Futures of al-Andalus

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Notes

1. As the editors of a recent volume dedicated to a partial, Judeocentric retrieval of al-Andalus point out, the “sense of absolute loss” which dominates the scholarly discourse on al-Andalus “has not always framed modern Jewish imaginings of al-Andalus” (Adam Sutcliffe and Ross Brann, “Introduction” in Sutcliffe & Brann, Renewing the Past, 9). Not always, of course, but dominantly so. The inscription of al-Andalus, medieval Spain, in mournful memory should be evident from the expressed need to renew the past, which the volume's title calls on. It is also widespread enough, indeed, hegemonic enough, as the examples I will elicit below make clear, but consider for now the not untypical title of a collection of essays thematizing the matter: Charting Memory: Recalling Medieval Spain, Stacy N. Beckwith, ed.

2. In recent years, and to this day, Israeli historians have thus contributed to an essential reconsideration of the events of 1948 as the “original sin” upon which the Zionist state was founded (French historians too are now admitting that colonialism occurred, as if it was over). And yet, in the spirit of Nandy's warning, one could wonder not only about the past dimension of these events, but also about their lingering effects, the consequences of the Nakbah and its implications for the Palestinian people. One could also wonder about the significance and even the strategic use of such an intense focus on distant past events.

3. I discuss this passage of the Zohar and its singular relation to place in my ‘Our Place in al-Andalus’, esp. 175–177.

4. See Raz-Krakotzkin, “Exile Within Sovereignty.”

5. For a consideration of such temporality in another Andalusi figure, see Caputo, Situating Nahmanides.

6. See my “Our Place in al-Andalus,” ch. 1.

7. See Jacques Derrida, Monolingualism of the Other.

8. Haskins, Renaissance, and see Burnett, “The Translating Activity” in The Legacy of Muslim Spain, Jayyusi, ed., but the entire volume is pertinent.

9. Speaking of such communities in their relation to freedom, to a form of coexistence that defines free peoples, Jean-Jacques Rousseau warned that freedom can be acquired, but that once lost, it cannot be recovered. The logic of the end is absolute.

10. See Lange, Der nackte Feind, and, for a different pictorial perspective, Strickland, Saracens, Demons, and Jews.

11. These examples are gathered from the growing literature on Islam in Europe (see bibliography).

12. The rich evidence to coexistence includes the Mediterranean described by S.D. Goiten is his monumental work, A Mediterranean Society, but could equally include Egypt or Bosnia, the Ottoman Empire or India throughout the centuries and up to modern times.