The Islamic Monuments in Spain as Historical Devices (16th to 18th Centuries)
What history of Spain could be written using the Islamic monuments of Al-Andalus as sources? Were the Mosque of Córdoba, the Giralda of Seville, and the Alhambra of Granada part of the nation's history? What interest could an Arabic inscription or a decorative fragment of ataurique have at a time when admiration for classical ruins and relics of the martyrs was prevalent? These questions directly engaged some of the most prominent Iberian historians of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
On one hand, there was a need to explain these remnants of the past within a general framework that acknowledged the importance of historical monuments while seeking to establish cultural and religious homogeneity in conflict with the recent history of the Iberian Islam. On the other hand, it was understood that the monumental power of these buildings could be of some use in the historical debates about the origin of Spain and its ecclesiastical history, even competing with the ruins of ancient Rome.
In this overall context, the lecture will address issues such as tensions between transformation, preservation, interpretation, and appropriation of monuments in a cross-cultural context, historical forgeries, techniques of describing and analyzing buildings as historical sources, the relationship of monuments to the religious conflicts of the time and to the Morisco population, the impact of buildings on city life, and the doubts of historians when confronted with writing about controversial matters.
This lecture is the ARTES Nigel Glendinning Annual Lecture 2024.
