A MUSLIM FIFTH COLUMN: MORISCO RELIGION AND THE PERFORMANCE OF IDENTITY IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY SPAIN

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Muslims of the newly conquered territory of Granada rebelled against their Catholic Castilian and Aragonese masters. The Muslims of Granada were subsequently given the choice of expulsion or conversion, with many choosing to remain and convert to Catholicism. Beginning with these initial conversions, the question of Morisco Muslim-ness is one that has historians for years. For many scholars, Morisco religiosity represents a form of syncretic religion that blends both the Catholic and the Muslim in specific instantiations of religious practice. For others, the Moriscos represent a crypto-Islamic community that practiced a form of taqiyya, or the Islamic practice allowing Muslims to conceal their religious affiliation under duress or the threat of death. What these analyses fail to take into account is the performative aspects of Morisco religious practice at the boundaries of Catholicism and Islam. This dissertation intends to look at Moriscos as a suspect community from the perspective of the Spanish state, but also from the vantage point of the Moriscos themselves, who attempted to navigate the boundaries of Catholicism as articulated in legislation, polemical texts, and inquisitorial trials, while framing their religious practice in terms of cultural preservation. Similarly, this dissertation will examine the methods employed by the Moriscos in their performance of an oppositional Muslim identity set in direct contrast to a developing Spanish nationalism. Performance here is being employed to investigate how Moriscos, who represented a “fifth column” for the nascent Spanish state, constructed fluid identities that fluctuated in response to the socio-cultural and/or political context.

Grantor dc:publisher

Temple University. Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Hernandez, Eduardo Jose

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Abdullah, Zain

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Blankinship, Khalid Yahya
• Rey, Terry
• Byng, Michelle

• Religious history
• Islamic studies
• History, European
• Identity performance
• Islam
• Moriscos
• Race
• Sixteenth century
• Spain

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Dc Identifier Other

965642569

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/1427