¿Existe una identidad mozárabe? Historia, lengua y cultura de los cristianos de al-Andalus (siglos IX-XII) (review)

¿Existe una identidad mozárabe?, a collection of twelve studies from both well-established and emerging scholars, is a refreshing new approach to the question of the identity and population of the Christian minority in al-Andalus. This compilation, which addresses topics from history, language and culture of the Christians of al-Andalus from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, comprises thoughtful reflections and new proposals as to the question of the identity, contribution and role of the Mozarabs in the early Andalusí period. Most interestingly, the studies in question include not only Andalusí data but reach beyond the Iberian Peninsula to include a comparative perspective that includes the Near East, Maghreb, and Sicily, areas which have traditionally received little or superficial attention when it comes to the question of Christians in the Islamic world.

In the introduction, Cyrille Aillet briefly discusses the historical and contextual development of the collective understanding of the term Mozarab and the Mozarabic population. He begins with Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada's attempt to explain who the Mozarabs were according to his own understanding of this population (Ximénez de Rada 106-09, 150-52). Aillet identifies Francisco Javier Simonet's work on the history of the Mozarabs as the first to firmly place the terminology and revive the history of these people in the minds of contemporary scholars. He goes on to enumerate the important scholarship that has contributed to our fundamental understanding of the Christians in Muslim Spain, arguing that part of the difficulty encountered when discussing the Mozarabs is the fact that there was never one unified Christian community but several, each of which must be analyzed and discussed in its own right.

In "Los mozárabes, una minoría combativa", Manuel Cecilio Díaz y Díaz threads together the literary production of the polemic Christians living in al-Andalus who refused to conform to Muslim rule and criticized those who, as they saw it, chose the easy path of conversion and assimilation. He explains that Elipando de Toledo, in commenting that Christ was the only child of God, in fact argued that Christianity was monotheistic and not, as was often perceived by Muslims, polytheistic. He discusses the impact of the Concilio Cordobés of 839 that sought to eliminate those tendencies contrary to the doctrines of the polemicists. Álvaro de Córdoba's writings served as a critique of those religious figures not conforming to this type of orthodoxy. Álvaro's critique also targeted those members of the upper level Catholic hierarchy who ascended to their position in part due to Muslim intervention in religious affairs. Díaz y Díaz also points out some important differences between Córdoba and other cities with important Christian communities. This chapter's major contribution is its careful and well-documented references to primary sources available in modern-day Spanish archives.

Following Díaz y Díaz's thoughtful work is Fernando González Muñoz's examination of the influence of anti-Islamist Christian writers of the Near East on those living in al-Andalus. In "En torno a la orientación de la polémica antimusulmana en los textos latinos de los mozárabes del siglo IX", he argues that the Mozarab authors of al-Andalus knew of the anti-Muslim writings by Christians living in the Orient. The Andalusí Christians built an "aggressive" anti-Muslim discourse based on adaptations of the prophetic texts. Their purpose, he argues, was to highlight the commonalities between Christianity and Judaism and place Islam in opposition to these religions by painting Mohammed as a sort of Antichrist. The writings were designed to impede an understanding of Islam and to block any dialogue between members of the three religions. González Muñoz explains that at first, Islam was interpreted...