Antonio Urquízar-Herrera
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198797456
- eISBN:
- 9780191838811
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198797456.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Historiography
This book offers the first systematic analysis of the cultural and religious appropriation of Andalusian architecture by Spanish historians during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Early ...
More
This book offers the first systematic analysis of the cultural and religious appropriation of Andalusian architecture by Spanish historians during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Early Modern Spain was left with a significant Islamic heritage: Córdoba Mosque had been turned into a cathedral, in Seville the Aljama Mosque’s minaret was transformed into a Christian bell tower, and Granada Alhambra had become a Renaissance palace. To date this process of Christian appropriation has frequently been discussed as a phenomenon of hybridisation. However, during that period the construction of a Spanish national identity became a key focus of historical discourse. The aforementioned cultural hybridity encountered partial opposition from those seeking to establish cultural and religious homogeneity. The Iberian Peninsula’s Islamic past became a major concern and historical writing served as the site for a complex negotiation of identity. Historians and antiquarians used a range of strategies to re-appropriate the meaning of medieval Islamic heritage as befitted the new identity of Spain as a Catholic monarchy and empire. On one hand, the monuments’ Islamic origin was subjected to historical revisions and re-identified as Roman or Phoenician. On the other hand, religious forgeries were invented that staked claims for buildings and cities having been founded by Christians prior to the arrival of the Muslims in Spain. Islamic stones were used as core evidence in debates shaping the early development of archaeology, and they also became the centre of a historical controversy about the origin of Spain as a nation and its ecclesiastical history.Less
This book offers the first systematic analysis of the cultural and religious appropriation of Andalusian architecture by Spanish historians during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Early Modern Spain was left with a significant Islamic heritage: Córdoba Mosque had been turned into a cathedral, in Seville the Aljama Mosque’s minaret was transformed into a Christian bell tower, and Granada Alhambra had become a Renaissance palace. To date this process of Christian appropriation has frequently been discussed as a phenomenon of hybridisation. However, during that period the construction of a Spanish national identity became a key focus of historical discourse. The aforementioned cultural hybridity encountered partial opposition from those seeking to establish cultural and religious homogeneity. The Iberian Peninsula’s Islamic past became a major concern and historical writing served as the site for a complex negotiation of identity. Historians and antiquarians used a range of strategies to re-appropriate the meaning of medieval Islamic heritage as befitted the new identity of Spain as a Catholic monarchy and empire. On one hand, the monuments’ Islamic origin was subjected to historical revisions and re-identified as Roman or Phoenician. On the other hand, religious forgeries were invented that staked claims for buildings and cities having been founded by Christians prior to the arrival of the Muslims in Spain. Islamic stones were used as core evidence in debates shaping the early development of archaeology, and they also became the centre of a historical controversy about the origin of Spain as a nation and its ecclesiastical history.
Antonio Urquízar-Herrera
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198797456
- eISBN:
- 9780191838811
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198797456.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Historiography
The concluding chapter deals with an attempt to control the validity of some of the ideas about cultural hybridity and homogenization proposed in previous chapters. In this regard, special attention ...
More
The concluding chapter deals with an attempt to control the validity of some of the ideas about cultural hybridity and homogenization proposed in previous chapters. In this regard, special attention has been paid to the reception of historiographical narratives on the Spanish Islamic buildings by their early modern contemporaries. This has required a review of several topics: the circumstances surrounding the dissemination of ideas through literature as well as through presence in the public milieu of civil and religious feast days and liturgies; the perpetuation of these lines of thought through intellectual traditions; visual imagery as a selective filtering device for ideas; and the contrast between local ideological agendas and foreign visitors’ perceptions.Less
The concluding chapter deals with an attempt to control the validity of some of the ideas about cultural hybridity and homogenization proposed in previous chapters. In this regard, special attention has been paid to the reception of historiographical narratives on the Spanish Islamic buildings by their early modern contemporaries. This has required a review of several topics: the circumstances surrounding the dissemination of ideas through literature as well as through presence in the public milieu of civil and religious feast days and liturgies; the perpetuation of these lines of thought through intellectual traditions; visual imagery as a selective filtering device for ideas; and the contrast between local ideological agendas and foreign visitors’ perceptions.
