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  • Exotic Nation: Maurophilia and the Construction of Early Modern Spain
  • Antonio Barbagallo
Fuchs, Barbara . Exotic Nation: Maurophilia and the Construction of Early Modern Spain. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2009. Pp. 200. ISBN 978-0-8122-4135-8.

Exotic Nation captivates the reader from the start. Composed of an introduction, five chapters, and a brief "Postscript," Exotic Nation transports us to the Spain that was once occupied by the descendants of the Moors who first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in the year 711. However, this is not the traditional history volume that analyzes the great political and social events that normally lead into wars and their battles. As the author states in the "Acknowledgements," this is indeed an interdisciplinary book. It is a study that delves into the "little history," into the common everyday events, into the often unnoticed or unnoticeable. Barbara Fuchs's intentions go beyond simply stating that Spain is a hybrid nation, a fact known by most learned individuals within and outside of that country. She intelligently explores daily life, dress, customs, and language of common people (Unamuno's "Intrahistoria"). She then explores chivalric practices of Muslim and Christian knights in literature, official documents, travel accounts by foreigners, and the work of other eminent historians, linguists, and literary critics in order to prove how modern Spain is the product of a sort of "love-hate" relationship.

The author eloquently shows that the sympathetic depiction of Moors in works such as El Abencerraje (anonymous, 1561, 1562, 1565), Las Guerras Civiles de Granada (Ginés Pérez de Hita, 1595, 1619) and Guzmán de Alfarache (Mateo Alemán, 1599) was not a meaningless passing fad for locals, or exoticism for the foreign eye (although foreigners perceived Moorish Spain as exotic), but rather a permanent reality in the fiber of society. In fact, in spite of the fall of Granada in 1492, in spite of the conversions (real and false), and in spite of the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609, as a consequence of their rebellion in the Alpujarras, some Moorish [End Page 209] ways were practiced by everyone in "unified" Spain. The author extensively analyzes the purely "moor" sartorial items worn by Christians, particularly the fine silk garments and headpieces worn by nobles and even the monarchs, and she analyzes the ways of sitting, talking, and horseback riding. It is truly surprising to me that she does not go into what I consider one of the most evident Moorish contributions to Spanish society: its cuisine.

Fuchs spends quite a bit of time writing about the juego de cañas, a Moorish game where knights engage in mock battle. This game soon became a "Spanish" one that even the most Catholic of kings, Phillip II, made his own, and boasted about in London. Although she dedicates a few pages to the Spanish language and the Arabic lexicon within it, she does not say anything about the modern day expression dar caña, which most likely comes from the frequently and extensively mentioned juego de cañas. There is no doubt that Fuchs proves "the persistence of a hybrid, Mudéjar Spain long after the fall of Granada," and that "Whether embraced or stigmatized, . . . Moorishness becomes an unavoidable component in the construction of Spain's national identity over the sixteenth century" (138). It seems, though, that the author's construction of early modern Spain begins in 1492 and continues well into the middle of the seventeenth century, not taking into account that the amalgamation of the two cultures—Christian and Moorish—begins eight centuries earlier with Mozárabe culture first and Mudéjar culture later. We have the feeling here that all of Spain, not just Granada, passed from Moorish hands to Christian (Ibero-Roman-Visigoth) hands in 1492, missing thus the reality of a hybrid culture (Mudéjar) in the Spain north of Granada in the span of many centuries prior to 1492. In spite of this incomplete historical context (and of the fact that this reviewer would prefer footnotes to endnotes), Exotic Nation is a fine book that contains an impressive bibliography.

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