Aljamiado Legends: The Literature and Life of Crypto-Muslims in Imperial Spain. A Critical Commentary on Religious Hybridity and English Translation, by María del Mar Rosa-Rodríguez (University of Puerto Rico - Cayey).
This is the first collection of Aljamiado literature translated into the English language. Aljamiado texts are in Spanish, but they are written using the Arabic alphabet. In other words, these texts look like Arabic, but when read, they sound like Spanish. The Aljamiado legends included in this volume tell the story of a crypto-Muslim community in 16th-Century Spain that managed to preserve its religion and culture in an intolerant Spanish-Catholic state. The anonymous authors of these legends intended to preserve their stories, folktales, and religious teachings through a secretive language that only the Muslims of Spain could decipher and understand.
The English translation of these texts gives scholars today a glimpse into the secret lives of Muslims in 16th-century Spain. The legends in this collection capture the crypto-Muslim’s religiosity, identity and their own sense of self-definition. This book intends to appeal to a general and academic public alike. Scholars and readers interested in debates on religious tolerance, diversity, imperial discourse, Islamic culture and cultural hybridity constitute the intended audience of this book. Students and teachers in the fields of Comparative Literature, Religion, Theology, Islamic Studies and Cultural Studies are also part of the intended readership, now that the texts are available in English.
The selected legends are grouped into four thematic areas: “Legends of Conversion and the Afterlife,” “Secular Tales of Love, Adventure and Morality,” “Legends of War, Victory and Glory,” and “Legends of the Prophet Muhammad, Jesus and Other Religious Figures.” The book also includes three critical essays: “A Commentary on the Hybridity of Aljamiado,” “The Idea of Conversion in Aljamiado Literature,” and “Gender and Sexuality in Aljamiado Literature.”
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Serie de traducciones críticas, 8
ISBN: 978-1-58871-305-6 (HB, 224 pp.) $50
ISBN: 978-1-58871-306-3 (PB, 224 pp.) $45