Cervantes and “Don Quixote”… Was the founder of the European novel of Morisco origin? | culture

The book “Don Quixote de la Mancha” (known among the Arabs as “Don Quixote”) is the most universal literary work in the Spanish language. Its author, Miguel de Cervantes Saabedra (1547-1616), is also considered the founder of the European novel, as he is credited with inventing this literary genre and defining its main components and components.

This exceptional book has been translated into countless languages ​​of the world, and has even been reprinted several times and across different eras, as is the case with English, French, Arabic, etc., into more than eighty languages. These renewed editions reflect a growing interest in restoring this rich text, in order to delve deeper into its apparent and implicit meanings and connotations.

Cervantes’s work – especially this masterpiece – achieved such fame and reputation on the international level that the date of his death on April 23, 1616 was considered the ideal occasion to celebrate International Spanish Language Day.

On this basis, it is not surprising that writers, critics, and scholars, ancient and modern, have devoted studies, analyzes and research with diverse tendencies to explain “The Tale of the Clever Knight,” in order to interpret its meaning, symbols, and literary, social, and historical manifestations, without neglecting to examine the goals of its author behind the planning of this book.

Novel or encyclopedia?

Since the “Tale” of Don Quixote was full of suggestions and references that seemed to be related to his biography, they also continued to delve deeply into the most important events of his life and his personal positions and opinions. We would not exaggerate in saying that this text goes beyond the limits of literary fiction, rising to a vital encyclopedia that includes diverse human knowledge and experiences, especially those related to history and its sciences, as he is keen in this book and others to distinguish between fiction and reality, stressing the necessity of “reporting events as they occurred.”

Therefore, “Don Quixote” received remarkable attention from Spanish and foreign historians, who considered it a very valuable reference for monitoring the reality of Spanish society during the second half of the sixteenth century, believing that this novel does not constitute only a literary product, but rather an objective study of its time.

In addition to excavating the “letter” or letters of Don Quixote – a book full of ambiguous expressions and ideas that may require more than one reading – they were engaged in re-imaging the true personality of the writer, through the testimonies, sayings and considerations that the novel contains that can be attributed to him. What increases the difficulty of their project is that our writer constantly resorts to the game of “multiple authors,” as is the case with the character of Sidi Hamid bin Injili, the “Arab historian” (or Ibn al-Aali according to some Arab translators), who is the one who is credited with planning the first and second parts of the novel.

The mysterious biography and the hypothesis of Arab origin

In their diligent investigation of Cervantes’ identity, critics and scholars rushed to review any official document, news, or rumor related to him that appeared in the records of that period, noting that these potential sources were scarce or did not provide conclusive data about him and his family origins. Or say that it was scarce and obscure until Cervantes attained a degree of fame, a fame he gained, in any case, at a very advanced stage in his life, that is, in the wake of the success of the first edition of Don Quixote (1605) and its spread among readers.

But most of these studies refrained from addressing his connections with Arab culture, and he speaks at length in his works – explicitly or implicitly – about the years of his captivity in Algeria and his relationship with a number of Moriscos who suffered persecution and were forced to leave in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. Studies seeking to link the biography of Cervantes and the themes of his writings – whether novels, plays, or short stories – to the Arab-Islamic Andalusian legacy did not appear until the early twentieth century, at the hands of an elite group of Arabists specialized in the history of Andalusia and the Moriscos, along with a group of experts in the Spanish language who were familiar with the characteristics of the Arabic language and its literature.

There is not enough space here to enumerate the names of these people and the titles of their abundant scientific articles. Rather, we suffice with returning the discerning reader to a doctoral dissertation full of useful information, and whose dissertations are renewed and inspiring, entitled “The Arab Background of Cervantes and His Works,” written by the well-known Iraqi writer and academic friend Mohsen (Mutlaq) Al-Ramli (“The Effects of Islamic Culture in Don Quixote,” Autonoma University of Madrid, 2003).

These studies calling for the theory of our author’s social background argued that his family descended from Muslims who were forced to convert to Christianity (entering the Christian religion) decades after the fall of Granada in 1492. Some highlighted his tendency to emphasize in his writings his adherence to the teachings of the Christian religion, while others seemed to be an attempt to deny suspicions of “heresy” against him before the Spanish Inquisition, which was busy persecuting Muslims and Jews (as well as Protestant Christians) who were still They are loyal to their ancient religion.

However, this zeal for the Catholic doctrine should not conceal from us that his works, most notably “Don Quixote,” demonstrate his familiarity with Arab culture and the Islamic religion and his respect for them, if not to say that he was sympathetic to Arabs and Muslims, regardless of some of his harsh words and judgments about them.

While traditional literary criticism books contented themselves with pointing out that what some raised about the hypothesis that Cervantes belonged to a Muslim family that converted to Christianity in the early sixteenth century was “questionable or unconfirmed,” the advocates of the Arab-Islamic theory took completely different paths. Many of them concluded that his family had migrated from Cordoba, the birthplace of his father, to the town of Alcalá de Henares (River Castle or Abdel Salam Castle), located in the province of Madrid (Magret), the town where he was born in 1547.

There are those who claim that his first house was of the Arab architectural style (Mudejar), and that in his youth he made multiple trips that led him to Arab cities in North Africa. Moreover, there is evidence calling for linking the most ambiguous stages of his career, such as his periods of imprisonment, with his possible (or “suspected”) connections to the Morisco and Muslim community in Seville – where he resided for three years – and other Andalusian cities. While “traditional” historians tended to attribute the reasons for his investigation to his increasing debts, or “incorrect financial calculations” when he worked as a tax collector, other sources suggest that these prison sentences are linked to his own problems with the Inquisition.

This hypothesis, despite its plausibility according to a team of researchers, remains a hypothesis that awaits further examination and argumentation. However, what draws attention about it is that it does not stop at Cervantes’ external biography, but rather claims that its effects seep into the text of “Don Quixote” itself: in its narrative techniques, in its characters, in its dictionary, and even in the structure of its chapters. Was this claim true within the text as it was true outside? This is what we will discuss in a subsequent article in which we read “Don Quixote” from the inside.

• Professor of Arabic Language, Literature, and Contemporary History in the Islamic World – Department of Arab and Islamic Studies – Autonoma University of Madrid