DECEMBER 1991CONTENTS

Interview withMELINA MERCOURI

"''W-

"awt tttm <MM) M) ttn ht < ? < ottMh

"OMtt <) MMM h « M< MMOMtwtty

wus e 1Ar talte. oA awaret a am,

, ; \W) MM thw peMtMt M « M) CMte

dt 1, k i in th nt ot msn

j<MM<t xtttt <t the < eexM

oasbuabA. a, :

<tmMfM. <M) awt<h<) M « <t<Mt

M), X) M<t<tMtHM<&lt;ehw) <tM) meM<MXO) ef m<ttMt<&lt;.

' ttMM MMe"*, th* aMM\.'. pMMM... *f* *<f « *a<

XteptM<&lt;t<tB « «) thty thM< ntMMt<tr<t<t t) Mt) M< « <t< <M) <Mt

f d moralselrlr ot msl.

prss.. : n ad

oIt s mans ef

Ottt t<MM ttftet) tXM*tw) M< ef

".'""etM) Mtt) « H))) <M. '.

It and asa moryat Imord· w

'/K. MttM) ot tr r ir tl

iAa. 8 r ; t

____

AL-ANDALUS :WHERE THREE WORLDS MET

SINGULAR AND PLURAL :THE HERITAGE OF AL-ANDALUS)'Kf7/if : e 15

THE ROOTS OF COEXISTENCEby M : g « e/ CrKZ//o ? Mnz 20

THE RISE OF THE UMAYYAD DYNASTYIN SPAINby J Derek Latham 24

CORDOBA THE MAGNIFICENTby Pierre Guichard 28

THE CHRISTIAN CONTRIBUTIONby Rosa Guerreiro 32

CONVERGENT STREAMSby Haim Zafrani 35

THE PURSUIT OF LEARNINGby t7 : ef 38

THE TOLEDO SCHOOLby MKrff ? ! t ! Bd ! f ! 40

BORGES IN SEARCH OF AVERROESby Racbid Sabbaghi 42

UNESCO'S FIRST45 YEARS (Part III)by Michel ; 7 Ztcotc

' t/Nsco/N/tcno

TENTHANNIVERSARYOF THE UNESCO PRHFOR PEACEEDUCATIONby Betty Reardon andUngku 4MH/4ztz

< UNESCO lN ACTION

WORLD HERITAGEThe Topkapi harem :a forbidden enclaveby Ctr'0/Mf/Mf<t

49

' NMVa : M/

YUNUS EMREby 7< Sait Halman

UNESCO COURIERINDEX t991

Cover : untitled (100 x 81 cm),1988, mixed technique oncanvas by the French artistIsabelle Grange.Back cover : arches of theGreat Mosque in Cordoba(Spain).

___ __

3

" "Yy

. J

sc xan re n.. ,.v, < r

ycDC/paw)))) a

E% ! N : 4'/9 *'*"' *'< /

'SSM ..'-

.. :, .. 4 a ,, ., ) IICtOr-ienail. 1'e 18,

"MMtMe UNE, <t tHt of dteUN General ekcted Director-Genera ! in 1962. : :S.'S.' :'" utgtht-tMNt'f... AMt. a'tt' in dte * TheIntenNtioodConventionfortheProtec-tion of Pet&Mmers, Produces of PhotMtgrmMS : : % .-", :'''"''' !. S'".''-' <'aM &tr'poehd [pMtt of atdt and BroadeMtu Orgtnizations (the"Rome

ISM'. 'm' : - Coteation'isdMwnupjomdybyUNESCO, : : S''.. SQ.. ', ; L. 'OjGMH<. :, M &Msic Aet the WotM Inte ! ! ectuat Propetty OrgmBatIon, ;'. . IJW'-j'tH Prof. Pien-e (WIPO) and the International Labour Organi-

; : 'tle UN aad satioa (ILO).ttl in 195t.

- : U.'JS-J.- ; \. r. & : : AW ; ' pabB jtO) M by the UN md sation ( ! LO).

SX ths-taaamBem. of between UNICBF tnd UNESCO. :, bepm,e& ; \$. Botfly m prinMry md earty duldhood. edu-; Edtal= T Y P'Y

"'''MA MM S H ! gh Bwa s ! aaa<j PreMd ! <t a ceremony cation.

' :''Ssh M o<) tM<&amp;. <"-''* UNQO'hetdMBH, AadMdnm corn-N The Erst Regiomd ConfereMe of Mincers ofCSf/. SSx' j'-, \j" ; ; iB<e*, < EdtMttton M hetd at Addis Abeba. Between 1961ana 1986, 24 such conferences are held (forP"* ;' Sjtt 22 ittaetaad teaBt me moted, 40 technKat AMca ; Latin America and the Caribbean ; theAras States ; Asia and the Pacific ; and Europe). ; erM.,/OOBtri of gSfenunenB and other tCtef- An emergency pftramme ts launched M part ; S.. aaaoaat'MUtces, pubSe andpeaate, toMt $56 of UN action to maintain educationa ! services

'M ! -\-- :. inCongo-LeopoMviue (todayZaire). MoKd ! an'&$t'S3M' .'.'.'. a hundred specialists are sent and he ! p is providedSe'MN ; St',"--. ; : ?"'''.""'for the recruitment of some 800 teachers.

F

9

' N UNESCO sends a mission into the seismiczones of Asia, South Amaia Africx, leg

, ,. . ',

. to the crtioa af a study Prognmme on uth-

;- : taber ; « t thcKsijsnattonof Vit-ouakes and other natural hards.'."'"''tonaeemtmeheahhreasoas. ReneMaheu t) UNESCO estaMishes in Rome the Intema-

A. aec 7't ; onat Computation Centre (ICC) later to1A A !

Wf

tCuiyi4, INl7f1 ilf '.' : : l1111 becomes the InMrgovemmentalBuKau of Imbr-matics (IBI).

8 The UNESCO Collec : tions of TraditionalMusic are launched in rollaboration with theIMC (ISO LPs released by 1986). Today the Col-lections have been issued on SO compact discs.

y. *', '°r4. 3. '' "

The LTNESCO Collections of Traditionat

'` ; p . Music are in collabor. tion with the

cW Fund, UNESCO bècins action on projects

F, . .

. ; '. IMC (150 LPs relead by 1986). Todap the Co. " t. *''` kcticas have heen issuect on 50 compcx discs.

be traùiecL

y

, w In . oaon with the Uited Nations Spo- [ p aion Qa projects

4FY_ 35, Afix) x wbich tho> ef

(teachas WIll

r ·, PV " 94-i'r. ", OC 1.r , f

n x ic

. MMWB'

. :/MM'tMMt) 'M<B ! M. <9WWM<&lt; :''.' : \ ; ; :'. ;

.

..

ttMN'tts

--nH ! ! t

f ! '

:'. aB' :".''wNr's MRS-' :'-'MB ".

! <_'

! !.. lr° ;'-'. f 1. h.- r,. . ArJ`

, ar. : E' ; d, , t, : tw. .., : ;, p.... : : , va :r a Y, xS , e. it'L z'I ... l.y'n.... a' 1..,....'i'i z,.. 4 FI a_.,-r >° _t : pL,.., . . S'm. ... f "-#,:,'3^t.,

y !

a..a. 4 g $., f,.. ``°... h t.

Y ..

% i W. 1.Y'a. G.

1..

i. =^XS t

_. >

: . y. i :, ;. t.y 1 *. s< " : ar t

Y.,

.. -rt'. w x`

;

r 4 : ̂ ; st Y/t ji'.,. a. fyt 'e.. t,,,,m a #

·

t,.'r

e ,'..-. ·.'. . #, ... >rc^ 3.. *

yy, y, y y'm1 !^F. ''i'Sd 7 , y ! !''

`,.`t f7 .' fy W '

x lilL 11w '11lL 1,.v. < Dh r Y :. t YP

9 d y5 " i. : :. r :

=......

Y `

c,- ,. ·t. x.. : y. 3 ...-. t.,, . 'o °

s-v... ;''e.

. a h ° 3 R.r.., . `.. · > " : " : ,. ; · r. :.....'..

a'` r

f ='r,. , t v :.. ; s : ", ·... . : y. ``>3.., L .., i

Go- " t , 3 ; t''-: 2`c$. " : r,'. '' ,, 1 Illui`

.

y,, ,, _. TA14- ;... ·. ` lGli'.....

:'IH-iQC ..'Y''f

. " (RL. Y k :.=i'. r y , ., `, ·r _-· " "

* :.`

" ̀ " · : g 1 oe :

, t

t , ta'rtad.,. L.,.-k . : b ' .'x ..: z : " ` ; - x'',, i' l. C 5o-

r.

u S' u " v',

, .. `

L

h.. ,

a - :y5 :)

, `d w 1...'v..R ; r Y-`. n ldt. .'im "

Y'> # : _. 1.','x, _ 3 ;'$ 4l y k S. t h N,£'fr 4 5

a`. i " >h..,. S. m. .

f.IY ! (W.. ZS^

r x-, f'-r sk'h,. ;,ny

` r " f " , " ..

:em ̂h, *, : r',» j` -' r '... 'y ̂

.. . a. .. " " ;.. r .-n

, . v , .. : ,', °. :

4''

, i' , , .. ;

r # S ., nd

i'' ;' r ;, f r

` " ' M y' ; s, 4`

r a,.., s, t

< ! 5.. fiyy4 Y f <

,, WV'.,.

d' cT ? 4,,,,/tir

1Z

3`'.

. , "'-s ;,, _,h far·. Y W ;., :

! " !'K f

. · ·.

,a., a k u . y.

...

-'''.'4n.'.,-..

_ y. "

>iT. ? a ?

r_s, t

;

=, si...

Stage and screen actress, deputy and minister, You were very young when you firstMelina Mercouri has had an eventful career which has been became interested in the theatre. Tell us some-

..... -t j OKf fc ctor' ! CM'/f. W% < ! f GrfCKcrowned with success m many feMs. A standard-Dearer ,

of liberty at the time-of the co/oneh'reg/me, she is think about the stage ?regarded with affection by the Greek people, for whom-My family has been involved in politics for

...,,.. < t-n generations. My grandfather, who adored meand whom I adored, was mayor of Athens for

more than twenty years. The house wasalways full, for at that time the mayor ofAthens was as powerful as a minister, maybe

even more so. That was theatre for me. I had

a stage, an audience, partners, dialogues, some-times even long tirades.

8

. Were there women in politics at that time ?

- No. Politics was for men. But when I wasa child, I often used to imagine what it wouldbe like to be In my grandfather's shoes. Politicsdidn't enter into it, I understood nothingabout that. What mattered was the drama, thespeeches... and the audience.

So the theatre was a part of me from myearly years. And then my grandfather oftentook me with him to see plays. I felt at homethere, even though I couldn't follow the plots.In some ways it was like being at home.

Even when I was very young, I was arebel. When I was seven or eight I used to

MEDNA MERCOUR)

tatksto

Bahgat E ! na (t ! an () A (te ! Rifaat

escape from the house and go off with a friend N things were as you describe them, how

to the cinema or to a cafe to listen to music. did you set about 0'ucrcom ! ? ! f osfc/es*'Once we got dressed up in our mothers'finery-I got married at seventeen ! To a wealthyand went to a sailors'tavern, where they aristocrat who had studied at Cambridgeserved tea and played music. In all innocence, University. Politically he was conservative,

we got up and danced. We just enjoyed per-not to say reactionary, but he had extremelyforming, putting on a show and being liberal ideas on the role of women. He didn'tapplauded. My mother soon put an end to that try to turn me into a submissive wife. Helittle adventure. A woman who had seen us didn't even make me take his name, as wastipped her off, and she came looking for me. normal at the time. I stayed Melina Mercouri,She took me back home and severely punished for him and for everyone he introduced meme. Never mind. I had made my decision. I to. Thai's how I broke free from my familywanted to go on the stage. I wanted applause ! and how I was able to study and prepare forObviously, my parents didn't see things In the the audition that would get me into the Drama

same way. School of the National Theatre of Greece.

N Why not ? Was the life of an actor or actress · Then came the war and the Occupation.considered disreputable ? Could you describe what it was like ? Or is

- No. But for the Athenian upper middle it something you prefer not to talk about ?class to which I belonged, It wasn't done to-Why shouldn't I talk about it ? We had three

go on the boards, even to play a heroine of years of Occupation. I saw swollen bellies andSophocles or Euripides. What's more, there people dying of hunger. I saw carts going by

was no security in the artist's life. One day with the corpses of men and women piled upyou could be rolling in money and the next on them like carcasses of cattle. I saw people

you could be starving. For children of good living from day to day, not knowing whatfamily, the theatre was risky, tomorrow would bring. I saw the continual

I don't think my parents thought there uncertainty drive some to heroic acts of

was anything dishonourable about acting, resistance and others to collaboration.They would have had no objection if they Nobody in my family collaborated with thecould have been certain that I would be a enemy. My younger brother was in the

success ! They were behind me throughout my Resistance. Not me. It's the one thing I reallypolitical and artistic career. It would certainly regret. But it wasn't through lack of couragehave been the same with my grandfather, if or fear of death.he hadn't done me the dirty trick of dying in One day I was in a tavern with threethe meantime, friends when three SS men entered. They were

9

A scene from Topkapi (1964), directed by JulesDassin. In foreground, Maximilian Schell,

'Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov and Robert Morley.

. Are audiences different, or is there reallyonly one audience ?

- Audiences are different. In England,

1t sf', 4s i

brawl. In Greece they're colder. You have to

y

/, t · Are audiences different, or is there reallyonly one audience ?

.-Audiences are different. In England,America, even France, audiences are oftenready for the fray as soon as they've got theirtickets ; they're expecting to take part in abrawl. In Greece they're colder. You have towork hard to win them over, to warm them

up, get them to react, take part.

dead drunk. They asked us to sit at their table. talk to me. At length and tirelessly. He talked * Z. so fc r/M or < ! n cWhen we didn't move, one of them drew a to me about Greek tragedy, about Its poetry, audience has been conquered. Who does itrevolver. My three friends got up then and the tradition, the significance it had for the applaud : MMfrcoKn, o ?' ; Mp<Hwent over to join them. I don't know what Greek people. Eventually he convinced me. played ? Does each character have its own

got into me because my head was empty, but He made theatre a religion for me. That is no reality, its own message, or is it really alwaysI didn't move. The SS man was furious, he exaggeration ; there was something religious Melina who is in control ?kept on at me. He pointed the pistol and about my devotion to Greek tragedy. Back-Melina is always there, naturally, but to givestarted counting. " Ein, zwei, drei...."I still home, I would rehearse Marguerite's mono-birth to a role created by someone else, adidn't move. I wasn't scared. He fired, and the logue on my knees. I rehearsed it so many character for whom she is only a surrogateglass in front of me shattered. Now I was times that I wore out the carpet. mother. At every performance, Melina givesfurious, and I got up and started shouting What could the SS do against Medea or birth. Now, there are some people who talkinsults at him. I never considered that he Antigone ? Thanks to them, I moved through down the role of the surrogate mother.might keep on firing. I wasn't thinking of any-the war like a sleepwalker. Without getting They're wrong. The baby Melina brings forththing. Then the military police arrived and into psychoanalysis, I think you have to look for the audience has been in her guts after all.dragged him out of the tavern, to my love of the theatre for one of the essen-It's no longer the exclusive property of the

I didn't know what fear was. Even so, I tial keys to my behaviour, author, any more than it's exclusivelydidn't join the Resistance. When I think about Melina's. It has a life, a reality of its own. It'sit now, I wonder If the main reason wasn't N Fo « <M yoMr career on the stage just incredible, what I'm saying, but that's what

my burning ambition to be an actress ! At after the war. What does playing a role happens. And it's wonderful.drama school from two till six every day, the involve for you ? What goes through your It's all the more outrageous because theoutside world ceased to exist. There was no head when yoK'rc performing a part that director is also mixed up in this process of nomore Occupation, no more Germans, no someone else has written ? longer knowing who is who. The director is

more Melina even. There was only Mar--It's when I'm rehearsing that the most a go-between. And a good director will knowguerite, Ophelia, la Locandiera, Electra. And important things happen. It's during rehearsals how to make the actor part of a whole corn-then there was the sublime Dimitris Rondiris, that the character, who as you say has been pany on stage. Without that, even an actorour teacher. He demanded from us a commit-created by someone else, becomes alive in me who is a genius will end up like a meteorite,ment to the theatre as total as his own. His and through me. Actors carry their roles inside lost in too much space. In the theatre it's team-Oresteia remains the greatest theatrical them, just as pregnant women carry babies. work that works wonders.experience of my life. You can feel it physically, like a pregnancy.

It was Rondiris who taught me to control It's a very sensual experience. It's that gesta-N W% crc o c !' ? ! cm< ! !'n fo < !//1 Wsand modulate my voice. He used to say that tion that constitutes the creative part of acting. it part of your adolescent dreams ?I was made for tragedy. I was quite prepared Later, when you confront the audience, it's-It certainly was ! Mind you, in the earlyto admit that Electra was the greatest role an more like bullfighting. You have to kill them, 1950s, Greek cinema only wanted actresses toactress could play, but even so I used to beg of course, but the instruments are already play young innocents. Above a)) they had tohim, sometimes with tears in my eyes, to there. You've prepared them during have big eyes and tiny little mouths. I wasn'tadmit that I wasn't Electra ! Then he would rehearsals, built for the job. I was too big and my mouth

10

was too wide. Even so, I didn't give up hope.

. sy, h s. Gt " 2 ;

somewhere else, in France or England. And

u

Korda gave me a screen test. We both burst

out laughing when we saw it ; I looked

., a 1' s 7 9 : lt

! II k

everyone else too, that the theatre was theonly place for me. When Iacovos Campanellis

was too wide. Even so, I didn't give up hope.I told myself that maybe I'd have a chance `

t ̀ ̀

somewhere else, in France or England. And

sure enough, one day in London AlexanderKorda gave me a screen test. We both burst

out laughing when we saw it ; I lookedridiculous. 'wi i

I'd finished up by convincing myself, and s'_, k "' !

everyone else too, that the theatre was the il, Iy (I !

only place for me. When Iacovos Campanellis

wrote the part of Stella for me, he saw it asa stage role. By chance, though, he had asked Melina Mercouri between

Anthony Perkins and Jules Dassin (right)Cacoyannis to direct it. There was a moment meno "

when things were touch-and-go. Cacoyannis Cannes Film Festival, where I almost won thewanted to make it into a film, but Campanellis Best Actress award. It was the start of M, by a long chalk. Then that wonderfuldidn t want anyone but me to ptay Stella. As Cacoyannis's international career. Thirty-five film Celui qui doit mourir ( " He who Mustfar as he was concerned, I was Ste !) a,"the most years later, the film hasn't aged a bit. They Die "). It came out of the encounter betweenemancipated woman in Greece". So they showed it on television recently and the Kazantzakis. Jules Dassin and Crete. Crete isdecided to give me a screen test. That was a viewing figures were exceptional. The splendid, Kazantzakis a genius and Dassin aweird experience. Cacoyannis started by pho-character Campanellis created remains abso-very directortographing me from every angle, then he set lutely modern. Cacoyannis used to say of I can still visualize the village where It wasup the camera in front of me, made me howl Stella : " She's gay. She's vibrant. She's proud shot. They'd never seen a camera before. We'dwith laughter and shot me with the camera of her body. She's proud of her liberty. She agreed that all the villagers should appear asfocused halfway down my throat. When I saw has lovers and she has friends. She refuses to extras, and we'd assembled them in the churchthe rushes, I understood that something had think of marriage as a form of security, and

square. Dassin read the script and I translated.happened. It was the start of a love-affair she doesn't want society's blessing. She's sus-There were good and bad characters in thebetween me and the camera, picious of everything society approves of. " script, rich people and poor people.

Stella was a success. It was shown at the When we came to give out the roles,- 0//<- y r -, py e goodies, which is

tional career, which one stands out for you to say the poor people. It was no use my tellingMercouri. in a scene from the f)) m 10. 30 p. m."0. g gj g weren't JUSt rich, theyMercouri in a scene from the film 10. 30 p. m.Summer (1966). also had more important parts, so the people

who played them would make more money. Istill couldn't persuade them. Finally I told themthat I couldn't do anything about it, that that

was how Kazantzakis had plotted the story.

of them didn't know how to read. But theNone of them had read the novel, in fact mostof them didn't know how to read. But the

wanted them to. It brought tears to my eyes.

moment I mentioned Kazantzakis's name, they

: all immediately agreed to play whatever role hewanted them to. It brought tears to my eyes.

I made other films with Dassin. In eachof them he managed miraculously to createan atmosphere of camaraderie and joie de vivrethat transfigured everyone involved. I wouldlike to mention here the film he made about

11

the unrest at the Ecole Polytechnique in moments ? Well, here are two that come to over a whole people, seemingly for ever. TheAthens. The whole film was shot indoors, In mind. Greek people seemed to have been reduced to

one room. Yet through Dassin's magic, all the First of all, there was the Greek sailor I silence. But my sailor's gesture showed how

anger, all the nobility, all the beauty of the met in the docks at Genoa in Italy. It was five deceptive the silence could be. I've learnedGreek people are there in it. It's a pure gem. o'clock In the morning. He was heading back since then never to believe that a people is

to a merchant ship with some other sailors, happy with its government just because It is

* Now do you explain the stir Melina made My heart started pounding. Any Greek you silent. Silence never indicates contentment.when she weMt into politics ? Melina, who met at that time immediately became a com-Contentment is voluble, noisy. Silence canhadn't joined the Resistance during the War ? rade, a brother. I went up to talk to them. I only be imposed by force.

- That wasn't the same at all. During the War wanted to discuss the situation in Greece, The other incident made me reflect above

I was very young, and there were the Drama invite them to a meeting we were holding that all on the fragility of human intelligence. HowSchool courses to isolate me, literally to spirit evening. We hadn't exchanged a word when could anyone believe such an obvious absur-

me away from the fighting.. their officer arrived and ordered them to dity as that story of 50, 000 communistWith the dictatorship of the colonels, it return to their ship immediately. My sailor invaders ? But leaving the'details aside, the

was very different. I had reached a completely went off with the others. I just stood there, question Is still relevant today. How Is it thatdifferent emotional and political maturity, my arms stretched out to nothing, suddenly people can be conditioned to the point ofThe coup d'etat affected me like a rape. You feeling very alone. But then just before he dis-losing their sense of logic, of applauding thecan't react calmly to being raped. You shout, appeared from view, without even turning very people who are tormenting them ? It can't

you protest, you scratch. I was abroad when round, my sailor put his hand behind his back all be explained In terms of economic or polit-the colonels seized power. Well, I shouted as and gave me the victory sign. I cried for joy. ical self-interest. There were plenty of sincereloud as I could. I shouted, I sang, I danced for The second memory is very different, people among the colonels'backers who stoodliberty. I wasn't a spoiled child anymore. I was because you must realize that I wasn't popular to gain nothing from the dictatorship.... I

someone to be reckoned with. with all Greeks. Far from it. In America, have to admit that I still haven't found a satis-Europe too, there were Greeks who would factory answer to the question.

N What special memories do you have of that insult me, boo me, threaten me. How can Itime ? forget the demonstrators who shouted under N One gets the impression that you gradu-

- Special memories ? Every minute of it is a my window that I was a communist bitch, or ally lost interest in the theatre and the cinemaspecial memory ! The phone ringing. Or the person who rang me up to tell me-in after becoming involved in politics....maybe not ringing, or not when you expect Greek, what's more-that " the colonels had-Wrong ! I didn't lose interest. It was theit to. Getting caught up in action, and then stopped 50, 000 communists who were getting cinema and theatre producers who lost interestthe agony of doing nothing. It's all there, ready to invade Greece from Yugoslavia and in me. I got fewer and fewer offers of work.lurking somewhere In my memory. If I let It Bulgaria ", before going on to add that It would I was living dangerously, under constant threatall out, we'd be here till tomorrow morning, be just as easy to " stop me " too. of attack. I was travelling from country to

How can I choose the most striking Those two incidents show two faces of the country, and the insurance companies didn'ttragedy of the dictatorship. Unscrupulous want to know about me.

Melina na M.,.. ur. and p. err. vaneck colonels, in Greece as elsewhere, can cast a pall

in a scene from HB wnc Must Die cssn, · Eventually the colonels fell, but you stayeddirected by Jules Dassin. ZZZ polItZCS..

- When we went back to Greece, after the- When we went back to Greece, after the

fall of the colonels, I hesitated for a bit. ShouldI stay in politics full time ? Then Andreas

: Papandreou rang up to ask me to be a candi-date in the legislative elections, for the Piraeus,the second district. It was a difficult consti-tuency for a woman. The voters were sailors,miners, macho types. I pointed out that Iwould feel more comfortable in Athens,where, as I said earlier, my grandfather hadbeen mayor and my father had been a deputy.

. Ir x ;` '' .'2'Papandreou won me over by his reply. He

said, " Melina, you celebrated Piraeus in Neveron Sunday and made it known around the

w

12

Medea for two months. That was the role of there, side by side. It was strange how much

my life, the greatest role ever written for the easier conversations became.ta'theatre. It was my greatest success, too. Medea

!. . was the reward for all my efforts for the · Was it di ; cult to make up your mind ?

theatre, for the cinema, for Greece.-All the more difficult when the competingAfter we won the legislative elections on projects were good ones, and it was only

$. aS))) ! ''tt) tt October 1980, Andreas Papandreou asked because of a lack of resources that one had tome to become Minister of Culture. It was a choose between them. It's horrible to abandon

new challenge. I was caught up in the general a project because you don't have enough" ' euphoria, I thought that at last the world money to carry it through. But you have to

belonged to us, so I accepted. Those were eight force yourself to decide.

F-, =, happy years. We made mistakes and we paidfor them. But we also achieved a great deal. · Did that cause problems for you ?

- Yes, of course. But that's the kind ofi · Being a minister was a new role for you problem I can stand. In the office, I never let

to play-one you were thrown into without any of my regrets show. It was only when I>v

any chance to rehearse.... got back home that I would sound off, and

- There weren't any rehearsals, that's for sure. it was my friends who suffered from my badBut the field the ministry covered was familiar temper. But I never went back on a decision

to me ; it included theatre, music, cinema. once it was taken.Which is to say that I wasn't entirely anintruder. There was archaeology as well, cer-· Don't you ever feel that a life as full andtainly. But for that I surrounded myself with diverse as yours can be a heavy load to carry ?

competent people.-Oh no ! Just the opposite ! If I hadn't becomeWhen I took up office, the ministry of involved in politics, I would now just be a has-

Culture was a small one. Then its responsi-been of stage and screen. That would be awful.

_ xH bilities were extended to include athletics, I'm very happy that people don't talk about

world. In Piraeus you' ! ! be able to smash the sport, youth, Greeks living abroad.... It me in the past tense. I'm still " Melina " for

right and the left as well. " I put forward my became a very big ministry. To cope, I had them, just as I always have been. It even goes! candidacy. to decentralize. I decentralized like mad. further than that. Because at a time of veryI campaigned in the same way that I For the ministry people and my visitors great distress I expressed their hist for life,rehearse parts in the theatre. Furiously, but as well, I was the barefoot minister, I never because I loved them then and still love them

with pleasure. I used to go into cafes and play wore shoes. I was also a minister who never now with all my heart, they sculpted a maskt backgammon with the old men. That received people sitting at a desk. Desks create of me and engraved on it : " Our Melina ".

t improved my standing, because I used to win. a distance between people. So I had a table They know I'm " their " Melina. For me, that's

I campaigned door to door, and people would brought in, and when people came to see me, a source of very great happiness. N

t gather groups together in their homes, any-I would get up and we'd go over and sit downthing from ten to thirty people. I immersedmyself thing from ten to thirty people. I immersed

were huge. There had been terrible rains that me$ Dassin and Inge Morath.

year, and there were serious drainageproblems, all the more urgent because the " °-s

buildings didn't have very solid foundationsand the state of the roads was deplorable.'`Gradually these people's problems became myown. One day I even took to the streets withthem agamst the police.

There were five candidates for the seat,There were five candidates for the seat,and I won it in the first round of voting.

I still pursued my theatrical career. Dassinstaged Brecht's ThYeepenny Opera, and it wasa huge success. Then I went to Salonika to play

13

w

WHY should the history of al-Andalus-the eight cen-

turies during which the Iberian peninsula lived under Muslim

influence-seem to many people today to be that of a golden

age ? Why is it attracting growing interest from modern

scholars, one of whom has even gone so far as to talk of

it as a " paradise lost ".

The exceptional coexistence of three cultures-Islamic,

Christian and Jewish-which was a salient feature of al-

Andalus during part of its history occurred within a historical

context marked by asperities and outbreaks of violence. From

Its beginnings in the eighth century until the fall of Granada,

the last bastion of the Muslim presence, in the fifteenth, the

history of aI-Andalus was complex and tumultuous.

But It was exceptional all the same. Al-Andalus seems

to have been a very special place where groups of people

met, talked and worked together, whereas had they lived

elsewhere at that time they would have been locked in hatred.

In spite of constant tensions, a mysterious and lasting

accord was made between a place, the people who lived there,

and the ideal they tried to put into practice-that of tolerance.

This is the extraordinary achievement of al-Andalus.

Unique in Its time, this coexistence enriched not only

the Iberian peninsula but also the Maghrib and Europe, In

ways that are only now beginning to be fully appreciated.

Through al-Andalus the foundations of Greek culture, and

elements of philosophical and scientific knowledge from

India, Persia and China were transmitted to Europe. This

Arab Spain linked Orient and Occident, past and future,

Antiquity and the Renaissance.

The present issue is an attempt, not to make a defini-

tive statement about a remarkable episode In world history

but to show some of its many facets. We have focused largely

on one period, that of the caliphate of Cordoba, the brilliant

city which was the setting for the golden age of al-Andalus.

14

Contact between the three cultures OM/M ? 0 yMTMS : K-MrM, MC f, M/-

lingualism, and shared customs and festivities

\/NE of the most striking features of théMuslim presence in Spain is the enduringinfluence it exerted over Iberian Christianity. Iitimes of peace, the relationship between théChristian and Muslim kingdoms on the peninsula was marked by what the French historiarHenri Terrasse has called " a sometimes cordiasymbiosis ". There were Christian and Jewislcommunities within Islamic Spain, just as Jew :and Muslims were later to live In the crown land :of Castile and Aragon.

In cultural matters contacts never ceasedthere was no clear-cut line of division betweer

Chess players.An illustration from the 13th-century Libro del Ajedrez( " Book of Chess ").

the Islamic and Christian worlds. From theearliest days of the Arab-Berber conquest, anextraordinary ethnic mixing took place In al-Andalus. In the Islamic melting-pot, Arabs,Berbers brought up In the Arab culture andChristians, whether share-croppers or high-bornlanded proprietors. intermarried with oneanother and with the urban middle classes toform a fairly homogeneous whole. Sustained con-tact between Muslims and Spaniards obliged the

conquerors to learn Romance, a derivative of theIberian Latin that was the language of the

country, and one which the Mozarabs or

15

Arabized Christians also used as a commondialect. Meanwhile, some young Christians In theninth century began to turn away from Latin cul-

ture and their traditional religious education.Some of them could read and write in Arabic,knew pre-Islamic poetry and took up the studyof Arabic literature.

Andalusian Jews spoke Romance and Arabicin addition to Hebrew. Installed In Spain sinceRoman times, Jewish communities gave proof oftheir loyalty to the Umayyad dynasty and werenot persecuted. Eight generations of Jews In al-Andalus were to benefit from the tolerance andprotection of the Umayyad rulers.

An intellectualand linguistic ferment

A substantial proportion of Spain's Islamic popu-lation was bilingual. The Muslims of al-Andalusused Romance colloquially and even In theirpalaces.'Abd al-Rahman III, caliph of Cordobafrom 912 until 961 and himself the son of a Chris-tian captive, switched easily between Arabic andRomance when talking to his courtiers. Imperme-able to fanaticism, he displayed exceptional toler-

ance and open-mindedness.Two examples of his magnanimity are par-

ticularly striking. Rabi b. Zayd, baptised asRecemundo, was a cultured Christian of Cordobawho worked as a secretary in the offices of theUmayyad chancellery and spoke Arabic as well

as Latin. The caliph sent him as a legate to the

Above, a pa) nt ! ng featuringladles and horsemen adornsthe vaulted roof of theSata de tos Reyes (Ha)) of theKings) n the Alhambrapalace, Granada() ate 14th century).Left, a page from a13th-century Spanish versionof KaMa) wa Dlmna, acollection of animal fables.

German Empire and to the court of Constan-tinople, tasks he performed so zealously that hisemployer obtained for him the bishopric of thesmall Andalusian town of Elvira.

Among the dignitaries of the Cordoban courtwas a Jew from Jaen named Hasday ben Shaprut,

a man of great culture. The director of a finan-cial department, he knew Arabic, Hebrew, Latinand Greek as well as the Romance dialects. Heacted as interpreter into Arabic when Christian

envoys arrived In the capital, and also translatedinto Arabic Discorides'medical treatise, sent to'Abd al-Rahman III by the Byzantine EmperorConstantine VII.

A distinguished doctor as well as a capablediplomat, he successfully carried out a difficultmission to the Christian territories, In the courseof which he helped cure King Sancho I of Leonof obesity and also obtained ten strongholds fromthe king's grandmother, old Queen Toda ofNavarre, in return for a Cordoban alliance.Thanks to the caliph's protection, Hasday wasable to act as a patron for the Jewish writers ofIslamic Spain, and the symbiosis of Jewish and

16

Arabic culture was evident in the work thatresulted. The Judaeo-Spanish poet Dunash benLabrat even persuaded his Jewish compeers toadopt Arabic metres for their Hebrew verses,while the brilliant philologist Hayyudj rivalledthe Arab grammarians.

In the Spain of three religions, the Jews werenotable for their multilingualism. Spanish Jewsacted as interpreters between Christians andMuslims. The degree to which the Jewish com-munity in the emirate of Granada was accultu-rated has been frequently remarked upon.Boabdil, the last sultan of Granada, had twoJewish Interpreters, Isaac Perdoniel and his son-in-law Yehuda. Reviving a tradition set in thetwelfth century by the famous theologian anddoctor Ibn Maymun (Moses Maimonides), severalof whose works were composed In Arabic, thelast Jewish poet of Granada, Se'adiyah ibn Danan,

wrote his grammatical works in Arabic. WhenMalaga fell to the Catholic Kings In 1487, it wasnoted that several Jewish women emerged fromthe town speaking Arabic and wearing Muslimdress.

The Castilian language borrowed much fromArabic. There were elaborate linguistic contacts,and many Arabic words entered the Iberian lan-

guages In the Middle Ages. The influence still sur-vives in modern Spanish, particularly In thespecialized vocabularies of irrigation, fortifica-tion, civics, urban life, commerce, botany andfood.

The transmissionof knowledge

In terms of cultural exchange, Islamic Spain wasa link In the transmission of Hellenistic scienceand Greek philosophy to the Christian West. InToledo throughout the twelfth century, scholarsbrought together on the initiative of the arch-bishop, Don Raimundo, translated the mostinfluential works of Arab culture into Latin,notably treatises on astronomy, medicine, physics,natural history and philosophy. The translatorsof Toledo spread through medieval Europe theworks of Aristotle, Galen and Hippocrates, withcommentaries by thinkers as distinguished asAvicenna and Averroes. 17

Left. a page from Samuel benTtbbon's 14th-century Hebrewtranslation of the Guide of thePerplexed by MosesMaimonides.Right, a page from an Arabicversion (12th-13th century) ofDe Materia Medica, a treatiseon pharmacology by theGreek nhvsician DiMcoridM

18

A century later, in 1251, the Infante Alfonsoof Castile, the son of Ferdinand III the Holy, hadthe famous collection of fables known as theKalila wa-Dimna translated from Arabic intoCastilian. In the following centuries this was tohave a pronounced influence on Western litera-

ture, notably on the. Roman de Renart, on Boc-caccio's Decameron, and on the 7/M of LaFontaine.

When he became king In 1252, Alfonso sur-rounded himself with jurists and men of science,with historians and troubadours. He set inmotion the work of translating and adapting intoCastilian the heritage of Arabic culture. Muslims,Christians and Arabic-speaking Jews all collabo-rated in the task, among them Fernando ofToledo, Juan of Aspa, Rabi Zag, Moses haCohen, Abraham Alfaquin of Toledo and MasterBernaldo el Arabigo.

In Murcia, Alfonso X founded the first college

in which adepts of the three religions could followthe courses of the Arab scholar Muhammad al-Riquti, originally from the district of Ricote, whohad stayed in the town after the entry of theCastilian forces in 1266.

A modelof civilization

The pattern of life In Christian Spain was stronglyinfluenced by Arab civilization. From the earlyMiddle Ages onwards, the refined customs of theMuslim towns penetrated the little Christian

courts of the north of the Iberian peninsula. Theybrought the aristocracy a taste for luxury and asense of comfort.

Later, Muslim ways were adopted by theChristian elites of Castile and Aragon. Theenthusiasm for things Arabic and Jewish shown byPedro I of Castile (1350-69) is often quoted by wayof example. In 1418, King Alfonso V of Aragon

wore a silk-bordered toque and gold-embroidered

vestments sent to him, along with other gifts, bythe Sultan of Granada, Muhammad VIII.

A European traveller, Leon of Rosmithal,Baron of Bohemia, was astonished at the welcomehe received at Burgos in the palace of a powerfullord when he visited Spain in 1466. Among theCastilian count's entourage were several womendressed in Muslim fashion, and he was offeredArab-style food. In Segovia, King Henry IV ofCastile surrounded himself with Muslims andJews. Rosmithal recorded that he ate, drank anddressed in the Muslim manner.

Shared gamesand festivals

Some games were popular in both communities.Chess, known in Arabic as skitrandj, wasintroduced to Cordoba in the ninth century bythe musician ZIryab. It won great popularity inal-Andalus, and was soon introduced to thekingdom of Leon under the name of ajedrez. InKing Alfonso X's reign, it was the favouritepastime of Castilians. The king and his wife,Queen Violante of Aragon, shared their passionfor the game with knights and ladies of the court,soldiers and monks, nobles and peasants, Muslims

and Jews.Muslims and Christians also both staged

jousting tournaments. Lists were set up in themain squares and gardens of Granada, and evenin the Alhambra itself. In the Jaen region on theFeast of St. John, the Andalusian nobility fer-vently competed in the juego de MM, a sport atwhich the Muslims also excelled. A delegation ofthe King of Granada achieved great success at the

court of John II of Castile by practising this formof jousting before the monarch.

Besides the specifically Muslim festivals, twoseasonal festivals fixed by the Julian calendarwhich indicated the different periods of the fiscaland agricultural year, were celebrated InAndalusia. They were known by their Persian

names : Nayruz was the Iranian New Year, whileMahradjan fell on 24 June. In the towns and thecountryside of al-Andalus, people of all socialclasses commemorated these days with entertain-

ments and merry-making.There were carnival disguises and celebrations

in the Andalusian towns just as there were inChristian Spain. In Andalusian poetry of theeleventh and twelfth centuries there are frequentreferences to Christian religious festivals, espe-cially Easter, known as/M&.

As early as the twelfth century, the Muslimsof al-Andalus bought pastries to celebrate theChristian New Year and Maundy Thursday. Inthe second half of the thirteenth century, Andalu-sians began to celebrate Christmas and New Yearin imitation of their Christian neighbours. On1 January by the Julian calendar, the day theycalled Yannayr, Andalusians gave each other

presents and cooked raised pastries shaped like

towns, called mada'in, thereby anticipating thelater Christian custom of making Twelfth-cakesfor Twelfth Night, though without small giftshidden within the pastry casing, t

RACHEL AR) E,French historian and Arabist.doctor honoris causa of theUniversity of Granada. isresearch director at the FrenchNational Centre of ScientificResearch (CNRS) in Paris.Among her publications are astudy on " Muslim Spain at thetime of the Nasrids(1232-1492)" (De Boccardpublishers, Paris. 1990) and avolume of studies on thecivilization of Muslim Spain(E. J. Brill publishers. Leyden.1990).

" TreeslIcsoz i b F `nficrtce,

_ galy re t

:Ivlcris kigs. Trt a s. av bee inented b

; : :thea : tres az glic . :

thaugh tley vere, xFF ere : 5 c

dcba s tle oly e it : .

. ;.-' ;''

.mJKceMe,'MMnA

. have.theatres'

pets

. dobtwas'the Q$ ! y'Geametty,

te'moawch,'

''

19

The social and historical ! 0/ C ? t MOCofcKKM/-- M M

TTHE periods between 711 and 1086 AD in the

Islamic territories of aI-AndaIus and between 1085and 1370 in Christian Spain were golden ages ofsocial and cultural coexistence. What religious andlegal foundations were they based on ?

Judaism never defined a social status for otherreligions, since until the Babylonian diaspora itconsidered itself the only monotheistic faith.Thereafter, when It lost its political independence,its own social status became identified with thatof the Jewish people.

At first Christianity too had no status as anindependent social entity. Saint Paul directedChristians to accept the Roman Empire, to paytaxes to it, obey Its magistrates and observe its

Deta)) from a 12th-centuryAndaluslan Qur'an.

laws, holding that the power it exercised wasGod-given. It was only after the conversion ofConstantine's day, when Christianity became thecivic religion of the Empire, and the Empire wasChristianized by the Church, that the toleranceearly Christianity had shown was graduallyeroded.

In the Middle Ages, Christians came to con-sider Jews as deniers of the faith because they hadrefused to regard Jesus of Nazareth as thepromised Messiah, and as deicides insofar as they

were held collectively responsible for his death.As for Islam, medieval Christians at first consi-dered it a fraud and its prophet, Muhammad, animpostor. This view was only gradually modified

as a result of cultural coexistence on the Iberianpeninsula.

Islam, on the other hand, took as a starting-point the fundamental unity of the Faith, asrevealed to the first man, reiterated by all theprophets, and socially codified by divine mes-sengers, notably by Moses in the 7b for theJews and by Jesus in the Gospels for Christians.Muhammad was then sent in his turn becausethese religious laws had become distorted and

were incomplete. For Muslims, Muhammad is thefinal messenger, the seal set on the work of theprophets, and the Qur'an is the true and defini-tive revelation of the Faith.

Muslims consequently considered Jews andChristians as People of the Book (Ahl al-Kitab),whose incomplete systems of belief nonethelessallowed them to know and venerate God, tounderstand and obey His commandments, and tomerit eternal salvation.

People of the pact

Following the principles spelled out in theQur'an, Islam gave full recognition to only onesocial grouping, the « K77M, the community of thefaithful, whose members are theoretically equal.

20

The apothecary,a mural of glazed and painti) es (azufe/os) executed atSeville around 1900.

But the faith expanded into lands that weresocially highly organized and inhabited largelyby Christians and Zoroastrians, with Jewish andBuddhist minorities. AI-AndaIus, with ItsMozarabs and Jews, was one of these lands. Allthose who possessed a revealed Book and whoagreed to a position of subordination by signing apact became " tributaries ". There was no legalproblem where Christians and Jews were con-cerned. Zoroastrians, initially at least, were granted

a similar status, even though they were not con-sidered to have a revealed Book.

Legally speaking, the tributaries did notbelong to the umma, but enjoyed protected status

as dhimmis or " people of the pact", and wereimplicitly treated as the members of anothersociety, which did not exist in political terms butwhose religious structure assumed responsibilityfor administering the tolerated social rights.

The relationship between the umma and theahl al-Kitab was based on the concept of a pactwhich could be either expressed or tacit. In theChristian context, the parties to the pact were,on the one hand, the Christian nobility andbishops, and on the other the caliph. The accordheld good not just for the Umayyad rulers of al-Andalus but also for those of the taifas, the pettykingdoms that flourished after the collapse of thecaliphate.

When, from the ninth century on, the Chris-tian kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula began toenglobe sizeable Jewish and Islamiccommunities-the latter of which were known

as M<e/7'M-the Christian kings took up theIslamic policy of offering protected status. As theincarnation of the link between the different com-munities, the kings of Castile and Leon evenassumed, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,the title of " Lord of the Three Religions ".

A unique social fabric

The way In which medieval Islamic society wasorganized does not easily lend itself to forms ofclass analysis practised by modern social science.In any case, the cohabitation of Muslims withdhimmis (Mozarabs and Jews) took differentforms in the different social strata within eachcommunity, and the relationships that were estab-lished did not always exactly coincide with thoseprescribed by law.

Social cohabitation and cultural coexistenceworked to the advantage of the Islamicaristocracy, the khassa, which consisted of theruling family and the upper ranks of the militaryand civil authorities, and of the freedmen andclients of the monarch. The notables of Islamicsociety (a'yan)-men of learning, successfulcraftsmen, merchants and great land-owners-alsobenefited from the arrangement. The masses, onthe other hand, found it hard to live alongsideMozarabs and Jews.

Among the Mozarabs, those who had theclosest cultural connections with Muslims werethe nobility ; a class composed of the descendantsof the Visigothic comites, the upper ranks of theclergy and some scholars. We know from thewritings of such strong champions of the 21

Mozarabic identity as Alvaro and Eulogio of Cor-doba that they associated with Muslims, sharedtheir literary tastes and fashions, and even tookpride in speaking good Arabic.

As for the Jews, the guides (rabbis andscholars), rich merchants, traders and financiersalso associated with the Islamic and Mozarabic

upper classes, but had almost no dealings withthe lower social orders. Cultural coexistencebetween Jews and Muslims was, however, moretangible than that between Muslims andMozarabs, because the Jews had accepted Arabic

as their language of thought and culture.The law known as the fiqh maliki proved an

effective instrument for regulating the relationsbetween the different social groups. It had origi-nated in certain traditional Arab usages datingfrom the pre-lslamic period that reflected theinfluence of Roman jurisprudence and hadprovided a basis for the " canonical " principlesof Islam.

Craftsmen, shopkeepers, merchants and smalllandowners of the Mozarabic and Jewish com-munities were able to maintain their traditional

way of life without much difficulty. Obviously,though, this process of convergence broke downwhenever religious disputes arose.

Patterns of coexistence

Cultural coexistence took many forms, weaving

a pattern of contact and tradition, creation andrediscovery. It was of decisive importance in theeighth, ninth and tenth centuries, when the legaland ideological principles that gave it Its justifi-cation were working satisfactorily.

The contact between external influences,

Above, an frustration from th<Spanish monk Beatus ofLlebana's Commentary on theApocatypse, a manuscriptproduced at the abbey ofSaint-Sever (southwesternFrance) ! n the middle of thellth century. The scene ! sfrom a part of the manuscriptdevoted to the genealogy ofChrtst. The tnftuence of Arabicart ts notable.Left. the menorah (acandelabrum with sevenbranches) ! s shown ! n thtsminiature from a Hebrew Bib) tilluminated by JosephAssartatt at Cervera ! n Spain() ate 12th century).

notably Islamic cultural imports from the Orient,and intellectual life in Muslim Spain, wasgenuinely extraordinary, as a glance at the art,astronomy, mathematics, medicine and thoughtof the caliphate shows. The cultural legacy of al-Andalus is impressive in its scale and splendour

even though, for obvious reasons, Mozarab cul-

ture was closed to some aspects of Islamicthought. Jewish thinking, on the other hand, wasso open to Muslim influences that two parallel

yet communicating currents are apparent inAndalusian philosophy : on the one hand theArab-Islamic tradition of Avempace, Ibn Tufayland Averroes, on the other the Judaeo-Arabheritage of Ibn Gabirol and Maimonides, thinkerswho used Arabic as their medium of expression.

There were certainly differences betweenIslamic and Jewish culture, but they did notextend to such common and universal fields asastronomy, mathematics, science, medicine, logicand metaphysics. One example, taken from myown speciality, philosophy, will suffice to show

22

the creative possibilities that sprang from culturalcoexistence.

Comparisons have often been made betweenthe Summa contra gentiles of St. Thomas Aquinas,Maimonides'Guide of the Perplexed and Averroes'sIncoherence of the 7coAerccc, a rebuttal of al-Ghazali's work Te/McoC7-CMce o/c t/o.It is undeniable that the three works are uniqueof their kind and in their time. The similaritiesbetween them lie in certain common themes ofmedieval thought, in the use of certain formalprocedures, and In their method.

It is true that the Incoherence of the Incoher-

ence cannot be understood without reference tospecifically Islamic ideas ; similarly, the Guide ofthe Perplexed draws on the rabbinical tradition,and the Summa contra gentiles on the ChristianInheritance. Yet all three heritages share acommon link with Greek thought, but not as ithad been recreated by Islamic philosophy.

The relationship between the three works Is

a complex one, full of reciprocal influences. Two

MtGUEL CRUZ HERNANDEZ.of Spain, is professor ofIslamic thought at theAutonomous University ofMadrid and formerly taught atthe Universities of Granadaand Salamanca. Among hismany published works are a2-volute history of thought inthe Islamic world (1981). ahistory of thought in ai-Andaius(1985) and a study on the life.work. thought and influence ofAverroes <1986).

of them were written by Andalusian thinkers,and even the third-the Summa-would not havebeen possible without the contribution of theideas of Avicenna and Averroes, passed on viatranslations made In Toledo. After Aristotle,Averroes Is the author most frequently cited bySt. Thomas.

Cultural coexistence of this kind was madepossible by religious and legal principles that werefar-reaching In their implications even thoughthey were often transgressed In practice. TheAndalusian experience was an exceptional

moment In history, probably unique In Its owntime and rarely matched In any other. Its mostworthy, notable and creative feature was thatcohabitation and coexistence were based on reli-gious and legal principles. Our own era, whichprides itself on the liberalism and universality ofIts ideas, offers few examples to match It. t

/'"''.''a.

In Spait re

; eraticn c, ann, t, '

the barbariazj hnrdes : t rr t.

the Arb rrqercrs.,.,. a ·

ctia far tnre t in..,. ' :

to us iat yug, rrbst, u

'

.'tn Spam

aer its it that i ` ̀ `

'the. ! M [rba' ! Mtthe A-<X ! a'pera ! . S ;

boht vith it c ,

& : oa BMtMsSSteastMyK&t.

t was Ceitlie ari ad repd C i y4rt 'xy

trozg t `

S'Yf tf

fcocd it : vr - ,

lit ta, ys

ef tt

EttiL I lI1'PSt1 ti ; ii W a t

S4j : r x tly t,'t `'

k

'the. sMM''

x ss` w'iiiStil Ttt tl. ̀ t r

. of JaaMB

.

. toics Chia' ; '''y. .

-.-.-.'''*''-.' :/-----'--.''/-''-- ? <'t--'''''-. .ttroa&.

'

'

,saeac'

.. ..''

23

7M an exiled nMCC M ! CM SMCCO CTMM MMMP Mf <MMtbetween Orient and Occident

) ated ! nes tndtcate thetxtenston of Islamic territoryn the) ber) an pen) ntu) a in! 50. 1100, 1200 and 1257.

i. N the year 93 of the Islamic era-the Hijra-and 711 of the Christian era, the great MuslimArab empire was ruled from Damascus in Syriaby al-Walid I, sixth caliph of the House ofUmayya. From Kairouan in the country nowcalled Tunisia, al-Walid's governor, Musa ibnNusayr, was pursuing a policy of westwardexpansion spearheaded by his Berber freedmanTariq, commander of some 7, 000 Berbers fromNorth Africa. Before the end of the spring of 93Tariq was on the rock from which Gibraltar takesits name-Jabal Tariq, " Mount Tariq ".

Tariq's landing was the first step on a long,hard road which led 200 years later to the estab-lishment of the caliphate of Cordoba by a scionof the House of Umayya. The second step wasthe conquest of the lands beyond Gibraltar. Withhis Berber troops, greatly reinforced from NorthAfrica, Tariq soon defeated the Visigothic KingRodrigo, already harassed in the north by theBasques. The tottering, unpopular Visigothicregime was now doomed. The fall of its capital,Toledo, to the north was followed in October711 by the capture of Cordoba in the south.

July 712 saw Musa himself in the Iberianpeninsula. Grudging his freedman the glory of

conquest, he had crossed the Straits of Gibraltarwith some 18, 000, mainly Arab, troops. His rela-tionship with Tariq was strained, but this did notprevent them from pursuing their commonobjective of conquest. By 714 Musa and Tariq hadconquered all but the most inaccessible parts ofthe peninsula and gained for the Umayyad crownin Damascus a jewel of impressive resplendence.To this new, rich province the Arabs gave thename " al-Andalus ", which is thought to derivefrom " Vandalicia ", the name the Vandals gaveto the old Roman province of Baetica In southernSpain. In English, " al-Andalus " is often translatedas " Andalusia ", but in its strict sense it designatesMuslim Spain.

Like Rome, the Cordoba of the Umayyadcaliphate was not built in a day. The glitter ofthat golden city did not materialize like Aladdin'sgenie at the rub of a magic lamp. It was born ofthe Umayyad emirate, and behind its glitter therelay a long and complex history.

The establishment ofthe Umayyad emirate in Spain

In 750 the'Abbasid revolution in the east sweptaway the Syrian Umayyad caliphate and savagelybutchered its princes. Miraculously, one of thelatter,'Abd al-Rahman, grandson of the caliphHisham, cheated his hunters of their prey andembarked on a perilous odyssey that took him

to Morocco, where he won the protection of hismother's Berber tribe. After careful thought hedecided to go to Spain, banking on support fromelements owing loyalty to the Umayyads. Once

on Andalusian soil, he played his hand andwon-despite some militant opposition to his

cause. In May 756, his final battle won, he enteredthe provincial palace of Cordoba. There, in thecity's mosque, he led the Eriday prayer and wasproclaimed emir of al-Andalus. A young man inhis mid-twenties at the time, he was to reign for

over thirty years as the first of five Umayyadrulers of Spain to bear the name'Abd al-Rahman.24

Copy of a map by ai-istakhrishowing the Iberian peninsula(right) and North Africa(14th century).

The establishment of the emirate was on !)the start of a gruelling climb to power whos<complexity is explained by the pattern of Andalusian society at that time. Al-Andaius was ;country in which Arab and Berber immigrant :had, at different times and under differing conditions, settled among the great mass of théHIspano-Roman population. Many HispanoRomans had converted to Islam and, as neoMuslims (muwalladun), become completel)Arabized. Yet there remained a large ChristiarHIspano-Roman community of Mozarabs- :

term taken from the Spanish form of an Arabi (word meaning " Arabizer ". As well as their owrlanguage, the Mozarabs spoke Arabic and adoptee

many Arab customs. Finally, there were thenative Iberian Jews.

The Mozarabs and Jews caused'Abd alRahman no trouble. They were only too glad tcbe rid of Visigothic tyranny and to live in peaceThe Arabs, however, were to turn any dream :of peace he may have cherished into somethingof a nightmare born of tribal feuds, jealousies ancgrievances, which led to sedition, armed conflictand open rebellion. Moreover, the Berber :resented not being treated as equals by their Arabfellow-Muslims, whose traditions and culture

were quite different from their own.And so, the prospect of revolts and uprising :

was very real. The emir perceived the risk oJsiding with any single group within al-AndaIusHe could count on unselfish loyalty from no onenot even from his Umayyad relations and clientsAnd so he recruited a highly disciplined professional army of Berber mercenaries and slave

troops from Europe north of the Pyrenees. This

was the only answer to internal turmoil ancexternal danger from the Christian north.

'Abd aI-Rahman was a Syrian, and theadministrative system he created In Muslim Spain

was in the Syrian Umayyad tradition. At It<

centre he made his own office of emir a unifyingsymbol, and in the provinces he appointed loyaland capable governors.

When he died In 788, he could be said to haveproved himself an extraordinarily able statesman ;whose greatest achievement had been to pacifyand defend his realm. Today we see him as thefounder of a dynasty that lasted more than twiceas long as that of his Syrian ancestors and became

a light that far outshone the brightest lights In

contemporary Europe.

An eventful history

All his successors sought, with varying degree*of success, to consolidate their political and mill-

tary strength In a situation that was fraught withdanger.

In many areas of the Iberian peninsula corn-munications and transport militated against firmcentral control. Local notables, appointed a<governors to uphold Umayyad authority inregions far from Cordoba, acted as powerful overlords serving not their ruler's interests but their

own, and often taking the opportunity to rebel.This was particularly the case in the"Marches".sprawling tracts of nomansland separating theChristian realms to the north from the emirate'sMuslim lands In the south.

The attitudes of the nee-Muslims andMozarabs also changed, leading to insurrectionand disorder. Cordoba itself was the home of cer-tain Muslim political and religious malcontents. 25

The site teofMad) nata)-Zahra'the ceremonial capital of theUmayyads founded tn the10th century near Cordoba.

At the same time, the emirate was saddled withthe perennial need to protect its northern bordersagainst Christian invaders.

During the reign of ai-Hakam I (796-822)there was a spate of troubles : disaffection inToledo, savagely crushed in 797 by the massacreof its mainly neo-Muslim notables ; the massuprising in 818 of the so-called Suburb( " Arraval ") of Cordoba, encouraged by disgrun-tled Muslim religious leaders and ruthlessly putdown ; protracted campaigns In the Marches ofSaragossa, Toledo and Merida against recalcitrantleaders ; and, finally, the permanent loss of Barce-lona to the Christians.

The emirate faced two other thornyproblems. First, the initially peaceful Mozarabsbecame involved in a serious religious protestbegun by Christian fanatics seeking martyrdomthrough public denunciation of the ProphetMuhammad. The protest, starting late in the reignof the kind and tolerant ruler'Abd al-RahmanII (822-852), led to tensions and conflicts whichneither the prince nor many of his Christian sub-jects relished. Secondly and more importantly,the reign of Muhammad I (852-886), witnessedIn 880 a determined attempt by Ibn Hafsun, arebel of neo-Muslim descent and later an apostate,to make himself ruler of aI-AndaIus from his

centre of power, Bobastro, in the south of Spain.His insurrection, which commanded wide non-Arab support, dragged on for almost fifty years.

Largely because of ai-Hakam I's draconian

measures to enforce peace, his son'Abd al-Rahman II, a very able monarch, enjoyed somethirty years of relative calm and prosperity,marked by significant improvements in theadministrative system and a sharp rise in stan-dards of culture and civilization. The emir'senthusiastic patronage of music and the arts wasmatched only by his zealous preoccupation withthe creation of a strong navy capable of out-classing Norse squadrons that had found hisshores a gateway to rich pickings.

An exceptional rulerThe most disastrous period In the emirate's his-

tory came with the reign of'Abd Allah (888-912),whose legacy to his grandson and successor'AbdaI-Rahman III (912-961) was nothing but anempty treasury and the general disintegration ofUmayyad Spain. This legacy of leaden metal wasto be miraculously transmuted into gold by thealchemy of a ruler who at the time of his acces-sion was barely in his twenties. Endowed withpatience, emotional stability and maturity ofjudgement beyond his years, the young'Abd al-Rahman combined the energy and stamina ofyouth with political acumen and unswervingdevotion to duty. As much European as Arab-his mother and paternal grandmother were ofChristian stock-he was an observant Muslim but

no fanatic. Throughout his reign he adopted,whenever possible, a generally tolerant policytowards Mozarabs and Jews.

26

Upon his succession,'Abd aI-Rahmanbrooked no opposition to his authority.Governors who refused or ignored his request forallegiance had to yield either to diplomatic per-suasion or to force. In 913 he imposed his ruleon the important city of Seville. The next yearsaw the start of a long war of attrition against IbnHafsun of Bobastro, the master of much ofsouthern Spain. The struggle, continued by his

sons after his death In 917, ended only in 928.It was not until 932 that the pacification of al-Andalus was complete, with the submission ofthe AIgarve, eastern Spain, Toledo, Saragossa andother important strongholds.

The apogee of the caliphate

The most memorable event in Spanish Umayyadhistory took place in 929 : the establishment ofthe caliphate. In proclaiming himself caliph,'AbdaI-Rahman III assumed, In addition to the caliphaltitle " Commander of the Faithful ", the throne-name"Defender (aI-Nasir) of God's Religion ".The decision to revive the caliphate, lost by theSyrian Umayyads in 750, was largely his responseto the growing power and prestige of the Shi'iteFatimids, who had proclaimed their owncaliphate in North Africa and were coming dan-gerously near to al-Andalus.

When he died In 961, al-Nasir had enforced

respect for the frontiers of a country united under

J DEREK LATHAM,of the United Kingdom. Doctorof Letters in the University ofOxford, is professor emeritusof Arabic and Islamic Studiesand former head of the MuirInstitute in the University ofEdinburgh. He has been jointgeneral editor and contributorto The Cambridge History orArabic Literature and acontributor to Encyclopaedia ofIslam (new edition). Notableamong his other publishedworks are Isaac Judaeus : OnFevers (Arabic text and Englishtranslation with notes. 1980).and From Muslim Spain toBarbary : Studies in the Historyand Culture or the MuslimWest (1986).

The field of intelligence

While the West saw the soft, lunar reflection of God,the East and Arab and Jewish Spain contemplatedhim In his fertile Sun, in His creative power which

pours forth His gifts in torrents. Spain was the fieldof combat. Where the Christians appeared, there

was desert ; where the Arabs were, water and lifespurted forth on all sides, streams flowed, the earth

grew green, became a garden of flowers. And thefield of intelligence also flourished. What would webarbarians have been without them ? Shameful tosay, it was not until the eighteenth century that ourTreasury adopted Arabic numerals, without whichit is impossible to carry out the smallest calculation.

Jtties MichetetFrench historian (7 ! brMc ct. RetMM&Mce, t855)

a strong central government. Me had made al-Andalus second to none in the Western world,prospering thanks to a thriving domestic

economy and a lucrative network of pan-Mediterranean trade. Cordoba, with about tentimes the population of Paris, far outshone anyother capital in Europe. In reputation and pres-tige, it surpassed Baghdad and rivalled ByzantineConstantinople, through diplomatic exchangeswith which the caliph had ensured that his realm

was seen as its equal. European envoys fromFrance, Germany, Italy and elsewhere had eagerlymade their way to his court. In addition to mis-sions from North Africa, part of which he actu-ally ruled, he had received delegations from Chris-tian Spain, some of whose rulers he had made histributaries.

His successor, aI-Hakam II (961-976), was able

to preserve his father's heritage of peace andprosperity. One of the biggest and best librariesof Islam was born of his passion for books andlearning-a passion which also compelled him topromote scholarship, both religious and secular(astronomy and mathematics, for example), and

to provide some education for the poor. In theGreat Mosque of Cordoba, which stands to thisday as a lasting memorial to Umayyad glory, heexpressed his deep piety and refined artistic tasteby almost doubling Its size through the additionof a most pleasing extension and enhancing its

prayer niche with ornamentation so exquisite asto make it a masterpiece.

Al-Hakam's death was the death of trueUmayyad rule. The reign of his son HIsham II(976-1013)-a mere boy at the time of hisaccession-led to the caliphate's slide into extinc-tion in 1031. t

Smat ! tvory casket bearingthe name of at-Mughira.one of the sons of'Abd a !-Rahman III, the illustriousUmayyad caliph of Cordoba(10th century).

27

The mMg K-nc o -ctMry c M/

DBEFORE the foundation of the Umayyadcaliphate by'Abd al-Rahman III at Cordoba in929, the cultural and scientific development ofMuslim Spain had been that of a modest offshootof a simple provincial Arab Muslim culture that

was highly dependent on Oriental Islam.Under the caliphate a cultural flowering came

about, largely because Cordoba became increas-ingly important politically. The city was the

centre of a strong and respected power whichsought, consciously or unconsciously, to equalthe prestige of the'Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad

at the height of its splendour and to create in al-Andalus the conditions for similar achievements.The Andalusians did not aspire to create a newcivilization but to imitate or outstrip Baghdad in

every field.We must beware of the chronological errors

that are often made by those who attribute enbloc to the Cordoban caliphate all the culturalachievements of the Andalusian civilization. Totake one example, the oldest and not least original

parts of the Great Mosque of Cordoba were

The interior of the GreatMosque of the Umayyads inDamascus (Syria), foundedin n705.

completed under the emirate, not during thecaliphate. It was only after the caliphate, at thetime of the taifas (principalities governed by pettykings) that Andalusian poetry attained its greatestrefinement. Some of the best-known monumentsof Muslim Andalusian art, such as the Giralda(the minaret of the Almoravid mosque in Seville)and the Alhambra palace, built by the sultans ofGranada from the late thirteenth centuryonwards, date from long after the time of thecaliphs.

All the same, the most remarkable achieve-

ments of Arab Andalusian culture do bear theimprint of the relatively short-lived caliphate,which only lasted around a century.

An influentialcapital

In the tenth century Cordoba became one of theleading political and cultural centres of theMuslim world, a city comparable in importance

to Baghdad and Cairo. The geographer IbnHawqal, who visited Cordoba In the second halfof the century, judged It to be equal to " half ofBaghdad", and wrote that it " has no equivalentIn the whole of the Maghrib, nor in UpperMesopotamia, Syria or Egypt with regard to thesize of Its population, Its extent, the spaciousnessof its markets, Its cleanliness, the architecture ofits mosques and its large number of baths andcaravanserais ".

At a time when the greatest cities of WesternEurope had no more than a few thousand inhabi-tants, Cordoba had a population of at least ahundred thousand and extended over severalhundred hectares (tenth-century Barcelonaoccupied less than ten hectares !).

The first caiiph,'Abd aI-Rahman III, whoreigned until 961, built the vast palatine city ofMadinat aI-Zahra'on the lower slopes of the hillsalong the northern bank of the Guadalquivir, a

28

few kilometres downstream from Cordoba. Incontrast to the paucity of our information aboutCordoba itself, we know the precise area of thisVersailles of the Andalusian caiiphs thanks toarchaeological and written evidence. Madinat al-Zahra'was almost completely abandoned at theend of the caliphate, to whose wealth and powerIts ruins bear eloquent witness.

The walls enclosed about a hundred hectares,with room for several tens of thousands of Inhabi-

tants. The city was dominated by palaces andgardens on several levels, which have been exca-vated and partially restored. Spanish archaeolo-gists and architects have done notable work inreconstituting the salon rico, a lavishly decoratedbuilding which gave onto a wide esplanade In the

centre of which was an enormous pool. We knowfrom written evidence that this edifice was usedfor official audiences.

The apotheosisof the mosque

Equally sumptuous was the extension of the Cor-doban mosque carried out by the son and suc-cessor of'Abd al-Rahman III, aI-Hakam II, whoreigned from 961 to 976. The finest part of thebuilding, around the mihrab, the niche in the wallwhich shows believers the direction of Meccatowards which they must turn to pray, wasadorned with magnificent arches In a new style,

a highly complex design of interwoven, multifoilhorseshoe arches, decorated with interlacedmarble and other sculpted stonework enrichedwith white or red polychrome patterns.

The polychrome decoration recalls the con-

trast between red and white In the alternating

stone and brick archstones'which were an originalfeature of the oldest parts of the mosque, builtduring the emirate. However, the similaritybetween the two phases of construction Is limited

to a few discreet echoes of this kind. The simpleelegance of the eighth-and ninth-century arches

contrasts strongly with the exuberant ornamen-tation of those built under aI-Hakam II, which

are a brilliant testimony to the wealth of thecaliphate at the height of Its power, and to theinventiveness and virtuosity of the artists whoworked for it.

The most outstanding features of the part ofthe Great Mosque built during the caliphate areundoubtedly the magnificent domes In theantechamber to the mihrab and above the cen-tral nave leading to it. They were built using atechnique of interlaced stone arches or ribbingwhich was quite new in Andalusian art, and had

a strong influence on later " Hispano-Moorish "

art from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries.Some art historians even believe that these originalforms of Andalusian art may have influenced thedevelopment of ogival art in Christian Europe.

The prayer hall of the GreatMosque, Cordoba.

29

Opposite page, the mfhrah ofthe Great Mosque in Cordoba.Above, deta)) of mosaic ! n themthrab.

Although these forms were intrinsicallydecorative, and their effect was enhanced by thepolychrome work described above, the architectsand decorators of Cordoba went even further byusing mosaic. Craftsmen had to be brought fromdistant lands to execute this technique, which wasrarely employed in medieval Islam. For this thecaliphate mobilized its financial resources, thetechnical skills of Its craftsmen, and also its diplo-matic relations, soliciting the help of the emperorat Constantinople, who sent a cargo of colouredglass cubes to Cordoba as well as a master mosal-cist to get the work underway and instruct localcraftsmen in the intricacies of the new technique.

A culturalcrossroads

The Great Mosque reveals more strikingly thananything else that Cordoba during the caliphate

The city with the most books

A polemical debate was held in the presence of al-Mansur Ya'qub, king of the Maghnb, between thephilosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and the chiefAbu Bakr Ibn Zohr. In the course of the debateIbn Rushd said to Ibn Zohr, referring to the

supremacy of C6rdoba :"I don't understand what

you say, but it so happens that if a wise man dies

In Seville and they want to sell his books, the books

are taken to C6rdoba, and that if someone wants toget rid of his musical instruments, the instruments

are taken to Seville. " And he added :"Cordoba isthe city that has more books than any other in thewhole world."

jM. MahmTunisian hiNonan (A <&lt;f-7 ! )

was a cultural crossroads. A more detailed look

at the building will help to show why this is so.The old columns and capitals that were re-

used in the Great Mosque were brought fromRoman buildings elsewhere in Spain or even frommuch farther afield, in particular from what istoday Tunisia where there were many ancientruins.

The origin of the horseshoe-shaped arches socharacteristic of Hispano-Muslim art is a vexedquestion. The form is found occasionally in theMiddle East at the time of the Umayyads and thepossibility cannot be excluded that it was deliber-ately imported from Syria by the emirs.However, it is generally considered to be a bor-rowing from Visigothic art, that is from theindigenous architecture that existed In Spainbefore the Muslim conquest.

Another original feature of the parts of theMosque built during the emirate is the superpo-sition of two rows of arches, enabling the ceiling

to be raised to a greater height. This practice hadalready been followed, though less elegantly andless skilfully, in the great Umayyad mosque inDamascus which may have inspired the firstbuilders of Cordoba. But it is more widelybelieved that the idea was suggested by Romanaqueducts, whose superimposed arcatures curi-ously recall those in the Great Mosque. The useof alternating archstones of white stone and redbrick may originate in local building methodsused during the later Roman Empire, or bemodelled on Oriental Umayyad buildings, them-selves Byzantine in inspiration, such as the Domeof the Rock in Jerusalem.

The caliphate adopted most of the styleswhich had been used earlier during the emirate,but enriched them considerably and added totheir complexity by intersecting arches,introducing original features into their interfoildecoration, and importing, probably from theOrient, new techniques for constructing domes.Underlying all this was a desire to exalt the gran-deur of the Umayyads, without abandoning thelink with an earlier Syrian tradition.

The handof the ruling dynasty

However, we must not misunderstand the multi-cultural character of the Cordoban caliphate. Thebrilliant civilization that developed in MuslimSpain, mainly from this period onwards, was cer-tainly In part the result of spontaneous contactbetween the cultures and traditions of the threemonotheistic religions that then coexisted on theIberian peninsula. But the exchanges that sprangfrom the relations between Islam, Christianity and

30

:'. '. . ! M ; .'. ; [ ? . '. : .... <

f , 1 ` f. ay the tc. t crtts

' :'i

' at » e tt " t`a i'.

"M'. tMW&'pS

) S ! ''

; ;,. ;-'.", 1

. Iat4tslli Kflwi .

t# :,. ̂', F

i . r ;

M'X$% .''

' 1 ti1' " t'ti i *

1*17- s .

; :. $. M.

e ? ''. . ; .'V"KMW

t, t SSA't B.

. $M ! t-') t'. : Jii't t .. ft-.MBtB. . tM

'l ; e : $$./w'was

.. C'Ff&'' ; "'-ttW

. @tMMm$<tS

; M'm$

<&lt;'M

Judaism were not on a basis of equality. The handof the ruling dynasty is everywhere evident. Theinfluences that contributed to the formation ofAndalusian civilization were primarily Oriental-'Abbasid and Byzantine. And the Umayyad State

was strictly Muslim and Arab.It would doubtless be an exaggeration to deny

the existence of local Hispanic influences in thedevelopment of Andalusian civilization. Even ifthey had wished to do so, the eighth-centuryArab-Berber conquerors could hardly have made

a clean sweep of the peninsula's pre-Islamic past.Many elements, even If only the materials avail-able, remained and mingled in varying propor-tions with those brought from the east and fromNorth Africa. However, these elements were re-used in a totally different context and helped inthe creation of original structures in which manyother elements taken from the Orient played apart.

In some cases the caliphate seems to have usedthe material and human resources it concentratedIn Cordoba to create works whose originality isstartling. The carved ivory caskets which areamong the most refined achievements of tenth-

century Andalusian craftsmanship are a case Inpoint (see photo page 27). They have few antece-dents, although perhaps here too we should seea certain influence from Byzantium, where ivorycarving had reached a very high standard.

But there is no doubt about the novelty of thestyle nor the source of its Inspiration, since allthese objects were made in palatine workshops.The caliphate seems to have been to some extent apre-condition for the creation of these ivories,which rank among the most beautiful achieve-

ments In the history of world art. Their manufac-

ture virtually came to an end with the disappear-

ance of the caliphate.t

PIERRE GUICHARD,professor of medieval historyat the Universite Lumiere Lyon2. is a French historian whospecializes in the relationsbetween Muslims andChristians in the Iberianpeninsula during the MiddleAges. Notable among hispublished works are studies onMuslim Spain and Sicily in thellth and 12th centuries(Presses Universitaires deLyon, 1990) and on theMuslims of Valencia and theReconquest from the 11t tothe 13th century (published bythe French Institute,Damascus, 1991).

31

The Arabized Christians of Spain

tn) t'0 CM/tMnM ?

intermediaries between two worlds

w

WHO were the Mozarabs and what contribu-tion did they make to Andalusian civilization ?In its strict sense the term Mozarab, which onlyappeared in the eleventh century, designates anArabized Christian, but it is more widely used

to designate the Christians of the Iberian penin-sula who lived under Islamic domination.

The result of a complex process of rejectionof and assimilation with the dominant society andculture, the Mozarabic community was far fromhomogeneous. The " real " Mozarabs were peoplewho were more or less profoundly assimilated.

The status of the Christians of aI-AndaIusdepended on their initial attitudes to the Invader.Many of them came to terms with the latter andcarved out Christian enclaves in the newlyMuslim lands. The people of cities such asCoimbra and Santarem, which did not offerresistance to the Invader, were spared and kepttheir prerogatives. Those which did resist some-times paid a heavy price.

Once the lands were divided among thedifferent groups of conquerors, the Christians

were allowed to enjoy their land and liberty Inexchange for tribute in the form of a land-tax,the jarach, and a poll-tax, the djizia. These tributesbecame more onerous as time went by and otherexceptional forms of taxation were added tothem, provoking violent outbreaks of social dis-

content.Like the Jews, the other people of the Book,

the Christians were allowed to keep their laws,

to retain and when the case arose to choose theircivic and religious leaders, and to practise theirreligion freely. At first new monasteries werebuilt In Cordoba as guardians of the Christiantradition and centres of culture where Latinremained alive. It was only later that discrimina-

Moses bars the Egyptiansfrom crossing the Red Sea.Miniature froma 10th-centuryMozarabic Bible preserved inLeon (Spain).

tory measures appeared, such as the duty of

wearing distinctive garments and the refusal ofpermission to build new places of worship.

Assimilationand martyrdom

No statistics are available with which to trace the

course of the Islamization of the peninsula.Doubtless this came about in stages, starting withthe rural areas where Christianization was notdeeply rooted. The practice of mixed marriagesand the close neighbourly links which were estab-lished between peasant communities led in thelong run to a natural erosion of Christianity.

32

Where Christianity did survive, It sometimestook unorthodox forms. The Mozarabs wereattracted by certain heresies such as adoptianismwhich, by denying the divinity of Christ, seemed

to bear some resemblance to Islam. Christianity,

even in its dogmatic version, eventually assimilatedcertain Islamic practices such as circumcision,food taboos and even, surreptitiously, bigamy.

Assimilation also took place in the otherdirection. The Muslims, while remaining faithful

to their religion, came to take part in the mainChristian festivals. Language played a decisiverole in this process of intermingling. WhileMozarabic, a Romance language, was widely

spoken (it was even used at court and in theadministration), and used in folk literature,Arabic was adopted by the Christians as the lan-

guage of culture.In the Arab-Andalusian melting-pot, Arabi-

zation was thus a factor of integration, the courseof which was not, however, entirely smooth. Inthe ninth century, a group of Mozarabs who werepartly Arabized but remained profoundlyattached to their Christian and Visigothic roots,were willing to sacrifice their lives in order topreserve their identity. Most of these candidatesfor voluntary martyrdom were the offspring ofmixed unions, and were thus in the eyes of societyMuslims. By making the supreme sacrifice, theywished to denounce the attitudes of other Chris-tians whom they considered to be too lukewarmand assimilated. Because they feared reprisals,

many Mozarabs then preferred to convert toIslam whilst others, wishing to keep their Chris-tian faith, chose to take the path of exile towardsthe Christian lands in the north of the peninsula.

In the tenth century, when the Cordobacaliphate was at the height of Its splendour, aperiod of peace opened for the Mozarabs. To turntheir talents to full account, some of them drew

on their dual cultural affiliations. The Calendarof Cordoba by Recemundo (Ibn Zaid), a man of

a great culture, as versed in Latin as he was InArabic, and a skilful diplomat at the court of OttoI (953), founder of the Holy Germanic RomanEmpire, bears witness to this juxtaposition of the

two Andalusian cultures, Latin-Christian andArab-Muslim.

This almanach, incorporating meteorologicaland agronomic information and a calendar of thefestivals of Christian saints which even notes theplaces where they were celebrated, is written bothin Arabic (but in Hebrew characters) and InLatin.

Translators and commentators

The trilingualism of the Mozarabs qualified them

as translators who could build a bridge between aWestern, European culture and an Oriental cul-

ture. Among the sumptuous gifts offered toCaliph'Abd aI-Rahman HI by the Byzantine

emperor was a manuscript of the. Historiarum<A'M<Mg<M Z. ! n W7by the Christian writerOrosius, a contemporary of St. Augustine. Trans-lated into Arabic by a Mozarab, this work becameimmensely popular. It enabled the Arabs to learn 33

''. .'iPreeSpMtS ''

Freedom of thought and expressioajMd inM'tc-tMl integrity and creativity constitute three essen-<Nt characteristics of the original Inte ! tuat produc-

tion of AndahtSm the eteventhCeatary.In the taifas scholars and inteMectuak often

experienced dramatic vidssimdes in ir forto

as a result of poittica ! conditions. Freedom of

expression existed, however, in spite of the

aamero restrictions limiting it, as the writmjgsof scholars of the day in many fields show....

The inteUectuats were act radically hostile tothe tat Mngs, who did not persecute all scholars.

On the contrary, they needed them po ! itica ! ly andcaed to attract the greatest possible number to their

courts. The importance of this phenomenon ties

ia the ftCtthat some of the most celebrated ru ! eesof HM were themselves scholars....

Yet... most of the scholars developed theirideas outade of the poutiea ! sphere of the ruts* !,workingindependendy....

. ;. ;"' :'. ;"'''." ;''.-. ; MMtC :. N « M&N''.MoMcom MMOfMB ("T hiSNiphy < at-Aa<Ms< dM t ! tne < the tN& StfM !", m tM « <&amp; Ocaatt

M&n<M < AMttenxM, po. <0, 1

A miniature from the Cantlgasde Santa Mana, an anthologyof pious songs in honour ofthe Virgin, made by Alfonso Xthe Wise (1221-1284).Be) ow, acast and engravedbronze ewer in the form of apeacock (12th century). Abilingual Inscription precededby a cross is engraved on thebird's crop. it reads (inArabic) work of the servant ofthe ChftsNan Mng and (inLatin) work of Salomon (aLatin form of Suiayman).

ROSA 6UERRE) ROis a medievalist of jointBrazilian and Swiss nationality.A former assistant lecturer atthe history department of theUniversity of Geneva, she iscurrently preparing a doctoralthesis at the University of ParisIV-Sorbonne. She has written anumber of papers on culturaland spiritual life in the Iberianpeninsula during the earlyMiddle Ages.

about the Greco-Roman past and inspired someof them to see in Arab-Andalusian history thenatural prolongation of Hispano-Christian andVisigothic history.

The Mozarabs were not only translators butalso brilliant commentators in Arabic who con-tributed to the transmission of Visigothic culture.The Etymologiae, a summary of all the sacred andprofane knowledge of his time by Isidore ofSeville (sixth-seventh century), the last Father ofthe Western Church, circulated with extensivecommentaries in Arabic, into which some partsof it were even translated.

Among the Mozarabs in fact Latin seems tohave lost its traditional role as the vehicle ofknowledge and the liturgical language. Parts ofthe Bible were translated early on into Arabic,

as were the canonical texts, accompanied by com-mentaries in Arabic to guide the thoughts ofChristians, who were increasingly attracted byArabic literature.

The scriptures in Arabic were not only readby Arabized Christians. Arab-Andalusian writersof such stature as the eleventh-century theologian,historian and poet Ibn Hazm, reveal a profoundknowledge of the Bible in works which werewritten, admittedly, in order to refute the prin-ciples of Christianity.

To sum up, it might be said that, over andabove the movements of attraction and rejectionwhich punctuated the coexistence between the

two communities, in the tenth century the Arab-Andalusians assumed their Hispanic identity andthe Mozarabs their Arab identity, while con-tinuing to respect their respective religions. This

was no small achievement in a world and at a timewhen the tendency was for different peoples andconfessions to be locked in mutual ignorance andattracted to mutual destruction, t

34

/M COM&K-t 1 Ot, M 0 OMM MO tr K', Op/,

poetic xdCMtC OnZMM 0 CMnc M/MMM CKZMM

) UDAISM has never interrelated more closely ormore fruitfully with another culture than It didwith the Islamic civilization of al-Andalus. Eventhough the status enjoyed there by Jews andChristians as peoples of the Book was oftenprecarious and in some ways oppressive, the legalposition it guaranteed was, all things considered,liberal in comparison with the conditions theJews encountered elsewhere in Europe, providing

as it did a high degree of legal, administrative,fiscal and cultural autonomy.

The largely secularized character of theIslamic civilization of al-AndaIus allowed thepeoples of the Book to consider themselves theheirs of a great and respected cultural tradition.The dominant language, Arabic, was less closelywedded to the prevailing religion than Latin wasto the Roman Catholic and Eastern Churches,and was widely used by Jews when commenting

on their own sacred texts.The " bourgeois revolution " of the eighth and

ninth centuries in the Islamic world saw the

appearance of an entirely new Jewish society, onevery different from that of medieval ChristianEurope. While Jews in the pre-lslamic era hadmostly been farmers or small craftsmen, they

now rose to dominant positions in public life andthe upper ranks of the administration, as well asin industry, finance and the professions.

With time and money to spare, these newelites had wider intellectual horizons, morerefined tastes, and heightened expectations of amore exalted spiritual life. Like their Muslim andChristian counterparts, they devoted themselves

to science and poetry, to artistic activities andfashionable occupations of all kinds, both seriousand frivolous. It was a time of travel, when Jewishcommunities were spreading across the Islamiclands and migrating between countries.

In linguistic terms, the symbiosis meant thatArabic, the new international language of civili-zation and culture, replaced the former vehicularlanguage, Aramaic, which henceforth was usedonly for Talmudic texts. The Jews employedArabic In all their intellectual activities : sacred andprofane literature, science and religion, transla-tions and commentaries on the Bible and theMishna. It was used for liturgical purposes, in

theological treatises, in grammars, dictionariesand in correspondence.

Jewish and Muslim philologists alike became

aware of the kinship between Arabic, Hebrewand Aramaic. But it was only the Jews who,knowing all three, were in a position to lay thefoundations for a comparative study of these lan-

guages.In literature, an examination of Jewish and

Arabic traditions, both written and oral, reveals

common elements and structures. There is astriking similarity between, on the one hand,

A page of the polyglot Biblepublished early in the16th century by theUniversity of Aiacaia deHenares. near Toledo, underthe auspices of CardinalCisneros. The text, written inGreek, Hebrew. Latin andChatdean. is printed in parallelcolumns.

35

Astreet in the otd Jewishdistrict of Cordoba.

Jewish folklore, the Talmud and the Midrash (acollection of homilies and legends), and on theother their Arabic counterparts, the Hadith(spoken traditions attributed to the ProphetMuhammad) and the Islamic verse-chronicles.There are also common subjects and heroes-Abraham, Moses, Job and Joseph, for example-

in the stories, verse and proverbs of the twopeoples.

Hebrew poetry was transformed by contactwith Arabic verse. Indeed, it owes the greater partof its prosody to the Andalusian inheritance. Inthe tenth century, Dunash ben Labrat laid thefoundations of a new system of scansion thatreplicated the quantitative metre of Arabic verse,whose rules he adopted. The MMMM/M/M, a poeticform originating in al-Andalus, also became afamiliar mode of expression in Hebrew poetry.

Alongside the renewal of Oriental Jewishstyles, a novel and prestigious form of poetrygradually developed to express the new elite's loveof art, comparable both in its form and its innermeaning to the Arabic model. It displays amanifest desire to emulate the intellectual andsocial elites of the Muslim world.

The Arab contribution to this literaryheritage was thoroughly digested and assimilateduntil it finally became a naturalized part of theJewish tradition. Jewish writers achieved analmost total blending of the cultural componentsof the Judaeo-Arab world of their day. At the

same time that interconfessional tensions wereabating, an attempt was made in poetry toremove the discrepancies and discordances thatthe abrupt encounter of the Hebrew language and

orthodox Jewish thought with a foreign tongueand culture could have occasioned. One can seein the works of Ibn Khalfon and his successorsthe attempt to adapt an essentially Jewish rhetoric

to the task of describing a secular world of whichJudaism had up to that time known nothing.

The lessons of Sufism

It would be impossible to understand or even con-ceive of the existence of Jewish spirituality andesotericism had it not been for the Islamicenvironment and the knowledge Jewish authorshad of Sufi mysticism.

A comparison of the ancient Jewish mysti-cism centred on the Merkava, the divine chariotdescribed by the prophet Ezekiel, with suchIslamic practices as dhikr (ritual repetition of the

name of God) and breathing exercises might sug-gest that archaic Jewish gnosticism contributed

to the formation of Islamic esoteric traditions. Infact, the influence went very much in the oppo-site direction. The relatively incoherent utter-ances of the Jewish Gnostics of the fifth and sixthcenturies gave way to the fervent eloquence ofthe Islamic mystics, who possessed in the Arabiclanguage a first-class means of expression. Fromthat time on, Muslim pietism left its mark on themysticism, spirituality and ethics of Judaism asit existed on Islamic soil.

It was via Sufism that many Jewish mysticsand ascetics received their apprenticeship in a newform of spirituality that they subsequently passed

on to their own culture, first of all in its originallanguage, Arabic, then through translations intoHebrew and other vernacular languages. Thiswork was accomplished by such scholars as BahyaIbn Paquda, Abraham Abulafya, and Abrahamand Obadya Maimonides, the son and grandsonrespectively of the great Moses Maimonides.Common ground between Jewish and Muslimmysticism and esotericism can also be found in thepractices of the Andalusian Sufis and the teachingsof Ibn'Arabi (1165-1241), a prestigious figure inthe Sufi world who was born in Murcia in Spain.

The experiences and teachings of al-Ghazali(1058-1111), one of the greatest Islamicphilosophers and theologians, exerted a consider-able influence on the intellectual history of theWest and the East, and especially on Jewishthinkers. The influence was felt at two levels and

at two distinct times.During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,

it affected Jewish authors writing and thinkingin Arabic. One such was Judah Halevi, al-Ghazali's most fervent disciple who, sharing hismaster's view of the danger posed by philosophy

to revealed religion, took as his starting-point the36

A miniature from the HebrewFarhi Bible, copied andillustrated by Elisha Crescas,who lived and worked innorthern Spain and the southof France during the secondhalf of the 14th century.

HA) M ZAFRAN)is professor of Hebrew at theUniversity of Par ! sV ! !) anddirector ofaresearchun ! t onJudaism in Islamic lands. He isthe author of 11 books andmany articles on Jewishthought. literature (written andora !) and languages ! n theMuslim West His study ofJewish poetry in the MuslimWest (Poesie juive en Occidentmusutman. Paris. 1977) wastranslated into Hebrew in1984. and his Mille ans de viejuive au Maroc ( " A thousandyears of Jewish life inMorocco". Paris. 1983) wastranslated into Hebrew in 1986and into Arabic in 1987.

charge of incoherence brought by al-Ghazali inhis masterwork Tahafut al falasifa (The Incoher-

ence of the Phiiosophers) against philosophers ingeneral and Aristotelian philosophy In particular.It Is also accepted that Moses Maimonides knewal-Ghazali's works, and especially his refutationof philosophy.

From the thirteenth century onwards, theworks of aI-Ghazali were translated into Hebrew,and were read, studied and commented on byJews in non-Arabic-speaking Provence and Spain,where they achieved immense popularity. In fact

some of the writings of al-GhazaII and ofAverroes (Ibn Rushd), the great Cordoba-borntwelfth-century Islamic philosopher, have onlysurvived in Hebrew.

The communication of Greek learning

In philosophy, one of the most outstanding fea-

tures of the Judaeo-Arabic symbiosis was theirruption of Greek science and culture into theJewish world through the medium of Arabic liter-

ature. The Hellenization of Jewish thought viaIslam is all the more surprising in view of the factthat many Diaspora Jews had close and some-times fruitful contacts with the Graeco-Latinworld.

However, the example of Philo of Alexan-dria, a philosopher of the Diaspora who livedsometime between the first century BC and thesecond century AD and was familiar with Greekphilosophy, had no strong impact on Jewish cul-

ture, and the countless traces of the Greek lan-

guage and of Hellenic civilization that are to befound in Talmudic or Midrashic literature sug-gest only a superficial influence. Such a rejection

can perhaps be explained by the Jews'defensiveinstinct to protect their religious identity, dictatedby an intransigent monotheism confronted withthe temptations of the paganism that Graeco-Latin culture represented.

A more conciliatory attitude towards Greeklearning only became possible after the victoryof the monotheistic principle In the form first ofChristianity and then, more importantly, ofIslam, which was closer to Judaism in Its unitaryconception of divinity.

Judaism subsequently successfully passed the

test of Hellenization. Yet it always maintainedIts independence of Islam In the matter of reli-gious fundamentals, even while travelling downthe paths of Muslim philosophy and accepting thelatest findings of the new sciences. This explainswhy the masterworks of the Jewish theologiansand philosophers of the tenth, eleventh andtwelfth centuries, notably Ibn Gabirol and MosesMaimonides, have remained classics of orthodoxJudaism, t

"-''''Vestothe'.

Initiatly, the balance of the relatM) Bship between

a ! *Andalus and the lands of the Orieat indined infayow of the latter. Sehobrs ma 1dey,',from AncMuat t the Orient Aw verM,beemse the current of civHizatioa M ftosfrom centres of higher culture to the lests developed

are. 8. AJt-Andatus leased heavily at first oa Oriestat] BBwkdge, which aeonsidered thBMainbeadthe Xndatusiaas E ! <at to know.

That is why the voyages were aa ekaMBt inconsolidating and reinforcing the links between the

two regions, permitting Andalusian scieettEc MdcSMetode'mabraTheyBMAndatuspasmthestatasit

backward country that copied the Mastic ! Oneat

to that of a competitor that sometimes surpassedits. \"."

&... --"..' ; j :, Msof] an {"if.-tpMMaee et < ;')) ! j () ! t-'bem the (MeM at-Aad"mi&iWM

MM) Ot e &t AMttMM

''...-'-- ; -"

37

A bridge between cultures, al Andalus transmitted to Europe Arab science and philosophy as well

as the work of Aristotle and other elements of ancient Greek thought

Abuicasis, a distinguishedArab surgeon who livedin 10th century Cordoba,is shown visiting the city'shospital in thisiate-19th-century engraving.

i. T was only in al-Andalus that scholars of the

early Middle Ages had access to the entire corpusof scientific knowledge of their time written InArabic, Hebrew, Greek or Latin.

To take one example of the transmission ofknowledge to Muslim Spain, Byzantine envoystook there a copy of the Materia Medica, a well-known treatise by the first-century-AD Greekdoctor DIoscorides. By comparing it with anexisting Arabic version, It was possible to fill in

many gaps, notably with regard to the preciseidentification of plant species. This task was car-ried out in collaboration with a monk namedNicolas, who came from the East expressly forthe purpose.

In the same circle of scholars were the Jewishminister and doctor Hasday ben Shaprut ; IbnJuljul, historian of medicine and pharmacology ;and also perhaps the great surgeon Abu aI-Qasimaz-Zahrawi, known to Christians as Albucasis,whose work was soon translated into Latin. He

wrote an outline of all the medical knowledge ofthe day, providing descriptions of such diseases

as haemophilia and scabies, of various surgical

instruments, even of a way of using a particular

variety of ant to heal wounds.Maslama al-Magriti's name also belongs on

the list. The works of this Madrid-based

astronomer and alchemist circulated In digestform in Western Europe almost as soon as they

were written, thanks to Latin adaptations pre-pared by the Mozarabic monks of the monasteryof Ripoll in Catalonia. From there they were dis-patched to monasteries in the Rhine valley,notably Saint Gall in Switzerland and Reichenauin Germany.

In the tenth century the natural passage stillused by modern tourists travelling from centralEurope to Spain was the only means of commu-nication beween the peninsula and the rest of thecontinent. The route through the central and

western Pyrenees had been closed since the defeatof Charlemagne at the battle of Roncevaux in778.

The importance thus accorded to Cataloniaexplains why the oldest surviving astrolabe, ahybrid product of the Arab and Visigothic cul-

tures, is set to function at the latitude of Barcelona.38

It was to the Catalan marches that the young Ger-bert of Aurillac, later to become Pope SylvesterII, travelled to study science. By the time hereturned to France, he had learned so much thatat first he was taken for a necromancer or magus.It was some time before the new knowledge thathe helped to introduce to Europe-of such subjects

as decimal numbers, the abacus, the constructionof astrolabes, sun-dials, armillary spheres andother instruments-became widely available there.

When he quit the Iberian peninsula, Gerbertknew that he was leaving behind him not just aland whose scientific culture was vastly superiorto that of Christendom but also one whoseresearchers (if one can use that word to describetenth-century scholars) were making continued

progress in their respective fields. In order to keepabreast of their work, Gerbert corresponded with

an acquaintance in Barcelona-one Lupitus,recently identified as the archdeacon Sunifred-whom he requested to send him the latestwritings from al-Andalus.

A fruitful partnership

In the same way, Christian envoys to Cordobasuch as Gomar, the future Bishop of Gerona,profited from their residence in al-Andalus to co-operate with their Muslim counterparts. Gomar

wrote a chronicle of the Frankish kings at the

request of the future caliph al-Hakam II al-Mustansir. An edited version of this work wassoon circulating In the Orient, and it has comedown to us In the great Arab traveller and ency-clopaedist al-Masudi's Murudj al-Dhahab.

The same ruler was also responsible for theenlargement of the palace library, which eventu-ally contained some 400, 000 volumes, only oneof which has survived. His bibliomania drove him

to pay a fortune for any book that caught hisinterest. That is why the first copy of Abu al-.Faradj'Ali al-Isfahani's " Book of Songs ", a col-lection of poems set to music that contains muchinformation on social and cultural life during thefirst centuries of Islam, was known in Cordobabefore it was In the Orient.

It has been established from the dates at which

some surviving works were imported that It waspossible for books to make the journey from theOrient to Cordoba and then on into the Chris-tian world in less than two years. The speed withwhich knowledge was transmitted can beexplained by the close collaboration that existedbetween scholars of different religions and cul-

tures. For instance the monk Recemundo, authorof a celebrated liturgical calendar, was successivelyAndalusian envoy to the Holy Roman Empire,

to Constantinople and to Jerusalem. His work,which was amalgamated into the oo o/ !

of Arib ben Sa'd, a doctor and civil servant who

was his contemporary, contains popularized ele-

ments of Indian and Iraqi astronomy as well asa mention of the great astronomer aI-Battani.

The Christian writer Orosius's Seven 600of Histories against the Pagans (Historiarum

< : c/Mg<tM (M Z. ! r : 77 was translated intoArabic by two men, Qasim ben Asbagh, aMuslim cadi or judge, and his Christian counter-part, Walid ben Khayzuran. The treatise known

as the Mathematica Alhandrea probably had asimilar genesis. A series of brief texts In Latin,it contains In more or less accurate form theArabic names of many stars, among them Rigel,Betelgeuse, Altair, Vega and Aldebaran-appellations that are still familiar today.

Other, more technical knowledge was alsopropagated abroad. Maslama of Madrid, anastrologer at the Umayyad court, adapted thetables of aI-Kharezmi, the great Baghdadmathematician, for the Cordoba meridian. Healso wrote notes on the construction of astrolabesand carried out astronomical observations. Hiswork soon became known In Europe, though notunder his own name. Latin translations anddigests also helped many Arabic words, such asal-sumt, azimuth, to enter other languages.

The new knowledge was also transmitted toEurope via Arab prisoners of war held on Chris-tian territory. Ibn Hayyan, the greatest historianof al-Andalus, specifically refers to their influence.Some of these captives were men of greatlearning, and their captors knew how to profitfrom their knowledge, t

This copper astrolabemade) n earty-llth centuryCordoba) Is one of the oldestin the world.

JUAN VERNET,Spanish Arabist, is professoremeritus at the University ofBarcelona and a member ofthe International Academy ofthe History of Sciences. Aspecialist in the field of Arabscience and its transmission t<medieval and modern Europe.he is the author of manyartiniM and RturttM

39

TM MO y MO ! M

transmission 0 the 40-G cultural

legacy from alAndalus to Europe

i. T was not until the twelfth century that thefirst college of translators from Arabic into Latin

was set up in Spain, in the city of Toledo. It wasfounded by Don Raimundo, archbishop ofToledo from 1126 to 1151. A Benedictine monkwho had been born at Agen in south-westernFrance, Raimundo was convinced of the impor-tance of the Arab philosophers for an under-standing of Aristotle, and he decided to maketheir works available in Latin.

Domingo Gundisalvo, archdeacon of Segovia,

was one of the most eminent of the scholarsrecruited by Raimundo. He translated much ofthe encyclopaedic At al :/a' ("Book ofHealing ") by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) as well as al-Ghazali's MM //M !/ ("The Aims of thePhilosophers ") and aI-Farabi's/M't !/- «/M( " Catalogue of the Sciences ").

But Gundisalvo knew no Arabic. He used aJewish or Muslim intermediary to translate fromArabic into Castilian, and then put the Castilianinto Latin. Among his Jewish collaborators twonames feature prominently : a certain Salomonand, more importantly, one Johannes Avendeath(who also appears as Avendear, Johannes benDavid, Johannes Hispanus, and also John ofSeville). The exact identity of these two hasaroused much discussion.

The most important of the Toledan trans-lators was undoubtedly Gerard of Cremona(1114-1187). Thanks to a brief notice left by hispupils on his life and work, we know that Gerard

came to Toledo after finishing his studies in Italy,in order to learn more about the 4/wMt. This

vast astronomical treatise by Claudius Ptolemaeus

ABDURRAHMAN BADAW).of Egypt. is a philosopher and historian of philosophy. Aformer head of the departments of philosophy at a numberof universities in Egypt, the Libyan Arab Jamah ! hya. andKuwait, and a visiting professor at the Sorbonne. Paris, he isthe author of over a hundred publications in French and in

7t Arabic, mainly concerned with existentialism. Greek andV Arab philosophy, and contemporary German philosophy.

(Ptolemy), the celebrated second-century-ADGreek astronomer, mathematician andgeographer, was then only available in Arabic.In fact Gerard discovered a multitude of scien-tific works in Arabic in Toledo, and immediatelybegan to learn the language so as to read themand, later, to render them into Latin. He eventu-ally translated more than seventy of them,including the 4/gc, which he completed in1175.

His translations cover virtually the entirefield of science of his time. Among them areseveral treatises by Aristotle (The Physics, 0Heaven ! M EA, 0 GccrfzoM J Co ?'y-tion, and 7% c ? 0), as well as books by al-Kindi, Ptolemy, Isaac Israeli, Ibn SIna, Galen andothers.

The other great translator was Michael Scot(c. ll75-c. l235). Born in England, he studied atOxford University and then in Paris beforesettling in Toledo. After learning Arabic andHebrew, he became a prolific translator of Arabicinto Latin. Near the end of his life he was invited

to the court of the Emperor Frederick II in Sicily,the other great centre of translation from theArabic.

Scot's translations included many commen-taries on Aristotle by Ibn Rushd (Averroes) aswell as al-Bitruji's work on the spheres, which

was to have a great influence on astronomicalknowledge.

The Toledan translations raise problems ofattribution. The French writer and historianErnest Renan wrote in a study of Averroes : " Itis certain that the Latins who journeyed toToledo had no scruples about appropriating thework of their secretaries, and... the name ofthe translator was often a fiction.

" Nearly always a Jew, often a convertedMuslim, did a rough translation, substitutingwords in Latin or the vernacular for the Arabic

original. A clerk would supervise this process,taking responsibility for the final Latin versionand putting his name to the work. This explainswhy one translation is often attributed todifferent individuals. "

Renan's view was shared by the greatAmerican medievalist Charles Homer Haskins inhis book on the twelfth-century Renaissance. Itis also supported by some translations in the Bib-liotheque Nationale in Paris, which were ren-dered from Arabic into Latin by way of Spanish.

The extraordinary achievements of theToledan translators were in reality the joint workof Muslim Arabs, Jews and Latin Christians. Itwould be unjust to give the credit exclusively tothe latter, even though many of the manuscripts,and many historians, mention only their names.Gundisalvo, Gerard of Cremona, Michael Scotand others all called on the help of Muslim Arabs

or more often of Jews in the course of their work.Sometimes the task of the Latin Christian trans-lators was limited to putting into good Latin whattheir assistants had already translated into badLatin or Spanish.

The great enterprise of translation fromArabic into Latin began in Spain in the twelfth

century, and Toledo was its most active centre.But it also took place in other cities of the penin-sula including Barcelona, Tarragona, Segovia,Leon and Pamplona. The task was subsequentlytaken up on the other side of the Pyrenees, inToulouse, Beziers, Narbonne, Montpellier andMarseilles.

It was thanks to these translations thatEurope came to know both the works of theGreek philosophers, mathematicians, doctors and

astronomers and those of their Arabic commen-tators or emulators. As Haskins wrote, " Thereception of this knowledge by western Europemarks a crucial turning-point in the history ofEuropean thought."t

Of Arabic origin, the wordalcazar is used to designate atype of medieval fortifiedpalace in Spain. Left, a viewof Toledo in which the alcazarcan be seen on the horizon.Right, detail from a passagedescribing the treatment ofgoitre in an i)) uminatedLatin manuscript ofAvicenna's Canon of Medicine(13th century).

41

A great Argentine

nr K) M/

attempt to recreate atmosphere of

intellectual life inal Andalus

i. HE medica ! doctor, philosopher and jurist IbnRushd or Averroes (1126-1198), the greatest Arab

commentator on Aristotle, is at home in Cor-doba. He is busy writing a philosophical work,the TM/Mt-/'TM/Kt (Destruction of Destruc-tion) " in which it is maintained, contrary to thePersian ascetic al-Ghazali, author of the TM/Kf-M/-/M/fM/ (Destruction of Philosophers), that thedivinity knows only the general laws of theuniverse, those pertaining to the species, not tothe individual.

" He wrote with slow sureness, from right toleft ; the effort of forming syllogisms and linking

vast paragraphs did not keep him from feeting,like a state of well-being, the coot and deep housesurrounding him.

" In the depths of the siesta amorous dovescalled huskily ; from some unseen patio arose the

murmur of a fountain ; something in Averroes,whose ancestors came from the Arabian deserts,

was thankful for the constancy of the water." Down below were the gardens, the orchard ;

down below, the busy Guadalquivir and then the

beloved city of Cordoba, no less eminent thanBaghdad or Cairo, like a complex and delicateinstrument, and all around (this Averroes fettalso) stretched out to the limits of the earth theSpanish land, where there are few things, butwhere each seems to exist in a substantive andeternal way."

The above passage is taken from Z, busca deAverroes ("Averroes's Search", 1947), by the greatArgentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986).Themes and figures of Arab-Islamic culture arerecurrent features of the work of Borges, who

once proclaimed that the Thousand and OneMg/7h was the Book of Books. Of all the writingshe devoted to Arab-Islamic culture,"Averroes'sSearch " best represents his special relationshipwith that culture and, more particularly, with oneof its unique facets : the world of al-Andalus.

At-Andatus as depicted by Borges Is the sceneof an extraordinary spiritual adventure. It is aplace where commentaries are written onAristotle, " this Greek, fountainhead of at)philosophy ". Where people " exhaust the pages

42

Left. Jorge Luis BorgesBelow, water channel andfountains in the gardens ofthe Generatife, the summerpalace of the Nasrid rulers inGranada (14th century).

of Alexander of Aphrodisia ". Where scholarsproudly examine rare manuscripts collected by

princes who are passionate bibliophiles. Where

questions of poetry and rhetoric are discussedwith fervour. Where an examination of theauthenticity of " marvels " can turn into a discus-

sion of the created or uncreated character of theQur'an.

Great intellectual receptivity, rich and con-trasting characters, a profound respect for otherpeople's freedom of opinion, conversation andthe exchange of ideas raised to an art : these arethe characteristics of the Andalusian elite asdescribed by Borges. Averroes takes issue withanother character in the story, Farach the the-ologian, by refusing to accept that " an excellentvariety of the perpetual rose... is found in thegardens of Hindustan "-a Borgesian theme parexce//eHcc-"whose petals, of a blood red, exhibitcharacters which read :'There is no god but theGod, Muhammad is the Apostle of God.' " Butthis disagreement does not provoke a polemic.The viewpoint of the orthodox theologian, forwhom a miracle is the very sign of divinity, cancoexist with that of the rationalist.

In the person of Abulcasim the travellerBorges mischievously presents a kind of antithesis

to the three other characters in the story-Farachthe theologian, Abdalmalik the poet andAverroes himself. A down-to-earth, practical

man, Abulcasim, whose " memory was a mirrorof intimate cowardices, " has a very differentexperience of the world from that of the men ofideas and convictions. When asked to relate amarvel, he reflects that " the moon of Bengal is

not the same as the moon of Yemen, but it maybe described in the same words. " A prudent man,he never answers directly, but takes the pulse ofhis audience and softens the asperities of the ques-tions put to him by means of dialectical agility.

Could it be the memory of other, less tolerantlands far from al-Andalus that explain this wari-

ness ? Was al-Andalus really the idyllic land Borgesdescribes ? Did it not, like any other country, have

its share of stupidity and horror as well as itsexemplary splendours ? The life of Averroes him-self seems to confirm that this was so, if any proof

were needed. He knew opprobrium as well asglory, suffered repression at the hands of obtuseauthorities, was present at the burning of booksthat had cost him dear in hard work and self-denial, and came to know not just the loyal sup-port of true friends but also the stubborn hatredof mediocrities.

But Borges's al-Andalus is not that of history,

nor that of a literary realism that would seek toreconstitute objectively a life, a place, a time. Hedoes not set himself that goal, still less allow him-self that illusion. The point of Borges's fiction isquite different. The Spanish title of the story, Labusca <4fe'OM, can be read In two ways, as the

quest undertaken by Averroes himself, or as thequest for Averroes-Borges's own attempt torecreate the philosopher and his destiny in the

truest manner possible.In the first paragraphs of the story, Averroes

is depicted hard at work in his library. He is grap-pling with a problem that causes him great con-cern. At the beginning of Aristotle's Poetics, onwhich he is writing a commentary, he has stum-bled over two words, tragedy and comedy. " No

one in the world of Islam could conjecture whatthey meant. " He consults all the sources, poresover the versions of the Nestorian Hunain ibn-Ishaq and of Abu Bashar Mata. But in vain. Andyet " it was impossible to elude... these twoarcane words " from the great philosopher'sPoetics.

Borges twice puts Averroes in the presenceof the answer that he is seeking. The first occa-sion is a scene in which he is distracted from hiswork " by a kind of melody ", looks down fromhis balcony and sees " below, in the narrow ear-then patio, some half-naked children were

43

Awtffett, tb « w<) <ft, wtthPythent*. A det8l1 of Ttt*Sehoe<efA<h<m*, <fnMcepx) <tt « ht 150<-mo by th<) t<))) tttp<))) <tf) <tp) MH) nthtStM) Md<) hS<t<MtMn)) nt) xWtttean.

RACHtD MMMH),Moroccan writer and jouma ! ist,is the author of an essay on20th-century Frenchphilosophy which will shortlybe published in Arabic. He isalso preparing a study onFrench travellers in Morocco,which will appear (in French) in1992.

Extracts from"Averroes'sSearch " by Jorge Luis borgne ;translated by James E. Irby.Copyright @ New DirectionsPtthtiahinc fnmnratinn

playing. One, standing on another's shoulders,

was obviously playing the part of a muezzin ; withhis eyes tightly closed, he chanted'There is nogod but the God.'The one who held him motion-lessly played the part of the minaret ; another,abject in the dust and on his knees, the part ofthe faithful worshippers. The game did not lastlong ; all wanted to be the muezzin.... "

The second time is through a story told bythe traveller Abulcasim about a strange thing hehad seen in China : " One afternoon, the Muslimmerchants of Sin Kalan took me to a house ofpainted wood where many people lived. It isimpossible to describe the house, which wasrather a single room with rows of cabinets or bal-conies on top of each other. In these cavities there

were people who were eating and drinking, andalso on the floor, and also on a terrace. The

persons on this terrace were playing the drum andthe lute, save for some fifteen or twenty (withcrimson-coloured masks) who were praying,singing and conversing. They suffered prison, but

no one could see the jail ; they travelled on horse-back, but no one could see the horse ; they fought,but the swords were of reed ; they died and thenstood up again.

"'The acts of madmen,'said Farach,'exceedthe previsions of the sane.'

"'These were no madmen,'Abulcasim hadto explain.'They were representing a story, amerchant told me.'

" No one understood, no one seemed to wantto understand....

"'Did these people speak ?' asked Farach.

"'Of course they spoke,'said Abulcasim....'They spoke and sang and perorated.'

"'In that case,'said Farach,'twenty personsare unnecessary. One single speaker can teil any-thing, no matter how complicated it might be.

, "The words tragedy and comedy presuppose a

knowledge of theatre, an art unknown to Arabculture In Averroes's day. The philosopher, a.prisoner of his own culture, cannot imagine whatthese words can mean unless he has some ideaof theatrical representation itself. This Is why,when he has an example of it before his eyes-the children playing at being muezzin-he cannotsee it. One can only see something of which onealready has a concept ; everything else remains" invisible ". Since theatre does not exist as a cul-tural category, another category that is familiar,that of the story-teller, takes its place.

Averroes returns home at dawn and goes tohis library. Under the impression that he hasfinally found the meaning of the two obscurewords, he adds these lines to his manuscript :" Aristu (Aristotle) gives the name of tragedy topanegyrics and that of comedy to satires andanathemas. Admirable tragedies and comediesabound In the pages of the Qur'an and in themohalacas of the sanctuary.... "

Borges then adds a postscript in which heexplains that in the story he has " tried to nar-rate the process of a defeat ", the failure of a questblocked by Its own cultural frontiers, adding,however, that his own quest for Averroes failsfor the same reason : " I felt that Averroes,wanting to imagine what a drama is without everhaving suspected what a theatre is, was no moreabsurd than I, wanting to imagine Averroes with

no other sources than a few fragments fromRenan, Lane and Asm Palacios. "

Can one ever really know another culturethan one's own ? Putting the bleakest possibleinterpretation on Borges's words, it might be saidthat cultures are closed to one another. If this isthe case, the quest for what al-Andalus wasbecomes impossible, and attempts to recreate at-Andalus are bound to give a distorted impression.But such a quest also provides an ethical lesson :to know is to be aware of otherness, of the " com-pletely other", and to respect it-a very differentthing from the disastrous pretensions of the" panoptic overview ".

" Few things more beautiful and morepathetic are recorded In history than this Arabphysician's dedication to the thoughts of a manseparated from him by fourteen centuries,"Borges says of Averroes.

Borges's story is a fine contemporary tribute

to the exceptional moment in intellectual life that

was al-Andalus. *44

i

which was launched in 1984 andnow has a membership of 255instltutfons in 130 countries. The

r°`r °''UNESCO IN ACTION new network will describe how

each member has developed'

curricula in discipiines such as ; .

.

physics, chemistry, biology and N ` , x

mathematics. The computerized . ') - BotA'data base will be on-iine and

available on both diskette and hard copy.Orace iBumfbry nansdUNESCO amfbassadorThe celebrated American opera Vsinger Grace Bumbry has been -: rausn ' : : ! SL''.

"h. r States has banned the TtMES PnMr PC. Eduaon awaMed fOf ?. f

an artist and for her woh< in'' " . ? 0. 000 P. d<d by a gift froman artist and for her work insupport of education, heatth and room the Peten region of . MpaR) but) MNFoundyouth : n : "" <d

implementing a UNESCO'mXTieconctn'th. conventionwhistheonty --a) yC<&lt;MyUNESMh<.

'"'"'". stingT < ! hTd<nbyDintemational forum on " Culture i ii5. fie ( af ! ! d8$ignat8d by the DirACtOr-.

and Democracy " heid in Prague at instrument deaNng with the illicit' '" trade in cuituraiobjts. The 6eMMthabaarMmmend<&lt;ttonantn<

September erector"""' ' statespenons, wh<ch rnvtews tt) e many nomtna-

Generat. Mr. Federico Mayor. rmar'TX Sar. e ttOM WMch are seK fmm a « Over ? 0 WM to USCO.

presented Ms Bumbry with her foal request for the ban to thepresented Ms Bumbry with her u'oennderthe ) nthepaedua) th ! ntO''apUbOp) nionandmot ! MizetheMr'. TSd's'mbry c. nv. n.. sint. d<t. Mp c<nsc<encencauseofpeace"hasgenMr. Mayor said that Ms. Bumbry n "symboiizes in her talent and its stop Sain'' "n tt deserves and urgentty requires.

use a unique synthesis of what we 2·200 archaeologal sites in the

use a unique synthesis of what we p towtandarea of tropical T pnze has made and is making a notables change in that direc-mean by a cutture of democracy. " forests. Acxording to the tjOn. it ig brirtging

to ever wider attention a message articutated

GuatemaianGovenwnent aseanyasl911byoneofthefirsttwoiaunMtes, honoured) ntttftttt increasingiy sophisticated tootingA UNESCO docMmwnttfy"M affected more than 85% ouftune sites. The U. S. ban covers cannot be secured... unless the spirit for peace is there in theUtefacyDwy vases, bowis. drums, effigy minds and witts of the peoples. This is a matter of education."A 52-minutie documentary vessets and artefacts of jade, ftint,highlighting the hardships

of she)), bone and other materiats. Over the years the jury has selected a diverse group ofstreetchiidreninAfricahasbeen Thisisthe4thtimethatthe iaureatesrepresentingaverybroadfangeofaetivitiesinpeaceedu-produced by UNESCO in""ted SMes has appHed Artier gj recentiy carried out a survey of the laureates whichcollaboration with the 9 of the Convention on the IllicitintemationatCathoiicChMd transfer of cultural objects (1970). reveaied that the prize has spurred greater efforts for peace. Heiena

Bureau. The film, entttted May trte which has been ratmed by 71 Kekkonen of Rniand (1981) reflected that"The reputation broughtnt&estMttisessenttaity States, by ? 0 UNESCO prize did a iot towards increasing the interest oftargeted for televisicn but w111 also' ' ". ' F'""'sh educators and people in general in peace education....be available for non-commercialuse. Shown for the first time on 9''S**'*""*'"t985-1987. taws obliging'chiidren and young people to beSeptember at a ceremony heM at""H<e pnM *""''*"'brought up with a will for peace'came into effect in Finland."UNESCO HQ to mark the 26th J ° To^annua ! ernaMorLacy Ta « em) tsu and French Several prize-winners reported becoming more active within

MayNtenWttbeshoftispartofa mustcotogist deques CtMUttey UNESCO and the United Nations system. The intemationat Peacec<mpa) gn to ttraw attention to the'n'* Research Association, for example, has undertaken a project on

, growing worid probln ot sbreet In^ationai NC! chandTrning CoundMUNESCOPrM. AspMM"Cuiturai Symbiosis in al-Andalus " (see page 31).

Today and than 100 mittton ment) enwentto<tte (u<teamus The funds awarded to the laureates have helped them to carry'Today mae ttlan 100 mlNkxchitdrenofpnmaryachootage TneaurwaaoSve ? furthertheirservicetotheadvancementofpeaceeducation. Among

The 3 leurostqs aleo resdhave rver sdt toot in ahnrsetfootina UNESCO's MoMrtMeda). the endeavours supported by the prize money have been : financing'Ta) MmMtu. 6e,) snotMtfM-w thetraveiofpeaceresearchersfromdeveiopingcountriestopar-

------ '''" ? 1"" ticipate in the 1990 biennial meeting of the intemationai Peace. <&lt;<&lt;<&lt;<&lt;<&lt;<&lt;<&lt;<&lt;<&lt;<&lt;<) OccMetntttnaonetMt).,-. ;HMf BohtMt <m<t hta<rum<n<t. meM<&lt;t (t ResearchAssociation ; thefundingofaworkonpeacekeepingthat

e) t) ttta<y MemtaMMt ? erton) twh : R<&lt;t is used as a basic text for the professional preparation of military'S**. 'S'*4. officers and diplomats ; the promotion of a book on the struggles

\-.'M « SCOtwtt<euntx'o<n) mme ChtM. M. MMitMM. t'tttM.',.'.. :. : :.' f. f ee..t « ) Mth<ootnpuMrM<t-'wcott<he'.'*MM)) 6) it'""''''' for peace of Egyptian and israeii women ; research on a just world

order ; a series of films on development and peace.

This tWjMt ) t'Vtf WW WM '"'-. "K BETTY R6AROOM AMD UMCKUABDULAZ) Z at'''; i'1 d it h. t

''sS ! S"''-'''*S% This arttcie is based on a ionger study by Betty Reardon (United States) '". .''" : `

` * " , and Ungku Abdul Aziz (Malaysia), both members of the Intemationsl Jury

0f'Ir " °. of the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education.

tI

' c . A "''bi e v

c

SULTAN, seraglio, harem : such words longepitomized Ottoman civilization in thedreams of Westerners. The master of animmense empire stretching from Egypt toPersia and from Baghdad to Belgrade, thesultan seemed to be a fabulous character whoenjoyed limitless power and endless pleasure.It was easy to imagine him living in his haremas if in a garden of earthly delights.

The reality was very different. The harem

was a restricted enclave governed by punc-tilious protocol and strict rules, subject to theauthority of the / : </f, the rulingsuttan's mother. In it love was codified, if notritualized. And if some sultans abused itspleasures, others only went there for the sakeof custom ; and the majority only visited it inmoderation.

In the middle of the sixteenth century thewomen of the sultan's seraslio moved into the

: AROUNE HAARDT,rench journa ! ! St. was a staff member ofJNESCO's D ! V ! s ! on of Cu ! tura ! Herbage from 1983o 1987. She is currently preparing an exh ! b ! t ! on.! S part of the UNESCO Silk Roads project, on theroere Jaune. a motor rally from Beirut to Tibete ! d ! n 1931. 1932.

harem of the Topkapi. a new palace which wasto be the imperial residence until thenineteenth century. Marvenousty situated ona hi ! ! overtooking the Sea of Marmara, theBosphorus and the Golden Horn, theimmense complex covers 700, 000 squaremetres, with its vast gardens, its murmuring

waters and its terraces overlooking the sea. Atits heart was the harem, where only the sultanhad the right to enter and move around freely.

This forbidden domain adjoined the bar-racks of the haiberdiers-with-tresses, toughmountain troops from Anatolia who cut thewood that fue ! ted the palace fires. To avoid

temptation, these soldiers wore high collarsthat made it impossible for them to turn theirheads, and their long, braided locks served asblinkers.

As time passed, the harem grew, spreading

Ot] tW3rn', in) n\rtnttnnctnr) nfrt) tn) r' :46

Topkapi & c Mf

Cupolas and minarets of the harem.Right, the sultan's baths.

central core. There are more than 400 roomsin its three precincts : the living quarters of theblack eunuchs ; the women's quarters, wherethe apartments of the suttan's mother,daughters and odalisques were situated ; andthe men's apartments, where the sultan andthe princes of the b) ood hved.

One enters the harem through a gateleading into the Domed Hall with Cabinets,where merchants deposited jewellery, furs andclothing for the concubines. The living quartersof the black eunuchs, which have a courtyarddecorated with btue, green and turquoise cer-amic tiles, are three storeys high. The size anddecoration of the apartments and the bathsvaried according to the eunuchs'rank.

At the entrance to the women's quarters,an inscription on the bronze door recalls thesuttan's sovereignty. This is a world where theplay of tight, the splendour of the ancienttiling and the refinement of the decorationcombine to produce an impression of paradise

on earth. In these apartments with their richhangings, luxurious carpets and deep divans,it is easy to imagine the beautiful kadins (thesultan's principal consorts, officially recog-nized as such though not married to him)waiting bejewelled for their master.

The way to the apartments of the validesultan ties through a courtyard, decorated withtwenty-five marble columns. From a smallwooden belvedere situated nearby, it was pos-sible to survey all the activities of the harem.

These palatial quarters comprise a seriesof rooms in the Western style, withmonumental chimneypieces, mirrors and areasof wait decorated with paintings. In thebedroom are panels painted with imaginarylandscapes, a baldaquin of gilded wood, anddivans with shimmering fabric. An archeddoorway leads to the queen mother's private

prayer room.The queen mother's baths are arranged in

the same way as those of her son. The first

room was for undressing, white sipping drinks

or sherbets ; in the second cold water wasprovided ; hot water in the third. The basinsand tubs were of alabaster.

The suttan's private apartments consist of

four great rooms, the most beautiful and thebest preserved of the harem. In the ImperialHalt, a dais with marble columns and a balus-trade of gilded wood encrusted with mother-of-peart was used by mate musicians andsinging girls. The sultan's throne, surmountedby a baldaquin, stood on a peart carpet whichhad been embroidered in the harem. On hisvisits to the harem this was where he gave thereceptions that no one from the city or eventhe palace could attend, where the womendanced, played music and recited poems.

The vast Privy Chamber of Murad III,which was built by the great architect Sinan,displays all the splendour and nobility of tate-sixteenth-century Ottoman art. Its beautifullyworked dome is supported by four arches. Thedecoration of the walls is handled in such a wayas to present a subtle gradation of colours andtight, from lower panels coated with a uniquered varnish (the secret of their manufactureperished with the Iznik craftsman who madethem) to stained-glass windows above. A foun-tain decorated with stone flowers and a hugegilded hearth are set opposite one another." Water is the source of life, " the Qur'anproclaims. There are many fountains In the

47

Harem, and the incessant murmur of water,it is said, served to muffle the voice of theprince during his secret conversations....

Beneath the Privy Chamber, the womendisported themselves in a marble swimming-pool, opening on one side onto a second, out-door pool.

Other rooms still wait to be visited : the

apartment of the crown prince, where gold,mother-of-pear ! and ivory are fabulously min-gled ; the so-cailed Meeting Place of the Jinns,

a narrow corridor that was nonetheless animportant artery of the harem In which manya conspiracy was hatched ; the Golden Way,the passage the sultan used to go to religiouscetebrations. It is said that when a new sultanascended the throne, he would throw goldencoins at all the women of the harem lined upalong these walls.

Leaving the harem by the Aviary Gate islike waking from a dream. The harem isunlike any other palace. It is an unreal resi-dence, a paradise that enchants by its refine-

ment but chills by its prisonlike aspect.

Iron rules

The harem has been the theatre of many dra-matic events, but Its inflexible laws remainedthe same for four centuries.

All the women of the harem were boughtand became slaves of the sultan. They weremagnificent girls, recruited from among thecaptives of conquered lands. The age of entryranged from five to sixteen. In the intrigue-filled chambers of the court, it was beauty, not

The feadin mom of Ahmad

birth, that could win advancement byattracting the sultan's eye. Most of the girls

were destined to remain servants, but thosepicked out by the harem superintendent, awoman known as the kaya kadin, received athorough education, so they might please theruler.

Life in the harem was punctuated by thefestivities held to celebrate births and mar-riages. Normally girls who failed to attract thesultan were freed at the age of twenty-five,when they received a pension for life and weregiven in marriage to a member of the courtor the clergy.

It is hard to say exactly how many womenlived in the harem. Ottoman sources say 700,which would seem to be a maximum in viewof the space alloted them. A document datingfrom the beginning of the seventeenth centuryputs the figure at 456.

In the harem, the word of the valide sultan

was law. Through weakness or incapacity,

some sultans even allowed their mother togovern in their place. She alone possessedsumptuously decorated apartments and a civiland a military household. Even more signifi-cantly, her apartments were the only ones thathad access to the sultan's private chambers.

The custom of employing eunuchs toguard the palace women was a very ancient

one. Orieinatine in Mesopotamia, it spread

around the world, from China to Rome. TheOttoman harem was no exception to the rule.The black eunuchs who had charge of it fromthe end of the sixteenth century retained their

power and influence until the end of theimperial period.

The eunuchs, who came from Africa,especially Ethiopia, were subjected to an irondiscipline. Their most important tasksincluded preventing outsiders from enteringthe harem and stopping the women fromabsconding. They received a training com-parable to that given to the royal pages ; theylost their own names, being given those offlowers instead, and were taught music and cal-ligraphy. Their commander was the thirdhighest officer of the empire.

A fragile jewel

In order to draw the attention of the interna-tional community to the wonders of the Tur-kish patrimony, the Director-General ofUNESCO launched an appea) in 1983 for the

protection of the historic quarter of Istanbuland other sites. One of the priorities was therestoration and rehabilitation of the TopkapiPalace.

In the nineteenth century, the sultanmoved to the palace of Dolmabahce and Top-kapi was abandoned to the surveillance of afew guards. The building suffered substantialdamage : there was a fire in 1863 and an earth-quake in 1894, white in 1871 some buildings

were demolished to make way for a railwayline. After the proclamation of the republic,the palace was transformed into a museum,but only part of the complex was placed underthe control of the its directors.

The harem is, naturally, one of the ; ewetsof the palace ; its architecture is an exceptionalmemorial to the richness and diversity ofOttoman civilization. Its reputation has con-tinued to grow. Projects, excavations andinvestigations have multiplied ; more than 400studies of it have been published.

Built as it is of wood, it is particularly vut-nerable to the risk of fire, and the first pri-ority is an efficient system of alarms and extin-guishers. Restoring the building is no easytask, for, as with any monument, its architec-tural features need to be respected, both insideand out. That means using the originalmaterials, including ivory, ebony, teak andgo) d) eaf, ai ! hard to come by these days. Inspite of the precautions taken to protect itfrom unfavourable weather conditions, theedifice is rapidly ageing and considerable main-

tenance and repair work is needed. N48

T1 His year we celebrate the 750th anniver-

sary of the birth of Yunus Emre, who wasprobably the most significant foik poet in thehistory of Islamic literature, besides being the

most important Turkish poet up to the twen-tieth century. His poetry embodies the quin-

tessence of Turkish-Anatolian Islamichumanism and has been a source of inspira-tion in Turkish intellectual life through the

ages. His verses include eloquent specimens oftolerance and universalism :

Mystic is what they call me,Hate is my only enemy.I harbour a grudge against none.To me the whole wide world is one.

Many of Yunus Emre's fundamental con-cepts are rooted in the Sufi tradition, particu-larly as exemplified by the thirteenth-centurymystic and poet Rumi, who lived in Anatoliabut wrote in Persian. In this Rumi resembledthe writers and thinkers of medieval Europewho used Latin in preference to their nationallanguages. But Yunus Emre, like Dante,adopted the vernacular of his own people.Because he spoke their language and brought

a message of divine love, he became a legen-dary figure and came to be regarded as a saint.For seven centuries his verses have beenmemorized, recited and celebrated in theheartland of Anatolia. Even today most Turks

can read and appreciate him without too much

recourse to the dictionary, while they find

many classical poets of the fourteenth tonineteenth centuries quite unintelligible.

But it is not for reasons of language alonethat Yunus Emre appeals to us today. Histhemes and concerns are both timeless anduniversal, relevant to not only to Turkey but

to the whole world, and as much now as everbefore. For we live in an age that sees war asevil and the supreme crime against humanity.Love is the celebration of life, an idea whichis forcefully expressed in the catchword fromthe 1960s and 1970s : " Make love, not war ".Translated into mystical terms, this means thatit has both a human and a divine dimension,and it is here that we catch an echo from the

poetry of Yunus Emre :

Portrait of Yunus Emreby the contemporary Turkish artist

Siiheyl Unver.

1am not here on earth for strife.Love is the mission of my life.

It is a poetry that speaks to us through thecenturies, expressing the ecstasy of com-munion with nature and union with God.This theme of union with God frequently

appears in his writing as an ideal which isabout to be realized, while his humanismincludes, in Hegel's words, the " urging of thespirit outward-that desire on the part of manto become acquainted with his world".

Yunus Emre spurned book learning if itdid not have a humanistic relevance, becausehe believed in man's godliness. In this sensehe had affinities with Petrarch, also writingin the fourteenth century, and with Erasmus,

a century later, who, as part of their classical

or Renaissance humanism, shunned the dog-matism imposed on man by scholasticism.Like them, he sought to instil in ordinarypeople a renewed sense of the importance oflife on Earth, but like Dante, he explored theethical dimension of mortal life whiledepicting the higher values of immortal being.Yunus Emre's lines are memorable :

Whoever has one drop of lovePossesses God's existence.

About Yunus Emre's life we know verylittle, and what we do know tends to be amatter of legend rather than ascertainable fact.He is said to have been illiterate for most if

not all of his life, yet the poems display an eru-dition and a richness of allusion that couldhardly be expected from an illiterate. In anycase, it is the poems themselves that count, and

some of them are magnificent.Yunus Emre's poetry is dominated by a

unitary vision of man and nature. Through his

humanism he seeks to enrich human existenceand to ennoble it by liberating man fromdogma and by placing him in a relationship oflove with God. His view of love is creative andnon-exciusive : " In God's world there are ahundred thousand kinds of love ", and " Whenlove arrives, all needs and flaws are gone. " He

was concerned about all people, particularly thedeprived, and this is what gives his poetry itsintensely moving quality. He was the first poetin Turkish history to create an " aesthetics ofethics ", and in this he has never been surpassed.He stressed the ecumenical ideal :

We regard no one's religion as contrary to ours.True love is born when all faiths are united.

Much of his work is a testament to theequality of all human beings. In an age markedby conflict and destruction, Yunus Emre gavevoice to an aft-embracing love, proclaiming abelief in a universal fellowship that transcendsall schisms and sects :

The world is my true rationIts people are my nation.

He was a man of the people and for thepeople-a spokesman for social justice whospoke out courageously against the oppressionof the underprivileged by rulers, landowners,officials and religious leaders. He thus stoodin the mainstream of a humanist tradition thathas always claimed the moral right to criticizethe Establishment and the powers that be.And, in what could be seen as an anticipationof the spirit of the United Nations andUNESCO, he made a poetic plea for world

peace and fellowship which is still supremelyrelevant in today's world, convulsed as it isby violence and war :

Come let us all be friends for onceLet us make life easy on usLet us love and let us be loved onesThe world shall be left to no one. N

TALAT SA) T HALMAN,of Turkey, was formerly his country's Minister ofCulture and is currently a professor of Near-Eastern languages and literatures at New YorkUniversity. He has published more than 40 booksin Turkish and English, including 3 on Yunus Emre.

49

Yunus Emre

j [MM) LMfC

Sf f M

_____

UNESCO Courier Index 1991

JanuaryCITIES UNDER STRESS. Interview with Daniel J. Boorstin. The urban experience (W. Tochtermann). Citizens who help themselves(J. E. Hardoy and D. Satterthwaite). A new heart for old cities (S. Bianca). The mutilation of Bucharest (M. Lykiardopol). Can Leningradbe saved ? (0. Nosareva). Chandigarh, a planner's dream (R. Aujame). Berlin, a testing ground for urbanism (H.-W. Hamer). The squatter-builders of Lima (A. Wagner de Reyna). The Jesuit missions to the Guarani (C. Haardt). Reviewing the accounts (M. Batisse). In thewake of Marco Polo (F.-B. Huyghe).

FebruaryTHE QUEST FOR UTOPIA. Interview with Francois Jacob. Attempting the impossible (F. Mayor). Do we need utopia ? (F. Ainsa).The fiasco of paradise (G. Lapouge). A Platonic parable (A. Frontier). Akhet-Aton, city of the Sun (A. Wassef). A golden age (A. W. P.Guruge). The American laboratory (R. Creagh). Paradise in 4338 ? (V. Revich). Blueprints for an ideal community (C. Ward). Non-stoplearning (G. Leclerc). A planetary utopia (J. Huxley). Imaginary cities (C. Grau). The rock-hewn churches of Cappadocia (A. Brock).

MarchA WORLD OF MUSIC (1. Leymarie). Interview with Manu Dibango. The birth of the blues (E. Bours and A. Nogueira). Brazil :a kaleidoscope of sound (M. de Aratanha). Tex-Mex music (M. Pena). Latin jazz. The rockers' [ament (A. Sokolansky). Echoes fromafar (V. Brindeau). From guitar to qanun (J. Jalal Eddin Weiss). Song of India (R. Maitra)."Wor) d Music" (A. Gardinier). Ouro Preto,city of black gold (A. C. da Silva Telles). Coping with uncertainty (M. Batisse). Threading through the past (F.-B. Huyghe).

Apr !)PERCEPTIONS OF TIME. Interview with Farouk Hosny. Coming to terms with time (P. Ricceur). Measured moments (J. Matricon).At peace with the past (X. Bingming). Disturbing rhythms (H. Aguessy). A many-sided concept (A. Hasnawi). Present imperfect (F.Ainsa). Quartz time (A. Wassef). " A desire for eternity " (A. Cioranescu). Safeguarding the pyramids (G. Bella). Towards a democraticculture. Ambassadors, adventurers and empires (F.-B. Huyghe).

MayPEOPLE AT PLAY. Interview with Sadruddin Aga Khan. An appetite for living (M. Mauriras-Bousquet). Between order and chaos(G. Scheines). Doing what comes naturally (S. Amonashvili). Smile, smile, smile (M. Paribatra). Child development through play (R.Dinello). Play and the sacred in Africa (B. Comoe-Krou). Games without fun (J. d'Ormesson). Sport and play (G. Magnane). The Dogon,people of the cliffs (C. Haardt). The fabulous land of Cathay (F.-B. Huyghe).

JuneMAPS AND MAP-MAKERS. Interview with Jorge Lavelli. The new history of cartography (J. B. Harley). Imagining the world (C.Delano-Smith). Atlases, ways and provinces (S. Abdel Hakim). The treasures of Montezuma (M. Leon-Portilla). Zheng He's sailingchart (Mei-Ling Hsu). The pathfinders (A. Pinheiro Marques). When mapping became a science (N. J. Thrower). The perspective fromspace (J.-P. Grelot). A bit off the map (A. Sudakov). Celestial cartography (W. Merkli). The Earth from every angle (L. d'Andtgnede Asis). Copyright is everybody's business (M. del Corral). The Universal Copyright Convention (A. Kerever).

MfJulyTHE MYSTERY OF GENIUS, MOZART AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT. Interview with Leon Schwartzenberg. A Europe oftravellers (B. Massin). The age of genius (J. Starobinski). Mozart as a man of the Enlightenment (J. Lacouture). " Every angel's terrifying "(0. Messiaen). Two kindred spirits : Goethe and Mozart (M. Osten). A long journey from obscurity (H. Garcia Robles). A composerin his time. The Amazon symphony. The rock an of Tassili N'A)] er (C. Haardt). From awareness to action (C. Hopkins). The kingdomof Silla and the treasures of Nara (F.-B. Huyghe). Freedom of the press : an appeal by the Director-General of UNESCO.

Auguet-SeptemberSEA FEVER. Interview with Tahar Ben Jelloun. Fragments for a private iconography of the sea (E. J. Maunick). The wondrous deep(R. Sabbaghi). The legacy of Confucius (W. E. Cheong). In the wake of Ulysses (A. Kedros). Pacific pioneers (T. O'Regan). Music ofthe waves (G. Moustaki). Yemanja, goddess of the sea (M. de Aratanha). Night watch, alone (A. Gillette). The shipwrecked sailor'sstory. The strange destiny of Urashima Tare (Ninomiya Masayuki). Moby Dick, monster of the forbidden seas (A. R. Lee). Reflectionson the ocean (E. Mann Borgese). Sailor beware ! (P. Giovanni d'Ayala). A scientist looks at the sea (D. Walsh). The ghost ship of theAntarctic (D. Gunston). The four pillars of Neptune's temple (J. Ferrier). The Blue Plan for the Mediterranean (M. Batisse). ManuNational Park, Peru (J. Serra Vega). The return of the fM/ al-Salamah (F : B. Huyghe).

OctoberCHILDREN IN DANGER. The story of a grand design (F. Mayor). UNESCO's first 45 years ; 1945-1949 (M. Conil Lacoste). Theright to be heard (M. Manciaux). Children of the streets (F. Romero). Children in gangs (C. Rogers). Africa's lost generation. PaulaLi, Mohammed and their friends (A. Vasquez). Stress at an early age (Tariho Fukuda). The spoiled child (A. Rose). The twelve whosurvive (R. G. Myers). Child labour in the world today. The Convention on the Rights of the Child. A mirror for childhood (F. Vallet).Sana'a, the pearl of Arabia (L. Soliman).

NovemberENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT : A GLOBAL COMMITMENT. Interview with Jacques-Yves Cousteau. A partnershipwith nature (M. Batisse). The citizen and the environment (C. Villeneuve). Rwanda : land of a thousand hills (C. Jeanneret). Energyfor a sustainable world (J. Goldemberg). Hungary : the pitfalls of growth (1. Lang). A world fit to live in (L. Brown, C. Flavin andS. Postel). What future for Amazonia ? (1. Sachs). No room in the Ark (B. von Droste). The first Earth Summit. Time to act (F. diCastri). UNESCO's first 45 years ; 1950-1959 (M. Conil Lacoste). The stones of Aachen (H. Lepie and R. Wentzler). Interview withFederico Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO.

DecemberAL-ANDALUS. Interview with Melina Mercouri. The heritage of aI-Andalus (R. Arie). The roots of coexistence (M. Cruz Hernandez).The rise of the Umayyad dynasty in Spain (J D. Latham). Cordoba the magnificent (P. Guichard). The Christian contribution(R. Guerreiro). Convergent streams (H. Zafrani). The pursuit of learning (J. Vernet). The Toledo school (A. Badawi). Borges in search

. of Averroes (R. Sabbaghi). Yunus Emre (T. S. Halman). The Topkapi harem (C. Haardt). UNESCO's first 45 years ; 1960-1967' (M. Conil Lacoste).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTCover and Page 3 (righ) : @ IsabelleGrange, Paris. Page 2 : @ BernadetteFevrier, Melun (France). Back cover, JPages 29, 36 : 0 A. Munoz dePablos, Paris. Page 3 (left) :@ Reporters Associes/Gamma, Paris.Pages 4, 6 (below) :UNESCO/Dominique Roger. Page 5(above) : UNESCO/C. Bablin. Pages5 (below), 6 (above) : UNESCO.Page 7 (above) : UNESCO/R.Lesage. Page 7 (below) :UNESCO/Bracher. Page 8 : J. P.Laffont @ Gamma, Paris. Pages10-11, 12 : @Cahiers du Cinema,Paris. Page 13 (above) : Maria Issaris@ Gamma, Paris. Page 13 (below) :Marshall @ Gamma, Paris. Pages 15,16 (below), 34 (above), 35 : Oronoz0 Artephot, Paris. Library of theEscurial, Madrid. Pages 16-17, 44 :Oronoz @ Artephot, Paris. Page 18 :@ Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.Pages 19, 21, 25, 26, 30, 31, 43, 49 :@ Roland and Sabrina Michaud,Paris. Page 20 : @ Roland Michaud,Paris. Library of the University ofIstanbul. Page 22 (below) : @ DagliOrti, Paris. National Library, Lisbon.Page 22-23 : @ J. L. Charmet, Paris.Bibliotheque Nationale. Page 27 :@ Roland Michaud, Paris. LouvreMuseum. Pages 28, 32-33 : @ DagliOrti, Paris. Library of St. Isidore,Leon. Page 34 (below) : @ Reuniondes Musees Nationaux, Paris. LouvreMuseum. Page 37 : S. D. Sassoon,taken from Hebrew IlluminatedManuscripts @ Keter PublishingHouse, Jerusalem. Page 38 : @J. L.Charmet, Paris. Page 39 : @ RolandMichaud, Paris. Royal ScottishMuseum, Edinburgh. Page 40-41 :Roland Michaud <S) Rapho, Paris.Page 41 (right) : F. Garnier@ Artephot, Paris. Pages 46, 47, 48 :taken from Topkapi, The « ce ofc/tftty, conception and photography :Ahmet Ertug @ Ertug and Koluk,Beyoglu, Istanbul.

CORRECTIONSMr. Jose Serra-Vega, the author ofthe article " An ecological Eldorado,Peru's Manu National Park ", whichappeared in our August-September1991 issue, has asked us to makecertain amendments to the text aspublished. The spectacled bear (page75) is found in many parts of SouthAmerica. For " black lizard " (page76) please read " black cayman "(Melanosuchus niger). There are onlyabout a hundred giant otters in thePark (page 76), and in most parts ofthe Amazon basin these animals arenear extinction. The anaconda andthe aquatic boa (page 77) are identicalcreatures. We apologize for theseerrors, which did not feature in theoriginal text as written by Mr.Serra-Vega.

The sculpture " Masked Phantoms "by Clara DeLamater reproduced inthe " Encounters " feature of ourNovember 1991 issue ( " Environmentand Development : A PlanetaryCommitment") is of bronze and notclay.

The credit for the photo on page32 of the same issue is @ CharlesLenars, Paris.

50

_ __,. _ ''°'' " ' 'E ;'lII ! 1 !'tE i `- f , ;Rtlev. 'r, -- : l.,

, v , l'. m.. ;

. , fl ``, " °.r

t ? e'i ill'. l'` , : :'',

` ",'`-

,, " , _. : r ; _.