Retelling the Narratives of the East in the West: The Unique Morisco Account of the Polemic of Wāṣil of Damascus
This article discusses the polemics of Wāṣil of Damascus at the Byzantine court in a hitherto unstudied Aljamiado manuscript copied by Moriscos, or Muslims converted to Christianity in Early Modern Iberia. This debate, which unfolded in the first centuries of the expansion of Islam, has so far been...
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Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
2024-07-01
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| Series: | Al-Qantara : Revista de Estudios Arabes |
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| Online Access: | https://al-qantara.revistas.csic.es/index.php/al-qantara/article/view/808 |
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| author | Monica Colominas Aparicio |
| author_facet | Monica Colominas Aparicio |
| author_sort | Monica Colominas Aparicio |
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This article discusses the polemics of Wāṣil of Damascus at the Byzantine court in a hitherto unstudied Aljamiado manuscript copied by Moriscos, or Muslims converted to Christianity in Early Modern Iberia. This debate, which unfolded in the first centuries of the expansion of Islam, has so far been studied on the basis of a single Arabic manuscript. The present contribution adds to the discussion the Aljamiado materials and a number of relevant Arabic sources. It reassesses the character of Wāṣil, his involvement in Byzantine politics and iconoclastic controversies, and his identification with the early theologian Wāṣil b. ʿAṭāʾ (d. 2nd/8th c.). The historical data in Ibn ʿAsākir’s Taʾrīḫ (6th/12th c.) and the role of Wāṣil as the true hero of the story also justify the need for a detailed and extensive analysis of the Muslim readings of the text. The unique Morisco account will be discussed alongside the new evidence, paying attention to the uses of this narrative and its adaptation in the passage from East to West. The practices of retelling tie with the examination of how the original triumphalist story and the key issues of the early Eastern Muslim-Christian debates acquired meaning in the face of the expansion of Iberian Christian society that ended with the expulsion of the Jews and, ultimately, the Moriscos. Taken together, the evidence attests to the preservation of this polemics over the centuries in Muslim circles and its dissemination sometimes in contexts far removed from the original, such as the Muslim West.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c75a9a0a5a0d44568bcc48b830c74806 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0211-3589 1988-2955 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-07-01 |
| publisher | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Al-Qantara : Revista de Estudios Arabes |
| spelling | doaj-art-c75a9a0a5a0d44568bcc48b830c748062024-12-18T16:28:09ZengConsejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasAl-Qantara : Revista de Estudios Arabes0211-35891988-29552024-07-0145110.3989/alqantara.2024.808Retelling the Narratives of the East in the West: The Unique Morisco Account of the Polemic of Wāṣil of DamascusMonica Colominas Aparicio This article discusses the polemics of Wāṣil of Damascus at the Byzantine court in a hitherto unstudied Aljamiado manuscript copied by Moriscos, or Muslims converted to Christianity in Early Modern Iberia. This debate, which unfolded in the first centuries of the expansion of Islam, has so far been studied on the basis of a single Arabic manuscript. The present contribution adds to the discussion the Aljamiado materials and a number of relevant Arabic sources. It reassesses the character of Wāṣil, his involvement in Byzantine politics and iconoclastic controversies, and his identification with the early theologian Wāṣil b. ʿAṭāʾ (d. 2nd/8th c.). The historical data in Ibn ʿAsākir’s Taʾrīḫ (6th/12th c.) and the role of Wāṣil as the true hero of the story also justify the need for a detailed and extensive analysis of the Muslim readings of the text. The unique Morisco account will be discussed alongside the new evidence, paying attention to the uses of this narrative and its adaptation in the passage from East to West. The practices of retelling tie with the examination of how the original triumphalist story and the key issues of the early Eastern Muslim-Christian debates acquired meaning in the face of the expansion of Iberian Christian society that ended with the expulsion of the Jews and, ultimately, the Moriscos. Taken together, the evidence attests to the preservation of this polemics over the centuries in Muslim circles and its dissemination sometimes in contexts far removed from the original, such as the Muslim West. https://al-qantara.revistas.csic.es/index.php/al-qantara/article/view/808Wāṣil of DamascusMuslim-Christian polemicsByzantine iconoclasmMorisco literatureretelling narratives |
| spellingShingle | Monica Colominas Aparicio Retelling the Narratives of the East in the West: The Unique Morisco Account of the Polemic of Wāṣil of Damascus Al-Qantara : Revista de Estudios Arabes Wāṣil of Damascus Muslim-Christian polemics Byzantine iconoclasm Morisco literature retelling narratives |
| title | Retelling the Narratives of the East in the West: The Unique Morisco Account of the Polemic of Wāṣil of Damascus |
| title_full | Retelling the Narratives of the East in the West: The Unique Morisco Account of the Polemic of Wāṣil of Damascus |
| title_fullStr | Retelling the Narratives of the East in the West: The Unique Morisco Account of the Polemic of Wāṣil of Damascus |
| title_full_unstemmed | Retelling the Narratives of the East in the West: The Unique Morisco Account of the Polemic of Wāṣil of Damascus |
| title_short | Retelling the Narratives of the East in the West: The Unique Morisco Account of the Polemic of Wāṣil of Damascus |
| title_sort | retelling the narratives of the east in the west the unique morisco account of the polemic of wasil of damascus |
| topic | Wāṣil of Damascus Muslim-Christian polemics Byzantine iconoclasm Morisco literature retelling narratives |
| url | https://al-qantara.revistas.csic.es/index.php/al-qantara/article/view/808 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT monicacolominasaparicio retellingthenarrativesoftheeastinthewesttheuniquemoriscoaccountofthepolemicofwasilofdamascus |