In the Lands of the Christians: Arabic Travel Writing in the Seventeenth Century (review)

Reviews Matar, Nabu. In the Lands of die Christians: Arabic Travel Writing in the Seventeenth Century. London: Routiedge. 2003. i-xlviii + 1-229 pp. ISBN 0-415-93227-0 In this fascinating book, Nabil Matar, Professor ofEnglish at Florida Institute ofTechnolog)-, translates and annotates four travel accounts, written in Arabic by seventeenth-century North African and Near Eastern voyagers -three Muslims and an Assyrian Christian- whose writings have until now not been available in English: Ahmad bin Qasim al-Hajari, who traveled to France and Holland, 161 1-1613; Ilyäs Hanna al-Mawsulî, the Christian, who traveled to Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and Spanish America, 1668-1683; Mohammad bin-cAbd al-Wahâb al-Ghassânî, who traveled to Spain, 16901691 ; and cAbdullah bin cAisha, who visited France, 1699-1700. Matar's lengthy and opulently annotated introduction (pp. xiii-xlviii), more a monographic study ofArab travelers and early modern Europeans, also attests to crucially important features on many of its pages. These consistently interesting narratives provide important insights into Iberian and Western European culture and history from perspectives that, all too often, have been neglected, if not totally ignored. Here are a few instances, of Hispanic significance, which particularly impressed me at first reading: For Muslims, the Christians' -Spanish and Portuguese- militant, imperialistic impulse and the fear it inspired in North Africa carried over for centuries after the Spanish "Reconquista". It also led to the conquest and occupation of numerous Moroccan and Algerian seaports, called plazas de soberanía (Matar xxvi, xliv, ?.50; Francisco López Estrada). Western Europeans and North Americans tend to associate piracy with North Africans: "Barbary pirates" of 1800-05, Cervantes' years of captivity in Algiers, and even a Spanish saying that has survived to modern times, Hay moros por la costa. Compare also the eighteenth-century British and American broadside ballad, "High Barbary" (G. Malcolm Laws no. K33). But European piracy in the Mediterranean, if anything, wasjust as prevalent as that of Muslims, and more dangerous. This was true especially as it was practiced by English, Spanish, and Maltese buccaneers (the latter surely encouraged by their linguistic affinities to Maghrebi Arabic and their La corónica 36.1 (Fall, 2007): 293-97 294ReviensLa coránica 3(3.1, 2007 consequent facility for learning Arabic) (Matar xxviii, xliv, xiv n.57). For Muslims -North African or Near Eastern- a irij) to F.urojie was fraught with multiple, often ven serious dangers. Matar noies in particular lhe massacre of an entire .Algerian delegation in Marseilles on June 18. 1025. including an ambassador and his forty-five companions (xxviii). Whereas many contemporary Christian travelers were quick to condemn Muslim customs out of hand, at least some Muslims seem to have been intellectually curious and relatively open-minded about Europe and Europeans. For example, when al-C.liazzál (= Abu al-cAbl)âs Ahmad ibn alMahd î; d. 1777), attended a bullfight, he did not enjoy it. feeling that "people should not torture animals": but all the same, "he did not seize the opportunity to generalize about Christian cruelty" (xxxii-xxxiii). The Moroccan irazir. Moaiiimatl al-Ghassânî. a descendant of Moriscos, looketl at chairs -along with various other innovative wonders he saw in Spain for the first time- as novelties, thus shedding additional light on the etymology of Spanish cursi (< Ar. Iuiisi) (Matar xxxvi; Joan Corominas II, s.v.). The English merchant Francis Knight, who spent seven \ cars as a captive in .Algiers, stresses the beauty of Muslim girls: "... her women for beautie give place to none" (xliv, n.52). He reiterates a favorite topos of Spanish lyric jjoetn and prose narrative. We need only recall any number ofvillancicos or the beautiful Algerian, Zoraida, and the equally enchanting Morisca, .Ana Félix (Don Ouijote,l. Ch. 41; II, Ch. 64; Margit Frenk nos. 16ß. 312, 158, 497?: Francisco Marquez Villanueva. "Las lecturas del Deán fie Cádiz en una cantiga de mal dizer" 337). Al-IIajarî fells us of an astounding jjroposal: A putative alliance -which, of course, never took place- between the Dutch, the Moroccans, and the exiled Moriscos, aimed at invading and conquering Spain. Maurice of Nassau (1567-1(325) suggests. "Ifwe can reach an agreement with the leaders of the Antlalusians, and send them a fleet of large ships that thev can board with our soldiers, can we conquer Sjiain? ... If we can reach an agreement with the sultan of Marrakech .... we can all join against the sultan of Spain, defeat him, and conquer his land" (Matar 37). Al-Mawsulî, intent on embarking for Spanish .America, travels across Spain and reaches Portugal, where he observes, "There arc also New Christians from among the Jews who had converted to Christianity: thev are known to everyone and thev do not niarrv with Old Christians" (55). What better paradigm for Cervanles's lifelong, unsuccessful struggle to overcome the disadvantages of his etlino-religious heritage'"-- Sec Márquez Villanucva's path-finding and definitive study, "La cuestión tlel judaismo de ("enantes" (Ceñíanles in letra viva 15] -08. 330- 13 ). Al-Mawsulí's account is significant, loo, for his occasional allusions to oral literature. In his travels through Peru and Bolivia and during his sea voyage toward Mexico, he records three variants of the traditional legend, "Kl tesoro maldito o fatal" (Matar (39, 82, 95), now definitively studied and analyzed by José Manuel Pednjsa. Especially intriguing is al-Ghassânî's report of a visit to Madrid where he talked at length with descendants of the Muslim king of Granada and of Re-views295 the Serraj family, called the Abencerrajes (Matar 131-32, 192 ?.25). AlGhass ânî's trip took place in 1690-91, while supposedly all Moriscos had been expelled from Spain between 1609 and 1614. On Spanish attitudes toward commerce, al-Ghassânî obsen-es, "Among the Spaniards, and unlike other people, the trader is considered nothing.... None are found traveling for purposes of trade, except those who are going to India [i.e., the West Indies]. Most ofthe traders and commercial agents in Spain are English, Flemish, Genoese or others" (168). Al-Ghassânî's comments support the observations of Américo Castro: "The small-scale bustling about of the Spanish Jews seemed an unworthy occupation to the Christian.... Craftsmanship, trade, and the equivalent ofbanking institutions were the almost exclusive birthright of the Hispano-Hebrews in the Middle Ages" (498-99). Al-Ghassânî is especially scandalized by the activity offrailes confesores: "As for the woman who does not go to church, the friar goes after her in her house and makes her confess: he enters with her into a secluded corner of the house, and then the ftvo of them shut the door to the room in which the woman had entered with the friar. He remains with her until God decides!" (179, 180). Here al-Ghassânî's not-so-implicit accusation nicely coincides with the more blatant anti-clericalism of the traditional lyric and the Romancero: Erare de Sant Francisco / dels mes politics que hi ha, per confessar una monja / set hores hi va estar. Ja hi va l'abadessa: / Prou confessada esta. El mal que en té la monja / als non mesos curara. (Armistead 180) Al-Ghassânî's detailed account of the conquest of al-Andalus by Mûsâ ibn Nusayr and Târiq ibn Ziyâd (Matar 1 18-21) differs from the narratives better known to Hispano-medievalists (Ramón Menéndez Pidal 1-14). Al-Ghassânî later refers to "a book by Mohammad bin Musa al-Razi" (Matar 190). This is obviously Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Musa al-Razi, author of the Crónica del Moro Rasis, crucial to medieval Iberian historiography, but I have not been able to correlate the passages translated by Matar with the Copenhagen MS edited by Diego Catalán (347 ff.). Al-Ghassânî's characterizations of Christian monarchs are intriguing. He sees Carlos V as "one of the worst despots among the despots of the infidels -may God destroy them- a man ofmight, deceit, malice and intrigue" (Matar 146). Felipe II fares no better: He "proved to be one of the most evil despots of his time" (147), whereas Felipe IV "was an evil despot among the despots of the infidels, may God destroy them" (151). But Carlos II ("Rev sin segundo -¡Gracias a Dios!"), probably an imbecile, gets off relatively well: "He is weak in body as in mind" (192, n.29), while Don Sebastian is "credited with stupidity and folly" for having invaded Morocco and gotten "embroiled in the lands of the Arabs" (149). Al-Ghassânî, a descendant of Moriscos expelled from Spain in 1609-1614, is by far the most severe of Matar's travelers in criticizing Spain, the Spanish Christians, and Christians 29(3ReviewsLa coránica 3(3.1, 2007 in general: ".All, however, are lost: mav God increase their ugliness and eradicate them from earth" (172; 115. 116). One small correction, which in no sense lessens the importance of this splendid book: ficndiiq (inn) floes not derive from the Spanish fonda (xlvxlvi ); the reverse is tnie. From an etymological perspective, we can see that derivatives ofArabic/i/Wi/c/ (and its regional variants) came over into Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese not just once, but at a number of different historical moments, as can be attested in such forms as the Spanish albóndiga. Catalan alfondec, or the Portuguese aljcindega (Joan Corominas ¿L· José A. Pascual 2: 927-29; Joan Coromines et al. 1: 180-87: IY, 87; José Pedro Machado 1: 190). In both Spanish and Catalan, fonda is a ven' late, eighteenth-century loan, but such forms as Mozarabic/iwic/c/cyc///: mesonero', and Crusader French fonde assure us that Romance languages were quite familiar with the .Arabic word long before the eighteenth centun. The Spanish albóndiga and related forms certainly come from Hispano-Arabie (Federico Corriente. A Dictionary ofAndaliisi Arabic 407; Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorroinance 1(33). The -a infonda and earlier forms suggests a Western Arabic (Maghrebi) origin, rather than Eastern and Standard Arabic funduq. Note also the Moroccan Arabic fendaäq. 'auberge, hôtellerie' (Zakia Iraqi Sinaceur 6: 1498) and lhe microtoponvm el-Fendeq. on the road between Tangier and Tetiián. Desj)ite their relatively late dates, the .Arabic texts translated and ablv annotated bv Nabil Malar constantly lake us back to and enlighten ouiperspectives on phenomena and problems that had their origins long before, in the Middle Ages. Thus, these travel narratives (riblcil) commend themselves, not only to Hispanists concerned with early modern studies, but, in no uncertain terms to Hispano-niedievalists. We can learn from what thev have to say. Nabil Matar deserves our sinceresl thanks. Samuel G. Armistead University of California, Davis Works Cited Armistead, Samuel G. "N'eo-Individualism and the Romancero" . Romance Philology 33 (1979): 172-81. Castro, Américo. The Structure of Spanish History. Princeton: Princeton UP 1954. Catalan, Diego, et al., eds. Crónica del Mom Rc/sis. Madrid: Gretlos, 1975. Corominas, Joan, with José A. Pascual. Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico. 6 vols. Madrid: Credos. 1980-. Coromines. Joan. Dicciónari Etiinologic i Complementan de la Llengiia Catalana. 10 vols.' Barcelona: Curial-La Caixa, 1983-2001. Corriente, Federico. A Dictionary ofAndaliisi Arabic. Leiden: Brill, 1997. Reviews297 ------. Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorroman.ee. Madrid: Gredos, 1999. Frenk, Margit. Nuevo Corpus de la antigua lírica popular hispánica (Siglos XV a XVII). 2 vols. Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2003. Iraqi Sinaceur, Zakia, ed. Le Dictionnaire Colin d'arabe dialectal, marocain. 8 vols. Rabat: Al-Manahil, 1993. Laws, G. Malcolm. American Balladiy from British Broadsides. Philadelphia: American Folklore Society, 1957. López Estrada, Francisco. "La frontera allende el mar: El romance por la victoria de Tetuán (1633) de Ana Caro de Malien". Homenaje a José Manuel Blecua. Madrid: Gredos, 1983. 337-46. Machado, José Pedro. Dicionário Etimológico da Lingua Portuguesa. 6th ed. Lisbon: Horizonte, 1990. Márquez Villanueva, Francisco. "Las lecturas del Deán de Cádiz en una cantiga de mal dizer". Proceedings of the International Symposium on the "Cantigas de Santa Maria" ofAlfonso X. Eds. Israel J. Katz and John E. Keller. New York: Hispanic Society, 1987. 329-54. ------. Cervantes en letra viva: Estudios sobre la vida y la obra. Barcelona: Reverso, 2005. Menéndez Pidal, Ramón. Reliquias de la poesía épica española, acompañadas de "Epopeya y Romancero". Ed. Diego Catalán. 2nd ed. Madrid: Gredos, 1980. Pedresa, José Manuel. "¿Existe el hipercuento?; Chaucer, una leyenda andaluza y la historia de El tesoro fatal (AT 763)". Revista de Poética Medieval 2 (1998): 195-223. ...