Something a little different for the blog this evening, since what little coherent thought I have is presently being channelled towards various Deadlines of Doom. (Largely self-inflicted; one day I'll learn not to say "Yeah, sure" in response to questions like, "How about handing in the next chapter of your thesis the same day you're responding to a paper given by the queen of your field?" Bah!)
Anyway, in the interests of sharing my pain with anyone else unfortunate enough to be in on a Saturday night, here's a little tale from medieval Muslim Spain, aka al-Andalus. (The Alhambra, pictured above, has nothing whatsoever to with this story, by about 600 years, but a) it's pretty, and b) I took this photo in 2002 and it brings back happy memories).
(If you want to skip the contextualising, go straight to the bit in italics :-))
This particular version of the story comes from the oldest surviving Arabic account of the Muslim conquest (which happened in the year 711) of Spain - the Ta'rikh ('History') of 'Abd al-Malik ibn Habib, a ninth-century Andalusi writer with a penchant for very odd tales. It was clearly a popular story, because it turns up repeatedly - in slightly altered forms - in later texts; I believe it also formed the basis for a Borges story. (If so, can anyone point me towards it?)
'Tis an interesting anecdote in various different ways (about which I shall soon be droning on at greater length to my supervisor, poor chap). It expresses the medieval Islamic assumption that the conquests were pre-ordained by God; it sketches in the greedy character of Roderic, last Visigothic king of Spain and not a popular chap, as a figurative way of explaining the civil war that weakened Spanish resistance when Muslim forces crossed the straits from North Africa; and it has a neat little moralistic sting in the tale, essential in an age when history was supposed to be edifying above all. It's also just a fun story.
The translation is mine, so don't expect it to flow very well... ;-)
Beside the house in which Tariq ibn Ziyad found the crowns [of the Visigothic kings], there was another house, upon which were twenty-four locks. Whenever a new king came to power, he put a lock upon it, as those before him had done. This went on until the time of Roderic, during whose reign al-Andalus was conquered.
In the easy days before the conquest of al-Andalus, Roderic said, "By God, I refuse to die while the secrets of this house remain concealed; I must open it, and find out what is in it."
He gathered to him the Christians and the archbishops and the bishops. They said to him, "What do you mean by attempting to open this house? Look, it does not contain what you think; put it from your mind. Take this advice from us, and do not bring evil upon us. Not one of the kings who came before you so much as spoke about it. Verily, they were learned people, and understood what they were doing."
But Roderic insisted on opening it, as was destined. He found there a chest of wood, inside which were images of the Arabs, turbaned figures carrying Arabic bows and girded with ornamented swords.
They also found documents in the house, on which it was written:
"If this house is opened, and entered, then those who are depicted here will enter these lands; they will claim it for their own, and plunder it."
The Muslims' invasion of al-Andalus happened in that same year.
~~Nic