Moorish Culture in Don Quixote
Abstract
Don Quixote the founding novel written by Cervantes is based on an Arabic text found in the streets ofToledo, the mythical town of translation. Thus, told by Side Hamet Benengeli the Moorish historian, Don Quixote takes an Arabic look. In this claim pure forgery or partly tenable ?
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References
A. CASTRO, 'La palabra escrita y el Quijote', Hacia Cervantes, 196O(1957), pp.292-324. On Cervantes and Algiers, see CASTRO's Españolidad y Europeizacion del Quijote, 1960, and the very recent work by E. SOLA, Un Mediterráneo de piratas: corsarios, renegados y cautivos, 1988, pp. 267ff.
THE KORAN, translated by N.J. DAWOOD, fourth revised edition, 1974.
See for instance, M. BRETT & W. FORMAN, The Moors: Islam in the West, 198O, pp.59-6O.
G.E. Von GRUNEBAUM, A Tenth-Century Document of Arabic Literary Theory and Criticism, 195O, pp.XIV-XV.
J. DERRIDA, De la grammatologie, 1967.
H.A. WOLFSON, The Philosophy of the Kalâm, 1976, pp.1-2O and passim. See also A. CASTRO, op.cit., where he writes: "No es un azar que en arabe una misma palabra sinifique 'herir' y 'conversar con alguien' (kalán(?), kallam), y que kalima sea 'verbo, logos divino". On the other hand, E.W. SAID points to an eleventh-century Cordoban school led by Ibn-Hazm and others, and their thought raised - among other things - 'a notion that essentially puts a line of demarcation between Islamic ideas and the Judeo-Christian textual traditions.' Drawing on R. ARNALDEZ's Grammaire et théologie chez Ibn Hazm de Cordoue, 1956, SAID continues: 'By contrast (with the Bible) the Koran is the result of a unique event, the "descent" into wordliness of a text, whose language and form are thereafter to be viewed as stable, complete, unchanging...Hence...according to Ibn Hazm, (the Koran) is a text controlled by two paradigmatic imperatives, iqra: read, or recite, and qul: tell.' See his 'The Text, the World, the Critic', in Textual Strategies, ed. J.V. HARARI, 1980 (1979), pp. 161-188.
M. FOUCAULT, The Order of Things, 1970 (1966), pp. 46-77.
A. CASTRO, op.cit, and La realidad historica de España, 1962(1954). See also P.K. HITTI, History of the Arabs, 1951 (1937), pp. 563-4.
A. CASTRO, Hacia Cervantes, op.cit, pp. 292-324.
O. Ibid, pp.308-9.
A. CASTRO, The Structure of Spanish History (España en su historia, 1948), 1954.
A. CASTRO, Hacia Cervantes, op.cit, p.31O.
See for this matter, and as an instance, H.A. WOLFSON, op.cit, pp.579-89.
Quoted by M.I. GERHARDT, Don Quijote: la vie et les livres, 1955, p.2.
D. AUBIER, Don Quichotte prophète d'Israël, 1966, p.12.
On the relationship between Don Quixote and Moorish culture, see for instance S. de MADARIAGA, Don Quixote: An Introductory Essay in Psychology, 1961(revised edition), esp. pp.16-19, P.K. HITTI, op.cit, pp.559-64, A. GONZALEZ PALENCIA, Historia de la literatura Arábigo-Española, 1945 (1928), esp. pp. 334-5, and H.A.R. GIBB's 'Literature', in The Legacy of Islam, Sir T. ARNOLD & A. GUILLAUME (eds), 1931, esp. pp. 196-9.
See for instance W. BYRON, Cervantes: A Biography, 1979.
R.S. WILLIS, The Phantom Chapters of the Quijote, 1953, p. 101.
A. CASTRO, La realidad historica de España, 1962 (1954), p.XXVII.
O. R.A. NICHOLSON, A Literary History of the Arabs, 1907, pp. 349-459.
D. AUBIER, op.cit.
H. SNYDER GEHMAN, 'Arabic syntax of the relative pronoun in Poema de mío Cid and Don Quixote', HISPANIC REVIEW, 50/1, 1982, pp.53-60.
Ibid.
On what is called pseudomorphosis, see CASTRO's The Structure of Spanish History, op.cit, and Collected Studies in Honour of Américo Castro's 8Oth year, ed. M.P. HORNICK, 1965, where the editor stated that O.Spengler's 'mineralogical concept' of pseudomorphosis was applied to history. He then proposed to apply the term historical pseudomorphosis to those cases in which an alien culture lies so massively over the land that another culture, born in this land, cannot get its breath and fails to develop its own self-consciousness' (Introduction, pp.7-20).
I. GOLDZIHER, A Short History of Classical Arabic Literature, 1966, p. 10. See also M. BRETT & W. FORMAN, op.cit, p.74 where they write: 'qasida has the meaning of travelling towards a goal.'
E. CURTIUS, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, 1953(1948), p.537.
A. CASTRO, La realidad historica de España, op.cit., pp.219-23.
Ibid, p.22O.
A. CASTRO, Le drame de l'honneur dans la vie et la littérature espagnoles du XVIème siècle, 1965(1961), pp.27-57.
Ibid, p.86. The Arabic proverb I quoted literally means: 'is not a youth he who says my father was, but he who says here I am!'
Ibid, pp.122-3.
Ibid, pp.127-8 and A. CASTRO, The Structure of Spanish History, op.cit, p.100.
See B. LOUPIAS, 'En marge d'un recensement des moriscos de la "villa de el Toboso" ', BULLETIN HISPANIQUE, 78, 1976, pp.74-96.
See for instance A. CASTRO, 1948, 1954, 1957, op.cit.
A. GONZALEZ PALENCIA, op.cit, pp.334-5.
L. SPITZER, 'Linguistic Perpectivism in the Don Quijote', in Linguistics and Literary History , 1962(1948), pp.41-85.
IBN-KHALDUN, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, translated by F. Rosenthal, second edition, 1967(1958). See also R.A. NICHOLSON, op.cit, pp. 438ff, who claims that Ibn Khaldun went to Spain in 1362 and stayed there for a while.
A. CASTRO, La realidad historica de España, op.cit. and The Structure of Spanish History, op.cit.
Ibid, p. 250.
Ibid, p.251.
Quoted by E. CURTIUS, op.cit, p.179.
Ibid, pp.178-9.
A. CASTRO, Españolidad y Europeizacion del Quijote, 196O, pp.XXX-XXXIII.
A.J. ARBERRY, Arabic Poetry (bilingual edition), 1965, pp.50-1.
Ibid, p.51.
M. BRETT & W. FORMAN, op.cit. write that, for instance, 'Swordsmanship and pensmanship is also Moorish', p. 82.
Siratu 'Antar (The Romance of Antar or The Life and Adventures of Antar) deals with the poet Antar and his heroism. However, it is supposed to have been written by Asma’i (?). Antar was compared by R.A. NICHOLSON, to 'the bedouin Achilles', op.cit, pp.103-115 and pp. 459ff.
See N.H. AL-QAYSI, Chivalry in pre-Islamic Poetry (Arabic edition), 1964, and J. VERNET, Ce que la culture doit aux Arabes d'Espagne, 1985(1978), pp. 282-3.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- A-CASTRO, Hacia Cervantes, Madrid, 196O (1957).
------------------, Españolidad y Europeizacion del Quijote, Mejico, 1960
------------------, La realidad historica de España, Madrid, 1962(1954).
------------------, The Structure of Spanish History, London, 1954 (España en su historia, 1948).
------------------, Le drame de l'honneur dans la vie et la littérature espagnoles du XVIème siècle, 1965(1961).
- P.K. HITTI, History of the Arabs, New York, 1951 (1937).
- E. SOLA, Un Mediterráneo de piratas: corsarios, renegados y cautivos, Madrid, 1988.
THE KORAN, translated by N.J. DAWOOD, fourth revised edition, 1974.
- M. BRETT & W. FORMAN, The Moors: Islam in the West, London, 198O.
- G.E. Von GRUNEBAUM, A Tenth-Century Document of Arabic Literary Theory and Criticism, Oxford, 195O.
- J. DERRIDA, De la grammatologie, Paris, 1967.
- H.A. WOLFSON, The Philosophy of the Kalâm, Yale, 1976.
- R. ARNALDEZ's Grammaire et théologie chez Ibn Hazm de Cordoue, Paris, 1956.
- E. SAID, 'The Text, the World, the Critic', in Textual Strategies, ed. J.V. HARARI, London, 1980 (1979), pp. 161-188.
- M. FOUCAULT, The Order of Things, London, 1970 (1966).
- M.I. GERHARDT, Don Quijote: la vie et les livres, Paris, 1955.
- D. AUBIER, Don Quichotte prophète d'Israël, Paris, 1966.
- S. de MADARIAGA, Don Quixote: An Introductory Essay in Psychology, 1961(revised edition).
- A.GONZALEZ PALENCIA, Historia de la literatura Arábigo-Española, Madrid, 1945 (1928).
- H.A.R. GIBB's 'Literature', in The Legacy of Islam, Sir T. ARNOLD & A. GUILLAUME (eds), 1931, esp. pp. 196-9.
- W. BYRON, Cervantes: A Biography, London, 1979.
- R.S. WILLIS, The Phantom Chapters of the Quijote, Oxford, 1953.
- R.A. NICHOLSON, A Literary History of the Arabs, London, 1907.
- H. SNYDER GEHMAN, 'Arabic syntax of the relative pronoun in Poema de mío Cid and Don Quixote', HISPANIC REVIEW, 50/1, 1982, pp.53-60.
- M.P. HORNICK (ed), Collected Studies in Honour of Américo Castro's 8Oth year, London, 1965.
- I. GOLDZIHER, A Short History of Classical Arabic Literature, 1966.
- E. CURTIUS, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, London, 1953 (1948).
- B. LOUPIAS, 'En marge d'un recensement des moriscos de la "villa de el Toboso" ', BULLETIN HISPANIQUE, 78, 1976, pp.74-96.
- L. SPITZER, Linguistics and Literary History, London, 1962(1948).
- IBN-KHALDUN, The Muqaddimah: an Introduction to History, translated by F. Rosenthal, second edition, 1967(1958).
- A.J. ARBERRY, Arabic Poetry (bilingual edition), Oxford, 1965.
- N.H. AL-QAYSI, Chivalry in pre-Islamic Poetry (Arabic edition), 1964.
- J. VERNET, Ce que la culture doit aux Arabes d'Espagne, Paris, 1985 (1978).
