An Early Modern Dialogue with Islam: Antonio de Sosa's Topography of Algiers (1612) (review)

The appearance of this long-awaited English edition of the first volume of Antonio de Sosa's monumental Topographia, e Historia general de Argel marks a critical boon to the advancement of scholarship in literary, historical, and cultural studies of the early modern Mediterranean. María Antonia Garcés's meticulous notes and erudite introduction, coupled with Diana de Armas Wilson's crisp translation, will prove instrumental in broadening our understanding of the complex and often violent encounters between Christianity and Islam through the imperial projects and slave trade in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe and North Africa. Moreover, the current political turmoil in the region and continuing controversies regarding Islam and the West render the publication of An Early Modern Dialogue with Islam all the more timely and, ultimately, of broader contemporary and thematic relevance to scholars, non-specialists, and students as well.

First published in 1612, the Topographia was until recently attributed to Diego de Haedo. Yet, following the lead of other Golden Age literary scholars and through rigorous archival research, Garcés's introduction not only dispels any doubts of Sosa's true authorship, but also provides new, compelling evidence and analysis for the reasons behind this centuries-old authorial "fraud." In doing so, she pieces together a fascinating biographical narrative of Sosa's life that is fraught with scandal and intrigue, including his possibly licentious familial circumstances and precarious relationship to King Philip II. Following up on her seminal study Cervantes in Algiers: A Captive's Tale (2005), Garcés also details the personal connections between Sosa and Miguel de Cervantes while both authors were held captive in the city of Algiers, one of the chief points of traditional scholarly interest in the Topographia.

The remainder of An Early Modern Dialogue with Islam's generous introduction describes the historical, political, and religious factors that inform Sosa's work, effectively demonstrating its status as an unparalleled examination of quotidian life in an early modern Islamic city. Throughout her analysis, Garcés is most concerned with distinguishing the place of the Topographia among other treatises on North Africa and situating it within the early modern Spanish historiographic and ethnographic traditions. This focus on the work as a privileged eyewitness account of sixteenth-century Algiers foregrounds the city as a nexus of cultural and economic exchange and allows for original conclusions regarding the significance of Sosa's musings and meanderings about this urban space as a captive from 1577 to 1581.

In effect, the Topographia proper represents a minutely detailed description and analysis of the history, layout, and features of Algiers, as well as the culture, customs, and characteristics of its diverse inhabitants. Despite its tacit political objective of appealing to the Spanish Crown for a military invasion to liberate the city's large number of prisoners, the work abounds with nuanced and insightful observations of the people of all stripes who populated its streets. To cite merely one illustrative example, chapter 32 ("Algerian Women's Fashions") vividly portrays the distinct clothing habits of the Moorish, Berber, Turkish, Jewish, and renegade women of Algiers. The descriptive detail and visual imagery of Sosa's writing on this and many other aspects of Algerian life would not, it would seem, have been possible without his unique firsthand perspective and diligence in recording everything he witnessed as part of his captive fieldwork.

Nevertheless, the strong religious fervor that was characteristic of early modern Spain is equally manifest in the Topographia's frequent references to the stereotypes of Islam and censure of non-Christian traditions and practices. An Early Modern Dialogue with Islam, however, is keen to address this element of Sosa's work by contextualizing it within the common historical practice of mutual "demonizing" between Christianity and Islam as well as appropriately anticipating the dismay of "contemporary readers who confront stereotypes...