The Lead Books of the Sacromonte and the Parchment of the Torre Turpiana: Granada, 1588-1606

The Lead Books of the Sacromonte and the Parchment of the Torre Turpiana: Granada, 1588-1606
Author: Gerard A. Wiegers
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 620
Release: 2023-12-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004685278

The Archive of the Sacromonte Abbey in Granada preserves a historical treasure: Arabic texts on a sheet of parchment and on numerous small tablets of lead, which were discovered in Granada at the end of the sixteenth century in the tower of the old Friday Mosque and in caves of the "Valparaíso" hillock, from then on called "Sacromonte". They became the object of heated discussions in Europe and were condemned by the Pope in 1682. The texts are among the very last literary productions of the Moriscos, the Andalusi Muslims, many of whom continued to practice Islam in secret until their expulsion from Spain between 1609 and 1614. With the permission of the archbishop of Granada, we offer, for the first time in history, a study, edition, translation, and images of all the tablets and shed new light on the fascinating religious messages of these enigmatic texts and their authors.

European Muslims and the Qur’an

European Muslims and the Qur’an
Author: Gulnaz Sibgatullina
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2023-12-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3111140849

This edited volume aims to advance a Muslim-centered perspective on the study of Islam in Europe. To do so, it brings together a range of case studies that illustrate how European Muslims engaged with their Sacred Scripture while being part of a Christian-dominated social and political space. The research presented in this volume seeks to analyse Muslims’ practices of translating, interpreting and using the Qur’an as a sacred object and, thus, pursues three main research agendas. Part I focuses on the issues of Muslim-Christian relations in Europe and studies how these relations have engendered discursive connections between Muslim- and Christian-produced texts related to the study and interpretation of the Qur’an. Part II aims to bring scholarly attention to the under-represented cases of Muslim communities in Europe. This part introduces new research on Polish-Belarusian, Daghestani, Bosnian and Kazan Tatars and examines local traditions of producing vernacular Qur’ans and commodification of Qur’anic manuscripts. The final section of the volume, Part III, contributes to filling in the gaps related to the theoretical and conceptual framing of Muslim translation activities. The history of religious thought and practice in European history is in many ways still uncharted territory. This book aims to contribute to a better understanding of the cultural history of the Qur’an and Muslim agency in interpreting, transmitting and translating the Sacred Scripture.

Pedro de Valencia and the Catholic Apologists of the Expulsion of the Moriscos

Pedro de Valencia and the Catholic Apologists of the Expulsion of the Moriscos
Author: Grace Magnier
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2010-03-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004189408

The Spanish Moriscos, Muslims forcibly converted to Christianity, were expelled by Philip III between 1609 and 1614. Subsequently, writers known as Catholic Apologists wrote justifying the event. Pedro de Valencia, humanist, biblical scholar, jurist and royal Chronicler, condemned expulsion. Both Apologists and Pedro de Valencia made their case by invoking Divine Providence: the former contended that millenarian prophecies and apocalyptic visions were signs of divine warning beforehand and of approval afterwards; Valencia urged Philip III to act as a shepherd king, arguing that Divine Providence would punish monarchs who put political expediency before moral rectitude. Drawing on unpublished source material, the book juxtaposes the ideals of Valencia, a Christian humanist, with the bigotry, superstition and racism of the Apologists.

The Lead Books of Granada

The Lead Books of Granada
Author: E. Drayson
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2016-01-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1137358858

Hailed as early Christian texts as important as the Dead Sea Scrolls, yet condemned by the Vatican as Islamic heresies, the Lead books of Granada, written on discs of lead and unearthed on a Granadan hillside, weave a mysterious tale of duplicity and daring set in the religious crucible of sixteenth-century Spain. This book evaluates the cultural status and importance of these polyvalent, ambiguous artefacts which embody many of the dualities and paradoxes inherent in the racial and religious dilemmas of Early Modern Spain. Using the words of key individuals, and set against the background of conflict between Spanish Christians and Moriscos in the late fifteen-hundreds, The Lead Books of Granada tells a story of resilient resistance and creative ingenuity in the face of impossibly powerful negative forces, a resistance embodied by a small group of courageous, idealistic men who lived a double life in Granada just before the expulsion of the Moriscos.

The Orient in Spain

The Orient in Spain
Author: Mercedes Garcia-Arenal Rodriquez
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 487
Release: 2013-04-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004250298

Taking as its main subject a series of notorious forgeries by Muslim converts in sixteenth-century Granada (including an apocryphal gospel in Arabic), this book studies the emotional, cultural and religious world view of the Morisco minority and the complexity of its identity, caught between the wish to respect Arabic cultural traditions, and the pressures of evangelization and efforts at integration into “Old Christian” society. Orientalist scholarship in Early Modern Spain, in which an interest in Oriental languages, mainly Arabic, was linked to important historiographical questions, such as the uses and value of Arabic sources and the problem of the integration of al-Andalus within a providentialist history of Spain, is also addressed. The authors consider these issues not only from a local point of view, but from a wider perspective, in an attempt to understand how these matters related to more general European intellectual and religious developments.

Converso Non-Conformism in Early Modern Spain

Converso Non-Conformism in Early Modern Spain
Author: Kevin Ingram
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2018-12-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 3319932365

This book examines the effects of Jewish conversions to Christianity in late medieval Spanish society. Ingram focuses on these converts and their descendants (known as conversos) not as Judaizers, but as Christian humanists, mystics and evangelists, who attempt to create a new society based on quietist religious practice, merit, and toleration. His narrative takes the reader on a journey from the late fourteenth-century conversions and the first blood purity laws (designed to marginalize conversos), through the early sixteenth-century Erasmian and radical mystical movements, to a Counter-Reformation environment in which conversos become the advocates for pacifism and concordance. His account ends at the court of Philip IV, where growing intolerance towards Madrid’s converso courtiers is subtly attacked by Spain’s greatest painter, Diego Velázquez, in his work, Los Borrachos. Finally, Ingram examines the historiography of early modern Spain, in which he argues the converso reform phenomenon continues to be underexplored.

Learning Arabic in Renaissance Europe (1505-1624)

Learning Arabic in Renaissance Europe (1505-1624)
Author: Robert Jones
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2020-03-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004418121

From the first Arabic grammar printed at Granada in 1505 to the Arabic editions of the Dutch scholar Thomas Erpenius (d.1624), some audacious scholars - supported by powerful patrons and inspired by several of the greatest minds of the Renaissance – introduced, for the first time, the study of Arabic language and letters to centres of learning across Europe. These pioneers formed collections of Arabic manuscripts, met Arabic-speaking visitors, studied and adapted the Islamic grammatical tradition, and printed editions of Arabic texts - most strikingly in the magnificent books published by the Medici Oriental Press at Rome in the 1590s. Robert Jones’ findings in the libraries of Florence, Leiden, Paris and Vienna, and his contribution to the history of grammar, are of enduring importance.

Sources of Slavic Pre-Christian Religion

Sources of Slavic Pre-Christian Religion
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 547
Release: 2020-10-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004441387

In Sources of Slavic Pre-Christian Religion Juan Antonio Álvarez-Pedrosa presents all known medieval texts that provide us with information about the religion practiced by the Slavs before their Christianization.

Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volume 10 Ottoman and Safavid Empires (1600-1700)

Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History. Volume 10 Ottoman and Safavid Empires (1600-1700)
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 729
Release: 2017-10-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 900434604X

Christian-Muslim Relations, a Bibliographical History 10 (CMR 10), covering the Ottoman and Safavid Empires in the period 1600-1700, is a further volume in a general history of relations between the two faiths from the seventh century to the early 20th century. It comprises a series of introductory essays and also the main body of detailed entries which treat all the works, surviving or lost, that have been recorded. These entries provide biographical details of the authors, descriptions and assessments of the works themselves, and complete accounts of manuscripts, editions, translations and studies. The result of collaboration between numerous leading scholars, CMR 10, along with the other volumes in this series, is intended as a basic tool for research in Christian-Muslim relations. Section Editors: Clinton Bennett, Luis F. Bernabé Pons, Jaco Beyers, Karoline Cook, Lejla Demiri, Martha Frederiks, David D. Grafton, Stanisław Grodź, Alan Guenther, Emma Loghin, Gordon Nickel, Claire Norton, Reza Pourjavady, Douglas Pratt, Radu Păun, Peter Riddell, Umar Ryad, Mehdi Sajid, Cornelia Soldat, Karel Steenbrink, Davide Tacchini, Ann Thomson, Carsten Walbiner