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Ambiguous Boundaries: The Córdoba y Válor Family, Christian Concomitants and Muslim Dissenters in Sixteenth Century Granada
Abstract
In 1492 the Catholic Monarchs (r. 1469-1504) guaranteed the protection of the right to religious observance for the Muslim community of Granada following its conquest. After a dramatic increase in Castilian immigration to the city, along with escalating and oppressive taxation of the conquered population, a revolt was staged in 1499 led by the influential figure Ibrahim ibn Umayya who claimed direct descent from Abd al-Rahman III. The revolt was quickly suppressed and followed by particularly ruthless consequences involving forced conversion to Catholicism or expulsion for the entire Muslim community. Curiously, Ibn Umayya was one of the first to convert, changing his family name to Córdoba y Válor, and was immediately granted titles, land, goods, and political influence within the local Castilian government. The central theme of this paper will investigate the ways in which some Moriscos, following the First Alpujarras Uprising, navigated their own positions within an increasingly anti-Muslim environment. While Ibn Umayya’s story may at first denote a fickle allegiance during times of upheaval, primary sources regarding the family reveal a more complex narrative in which the Córdoba y Válor blurred the lines of religious identity, and for a variety of reasons. It would only be forty years after the death of Ibn Umayya that his great grandson would deny his own inherited position on the Granadan city council, convert to Islam, and lead the Second Alpujarras Uprising as the “King of the Moors.” This was, in part, a reaction to the enforcement of laws designed to eradicate the Arabic language, prohibit traditional customs, and erase the memory of Islamic Al-Andalus – a situation that may ring familiar due to the current state of affairs regarding some Euro-American efforts in “confronting” their Muslim communities.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Spain
Sub Area
Mediterranean Studies