MESA Banner
Morisco Mysticism and Magic: The 16th Century Leaden Texts of Granada, Spain
Abstract
In the decades prior to Spain’s expulsion of the Moriscos (those remaining Andalusi Muslims who, in the 1500s, were forced to convert to Christianity or leave the kingdoms), the anonymous Morisco-authored Libros plúmbeos (Leaden Texts) emerged in and around Granada’s sacred hill, Sacromonte. The plúmbeos (or plomos) were a cache of trilinguistic texts written in Arabic, Spanish and Latin, inscribed on thin leaden sheets, crafted as lost Christian gospels, and buried in the caves of Sacromonte. Although the works converted many followers, they were sent off to the Vatican in 1641 and declared fakes in 1682. Curiously, the Holy See never disposed of these works and, in the year 2000, the Vatican returned the texts to Granada. Since then, the plomos have been the subject of intense debate among academics like Luis Bernabe Pons, Phillipe Roisse and Mercedes García Arenal who have disagreed about the form, content, and function of the texts. However, when the works are read through the language and imagery of Morisco magic and Sufism, the objectives of the plomos are clarified; they are a means to resolve the much-debated problem of Spain’s divided Morisco and Old Christian communities. I will argue that through the power of the occult sciences and Sufism, the anonymous Morisco authors of the plomos proposed to unify Muslim and Christian Spaniards, quelling the violence against crypto-Muslims and eliminating the group’s impending expulsion. What is more, when read as magical and mystical texts, the plomos suggest an alternative model of Spanish communal identity based on the inclusion of difference versus its exclusion. Curiously, although Old-Christian polity won out in the end and the exile of the kingdoms’ Moriscos began in 1609, the plomos did manage to save a handful of aristocratic Granadan Moriscos—including the translators and suspected forgers of the texts—suggesting that there may have been something wonderfully magical and mystical about the plomos after all.
Discipline
Literature
Geographic Area
Spain
Sub Area
Identity/Representation