to fund his family, fleet and home and is known to have had many servants, most probably being men to perform manual labor in maintaining his fleet for future slave runs.

-Jan also occasionally ventured outside of the Western Mediterranean and Atlantic near the Canary Islands, sight of his own capture years before. He was known to base himself on islands off the coast of England and even return to the Netherlands. Using his Dutch citizenship and his new found role as an Admiral nominally in the Moroccan navy, he had diplomatic immunity and for his service in attacking the hated Spanish, he was viewed with mixed feeling in his homeland as his fame had spread by this time. The authorities banned piracy officially and condemned it and thought him a bad example, even if he exacted a toll on the Spanish economy which rivalled the Dutch and was still at war with them. During one visit back to Amsterdam in 1622, the authorities located his first wife and their children in the hopes the sight of them would spurn him to give up his piracy, it failed. To make matters worse, he had somewhat a folk hero appeal that lead several Dutchmen to actually leave behind their lives in Amsterdam and leave to join his crew for a life of piracy, a testament to the charisma he probably possessed. His crew would have been multiethnic containing other Europeans including Dutch, Spanish, French, English and German crewmen alongside Arabs, Berbers and Turks. Spanish & Arabic would have probably served as lingua francas onboard.

Return to Algiers...

-By 1627, the political situation in Morocco had deteriorated and for safety reasons he took his family to Algiers. His son Anthony had by this time now an adult left Morocco for a life in the Netherlands and would eventually marry a Dutch woman and immigrate under the auspices of the Dutch West India Company to North America, settling in the colony of New Amsterdam, modern day New York City. Anthony was known as Anthony Janszoon Van Salee in Dutch. He was the first Muslim recorded to have been a long term settler in North America and kept the first known copy of a the Qu’ran in America as well, reputed to be a copy of the Moroccan Sultan’s personal Qu’ran which was a gift and a testament to the honorifics bestowed upon the Janszoon family. Anthony became a successful farmer, landowner and merchant in New Amsterdam and helped found settlements that made up modern day Brooklyn, New York. He was known to have an independent streak like his father and little regard for authority, making him a colorful character in colonial America. Through Anthony, Jan has many living descendants in America (see my previous post on Anthony) including the Vanderbilt family which became wealthy in the 19th century.

-Upon his return to Algiers, Jan resumed his piracy this time conducting two of his most famous raids in 1627 and 1631 respectively. First, he had his crew leave from England northward to Iceland of all places, where they captured a couple hundred Icelanders and a few Danes from Denmark, all were sold into slavery in Algiers where Jan continued his large profits. The second took place in Ireland at the village of Baltimore, once more he successfully made off with hundreds of prisoners, only two would ever return to Ireland. This latter raid was lamented in the 19th century Thomas Davis poem The Sack of Baltimore. In both instances, Jan’s crew went ashore and captured villagers from their homes, again using intimidation with probably only enough physical violence so as to intimidate and deter resistance. In the case of the Baltimore raid, Jan’s crew attacked in the middle of the night abducting people from their sleep.

Capture...

-1635 saw Jan captured while at sea in the Eastern Mediterranean, captured by the Christian military order, the Knights of Rhodes or Knights Hospitaller. He was kept on the island of Malta, the details of his confinement are murky, but he was known to have been beaten and subjected to torture though he never renounced Islam and was known to have become quite pious in his faith. He encouraged many European captives to convert and spare themselves slavery as Islam forbids enslavement of other Muslims. In fact, the Muslim view of Jan and his fellow Barbary pirates at the time was widely one of celebration and righteousness. Not only did it provide economic benefit but the enslavement of non-Muslims was viewed as an act of almost holy war waged against infidel peoples and the pirates were warriors of Islam acting in a righteous manner.

-Jan’s imprisonment lasted five years until he was freed by Tunisian Barbary pirates in a raid on Malta. He was heralded with great pomp in 1640 at his release having achieved fame in the Islamic world as well as have been a scourge to Christians in Europe.

Final return to Morocco...

-Jan was essentially in search of work despite his old age and feeble condition from his imprisonment.

-He returned to Morocco but not Sale where he made his name and fortune but instead, the new Sultan made him Governor of Oualidia further south on the Moroccan coast. The modern day seaside resort had a unique lagoon and a new fortress or “Kasbah” was built specifically for Jan. He also maintained a home in nearby Safi, no longer at sea, he retired and merely administered the area but appears to have been restored to his wealth, his wife Margarita is presumed to have predeceased him either in Algiers or Morocco before or during his imprisonment on Malta.

-In 1641 his daughter Lysbeth from his first marriage travelled with a Dutch embassy to Morocco to greet the new Sultan. Lysbeth and her husband met with Jan, supposedly both on their docked ship and and his many homes, he was described as being enfeebled but surrounded by luxury and comfort attended to by servants. Lysbeth stayed with her father for months, the only extended period of time since her childhood, presumably this meant despite his physical distance, their relationship was relatively good.

-No further sources of Jan’s life are known, its presumed he died shortly thereafter of natural causes and was buried in Safi, Morocco in an unmarked grave but no source has yet validated this.

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cucullas · 4 years

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Mudarra González: a mixed medieval hero

I’m apparently doing a series on Spanish Romances (Spain medieval and renaissance anonymous folk ballads), usually my favorites ones are about love, family or everyday life. I’m not very much into the epics of killing infidels, El Cid and The Song of Roland got it covered. That’s why I initially was not attracted to the Song of the Seven Princes of Lara.

I was so so SO wrong. This story has it all, petty family squabbles, completly disproportinionate reaction and my mixed bastard main boy: Mudarra Gonzalez. On the realm of medieval fiction where the main concern is how many infidels The Heroic Christian Knight can kill, Mudarra is a Moor, he is the Heroe That Was Promised and he is out for revenge.

The petty story: family drama and no Mudarra yet

Before I start a little bit of story, as you might know the Iberian Peninsula, was partially controlled by Arab and Berber Muslims rulers. From mighty cultured caliphates to dying city-kingdoms, this period called Al-Andalus went from 700 to 1492. During this time Christian kingdoms of Spain had to live with their Muslim neighbours and very often enemies.

In these context our story starts, a Christian Knight, Gonzalo Gustios is the ruler of Salas, he is vasall of the Count Garcia Fernandes and is marries to Doña Sancha. He had a good life and is a not getting any younger but that’s ok cause he got 7 valiant sons to suceed him. They all have names of prowesses... but that’s not that important cause they all die.

Yeah, because you see they had a fight with their aunt Doña Lambra (wife of their mom’s brother Rodrigo de Lara): honor was insulted... A pepper filled with blood was trown and someone menaced to cut a skirt above the knee and those are clearly irreparables offenses so Gonzalo Gonzalez the younger Prince killed a man over the pepper and Doña Lambra promised to revenge.

Rodrigo, Doña Lambra husband them betrayed his nephews giving the enemy information about their battle plans. They all die. His father is captured but pardoned by Almanzor. While in captivity Gonzalo is asked to recognize the heads of some important Christian the Moor army just killed... its of course his 7 kids and he mad with grief. Long story short he sleeps with Almanzor sister, she gets pregnant, he is later release and goes back to his wife.

All the Spanish medieval gore we deserve

Saddly he is too old for revenge and Doña Lambra is a close family member to the ruling Count. In many version Gonzalo is later disable and very weak by pain or captivity/war. Who could save us now?

Mudarra, bastard extraordinaire

Now let’s talk about Mudarra the first time we see him he is showed playing chess a stereotypical oriental game and talking with the also Muslim king of Segura. He has a great position in court but when he is insulted as “hijo de nadie/ Nobody son” he decides to go search for his father.

Antonio Tempesta, a Renaissance Italian illsutrator doing his best to represent a Moor medieval armyhe went from pseudo-Turkish clearly (Mudarra taking leave of his mother)

From Mudarra POV it’s like leaving idk Camelot/King’s Landing/a US middle class family to go and meet your dad a disable owner of a rundown farm in a backwards land. But that’s ok, Mudarra does his best is like

“Nice to met you Sir Gonzales, I’m your son”

“I’ve literally never seen this kid. No way it’s mine”

And this fools no one specially not his wife Doña Sancha because A) Mudarra looks exactly like Gonzalo Gonzalez his late bro and B) In some version Gonzalo Gustios actually gave Mudarra mother a ring.

Gustios is afraid his wife will be mad but Doña Sancha is no mad at all. Specially when Mudarra promise to avenge his late older brothers. She acts as the coolest step-mom and they even do a ceremony so Mudarra becomes his father legitimate heir.

Personally I like Mudarra a lot, he is much more measured that his brothers: he takes time to explain he is without getting mad, ask for justice to the Count (in some version) and is even courteous to his enemy. I bet he wouldn’t kill an unharmed servant over a pepper but that’s speculation on my part.

Yes, he also has a manly revenge speech at the end:

“Tú los vendistes, traidor, en el val de Araviana / mas, si Dios a mí me ayuda, aquí dejarás el alma / vengare a mis hermanos, los siete infantes de Lara [...] Morirás aquí traidor / a las maños de Mudarra”

“You sold them you traitor, in the Araviana valley / with God’s help here you will lay your soul / I will avenge my brothers, the Seven Princes of Lara. [...] You die here traitor, at the hands of Mudarra”

Then of he goes to kill Rodrigo de Lara. He suceeds, because he is our hero but also because Rodrigo won’t be able to pact with the Moors like he did the 1st time because they won’t risk getting into Mudarra and Almanzor bad side. Doña Lambra in some version is burnt but in most “her punishement was left to God” because as we said she was family with the count.

After the revenge we don’t know a lot about Mudarra which is a shame. He is said to have been an excellent knight though.

A place said to be the tomb of Mudarra with 0 reasons, it’s pretty too

Mudarra, raised as a Moor is our triumphant here, and it was not done only for the exoticism value, him being a Royal Moor is a big deal. Here is why.

A Royal Bastard

Gonzalo Gustias leaving to go back to his land is not seem as an offense to Almanzor sister (called Aisha sometimes, she is a fictional character). She doesn’t seem to have problems with it and Mudarra growns up on King Almanzor court as his heir, he knights him and give his squires to serve him.

But you might ask who is Almanzor? Is he fictional? Well, no, he is no King but he absolutely existed.

Bust of Almanzor in the Castillan city of Catalañazor were Spanish say he suffer a great defeat by Christian troops... it’s probably not true.

He is The big deal. His name is Abu Amir Muhammad but the is nicknames Al Mansur, the Victorious. You see at the time from 950 to 1000 the main kingdom of the are is the Caliphate of Cordoba, the King is Hisam II but his minister and de facto ruler is Almanzor. An incredible capable military leader and politician.

Almanzor embodies the mighty caliphate of Cordoba. Almanzor with an inteligent politic of alliances and a lot of Berber mercenaries he kept the peace and prosterity of the caliphate of Cordoba. Almanzor will have two son, after their rule the Caliphate desintegrate in taifas, he is also the embodiement of the a glorious period. A high king.

A king more important than Count Garcia Fernandes, the Christian ruler of this story. In other countries Roland is the nephew of Charlemagne. The French lineage of Lusignan descend from a fae and everyone descends from Alexander the Great. But in this Castille the best thing we have is Almanzor, descending from a King gives Mudarra the power of an army his father doesnt have and also a symbolic power to change stablishment.

Roof of the former mosque now Catedral of Cordoba

Oh and also I have this theory that Almanzor life could have also inspired the story, mostly his second son who was also the de facto ruler: Abd al-Raḥmān called ibn Sanchul or Sanchuelo this nickname came because he apparently really looked like his granpa...the King of Plamplona Sancho Garces II. Almanzor attacked his kingdom and as the Christian king could not possibly win he came himself as an ambassador asking for protection and bringing incredible gifts. Almanzor accepted and even took Urraca Garces, Sancho daughter as wife.

In Burgos they take their legend seriously

While romances, written later in time show a black and white version of the Al-Andalus and Reconquista that was in truth extremely complexe.Mudarra story is an exception. Authors like the great Irene Zaderenko have even called his romance “maurophilo”. I agree, I love the Moors I love Mudarra and I love this soap opera of a Romance. that has tragically the name of the Princes and is not called “El Romance de Mudarra” as it should.

If i convinced me with my Mudarra propaganda you can: Read the first incomplete version of the story (ESP) the romance of the Complaint of Doña Lambra (ESP) and the song of The Revenge of Mudarra (ESP).. thanks for your attention

#romancero viejo #los siete infantes de lara #spanish literature #spanish music #medieval romances #mudarra gonzalez

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discoverislam · 10 years

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The Great Mosque of Cordoba - A reminder of Europe’s interfaith history

Selma Roth

Saudi Gazette

SPAIN’S culture is full of reminders that the Iberian Peninsula was once occupied by a Muslim population consisting mainly of Arab and Berber ethnics. Encompassing nearly 8 centuries, the Islamic Al-Andalus period left a clear Arabic influence in the Spanish language: Some scholars estimate that around 8 percent of the words found in the Spanish dictionary have Arabic roots. In terms of monuments, the highlight of this period most often mentioned is the imposing Alhambra, a palace and fortress complex located in the Spanish southeastern town of Granada.

The Alhambra complex and its Generalife gardens are indeed extraordinary and should be on anyone’s bucket list, but of more significance for the Muslim traveler is the Great Mosque of Córdoba, also known as the Mezquita.

The mosque, built initially by Abd Al-Rahman I and with various later additions, is an architectural marvel that leaves Muslim and non-Muslim visitors alike in awe. It is not difficult to imagine how this magnificent structure was a center of worship, religion, philosophy, anatomy, geometry, and all the other sciences the Al-Andalus scholars excelled in.

The story goes that when the exiled Umayyad prince, Abd Al-Rahman I, fled from Damascus to current-day Spain he bought half of the Visigothic Church of St. Vincent on which the Mezquita is built for the Muslim community’s Friday prayers. Soon, this space became too small for the fast-growing population, and in 784 A.D. the emir bought the other half as well, erecting a mosque that he hoped would be on par with those built in Jerusalem, Baghdad, and his home-town Damascus.

His descendants expanded the structure, built a new minaret, and adorned the mihrab, the niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the direction of Makkah, with gold mosaics, a gift from the Christian emperor of Byzantium. Remarkably, though, the mihrab in the Great Mosque of Córdoba does not point south-southeast toward Makkah, but south. While in that time it was not uncommon for the qibla (the direction of the Kaaba) to be a bit off, the reason it is here is probably because the mosque was built retaining one of the walls of the old church. The structure reached its current dimensions in 987 A.D., when the outer naves and courtyard, used for ablution and full of orange and lemon trees, were completed.

Soon after and due to internal conflict, Córdoba fell in a state of steady decline, eventually leading to the fall of the caliphate in 1031.

Thereafter, several dynasties ruled the city, but it lost its domination to Seville until in 1236 the Christian Kings “reconquered” Córdoba from the Moors.

While building numerous new churches, the center of the mosque was also converted into a Catholic church, although only very small alterations were made. A chapel was built within the mosque, and the minaret was transformed into a bell tower.

Nearly three centuries later, however, King Carlos I — allegedly against the wishes of Córdoba’s city council — approved the construction of a Renaissance altar area, choir and nave, largely altering the look of the mosque. Unsatisfied with the result, he famously regretted to the priests who built it: “You have built what you or others might have built anywhere, but you have destroyed something that was unique in the world.”

Regardless how history shaped the building for better or worse, the result remains simply awe inspiring. Visitors enter the Mezquita through the ablution courtyard, now called the Patio de los Naranjos, where lush citrus and palm trees protect the queues, waiting to buy their entrance ticket, from the scorching Andalusian summer sun.

Once inside, the peace and harmony of the large space overwhelms its visitors, as rows and rows of columns —a total of 856 remain from the 1,293 original pillars — and red and white striped horseshoe arches dazzle even the most seasoned traveler. The entrance side is the original part of the mosque built by Abd Al-Rahman I. Though quite dark, it is easy to imagine how full of light the mosque must have been when all original 19 doors were opened at the time of the caliphate, with the courtyard palm trees providing a natural continuation of the columns inside, leading Pakistani poet Muhammad Iqbal to describe them as “countless pillars like rows of palm trees in the oases of Syria.”

The columns were made from pieces of the church that had occupied the place previously, as well as from destroyed Roman buildings, while the red and white stone and marble were found in the region surrounding the city.

Opposite the entrance is the mihrab, spectacularly adorned with 1,600 kilogram of gold mosaic cubes shaped into flower motifs and inscriptions from the Holy Qur’an. This is the latest and most sophisticated addition of the mosque and according to many one of the most magnificent mihrabs worldwide.

In the center, the serenity of the structure is interrupted by a resplendent cathedral that boasts light and vertigo into the low-ceilinged mosque. Like Carlos I, many Muslims regret the building of the Christian structure, saying it destroyed the serenity of the place, and it is not difficult to understand that Muslim worshippers feel offended when security guards brutally order them to stand up when they prostrate in reverence of such marvel, while up to today it is still in use for Catholic services. Several incidences took place in recent years, and Spanish Muslims have lobbied to allow them to pray in the cathedral.

But to say the sacred place belongs to the Muslims is historically incorrect as well. After all, prior to the mosque the soil was home to a Christian church. Rather than claiming it to be either Christian or Islamic, the site is the ultimate reminder of how intertwined the two religions are. For Muslims, the mosque may prompt them of the Islamic Golden Age, during which people of the three monotheistic religions lived together fairly peacefully. For Christians, the mosque is a living proof that Islam is not something alien to Europe: Its existence is intricately part of European history. In fact, it were the scholars in Al-Andalus who transmitted the works of Greek scientists like Aristotle to the hands of the Christians, eventually leading to the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment, which rescued Europe from the Dark Ages and led the continent to blossom.

Remarkably, the current monarchs of Spain directly descend from the Catholic Kings that expelled the Muslims and Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. In a sense, they represent the continuation of the “Reconquista,” the reconquering of the peninsula from the Muslim rulers, which one may doubt if it is, in fact, a re-conquering, as there was no Catholic monarchy prior to the arrival of Tariq ibn Ziyad and his small army that came to the peninsula upon request from the Visigoths to intervene in their internal conflict. The “mosque-cathedral” of Córdoba, as the site is often referred to, could be a symbol of Spain’s history at the crossroads of cultures and religions. It could be an example of how civilizations can flourish if they live and work together. It could be granted the status of museum, as the Turkish authorities did with the Aya Sophia in Istanbul, another junction of the Christian and Muslim worlds. The Aya Sophia was a church during the Byzantine Empire, became a mosque under the Ottomans, and in the twentieth century the authorities decided to secularize the building and open it as a museum. Instead, the Catholic authorities chose to keep using the Mezquita as a place for Christian worship and continue the spirit of the Reconquista.

#Spain #Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba #Mezquita #Islamic Golden Age #Iberian Peninsula #he Great Mosque of Cordoba #Europe #Alhambra #Al-Andalus

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