The Handless Maiden Moriscos and The Politics of Religion in Early Modern Spain Mary Elizabeth Perry Instant Access 2025
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THE HANDLESS MAIDEN
JEWS, CHRISTIANS, AND MUSLIMS
FROM THE ANCIENT TO THE MODERN WORLD
SERIES EDITORS
R. STEPHEN HUMPHREYS, WILLIAM CHESTER JORDAN, AND PETER SCHÄFER
Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbala,
by Peter Schäfer
In the Shadow of the Virgin: Inquisitors, Friars, and Conversos in Guadalupe, Spain,
by Gretchen D. Starr-LeBeau
The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in the Early Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam, by David M. Goldenberg
Resisting History: Historicism and Its Discontents in German-Jewish Thought,
by David N. Myers
The Handless Maiden: Moriscos and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Spain,
by Mary Elizabeth Perry
Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt by Mark R. Cohen
Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence by Elliott Horowitz
PUP.PRINCETON.EDU
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
FOR
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
FOREWORD xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv
BRIEF CHRONOLOGY OF THE MORISCOS xvii
ABBREVIATIONS xix
INTRODUCTION
From the Shadows 1
CHAPTER 1
Memories, Myths, and the Handless Maiden 19
CHAPTER 2
Madalena’s Bath 38
CHAPTER 3
Dangerous Domesticity 65
CHAPTER 4
With Stones and Roasting Spits 88
CHAPTER 5
Patience and Perseverance 109
CHAPTER 6
The Castigation of Carcayona 133
CHAPTER 7
Warehouse Children, Mixed Legacies, and
Contested Identities 157
BIBLIOGRAPHY 181
INDEX 197
ILLUSTRATIONS
M
ADALENA, Lucı́a de la Cruz, Marı́a Jérez, Juana, Beatriz de
Robles, Leonor de Morales, Inés Izquierdo, Marı́a Taraiona,
Marı́a Mocandali: what they all had in common was that
they were women and they were Moriscas—that is, they were descen-
dants of Muslims who were converted to Christianity in the Spain of
the early sixteenth century. Because of these characteristics, they have
been twice marginalized: by social sciences researchers in general, and
by historians in particular. As Mary Elizabeth Perry tells us, each of
them and many of their Morisco companions were actors of the utmost
importance, not only in the history of the Hispanic monarchy and the
Mediterranean, but also in that of the modern period.
The approach of this work, which the author clearly delineates, de-
serves careful attention. While historical references to the Morisco mi-
nority are numerous, we usually know the destiny of crypto-Muslims
only through the discourses and the many mediations of Old Chris-
tians (those connected with the monarchy, the Church, and municipali-
ties, and such functionaries as notaries public), with the notable excep-
tion of Aljamiado literature (Romance language written in Arabic
characters). Perry situates herself within an innovative trend exempli-
fied by the publication in the journal Sharq al-Andalus of the proceed-
ings of “La Voz de Mudéjares y Moriscos,” a conference organized in
1995 by Marı́a Jesús Rubiera in Alicante. Perry, however, is the first to
devote a book to Morisco women; moreover, she lets them speak for
themselves.
This lively text fully justifies its approach. The author has unearthed
essential materials and offers a provocative analysis. Working through
bundles of archival documents from the inquisitorial tribunal of Seville
and others from royal councils preserved in the archives of Simancas,
Perry shows that these traditional materials bring us very useful les-
sons, provided that we ask good questions of them and vary the angles
of attack. She has also made good use of a whole series of previously
published documents that have won little notice to date, such as the
letter from a Morisco exile in Algiers to an Old Christian friend from
Trujillo, his hometown.
Above all, Perry takes into account a great many legends and stories
that were extremely popular within Morisco communities. I am partic-
ularly struck by the comparison between the concrete personal experi-
ences of the Moriscos of Granada, Seville, or Aragon and the eloquent
narrative representations of the battle of the Valley of Yarmuk, Princess
xii FOREWORD
Carcayona’s life, or the misfortunes of Job and his wife, Rahma. There
is every reason to believe, indeed, that these three tales nourished the
crypto-Muslims’ imagination. The women who were their heroines
served as models to their distant sixteenth-century successors, rein-
forcing and validating their role. Some fought with the weapons in
their power, sticks and rocks; and in that respect the women of Gra-
nada of 1569–1570 resembled women at Yarmuk, as they also resem-
bled Rahma and Carcayona, whose simple spoken language Perry ef-
fectively quotes from the tales. One heroine, Rahma, is exemplary
because of the appalling conditions of her life. She represents the cour-
age and energy needed to ameliorate the most dire situations. Without
Rahma’s tenacity, Job would have sunk into despair. The other, Carca-
yona, is focal among Perry’s chosen few. She was isolated, betrayed,
and mutilated; yet she has a faith that nothing can weaken. We cannot
doubt that the message of her story fostered the hope for better days
in many Morisco women and encouraged them to play an active role
in maintaining the material and, above all, the spiritual inheritance
that had been handed down to them. It is no accident that the main
fictional work glorifying Moorish combat, Guerras civiles de Granada by
Ginés Pérez de Hita, assigns a special place to women. Two of them,
Luna and Zarçamodonia, embody the qualities and virtues of Moorish
women. Luna represents beauty, elegance, refinement. Zarçamodonia,
whom Perry discusses at length, embodies determination and percep-
tiveness. Zarçamodonia manages, thanks to the force of her conviction
alone, to reestablish harmony within the world of insurgents of 1568–
1570. And yet we should not forget that Pérez de Hita is himself a Mo-
risco who, although well integrated in the society of the Old Christian
majority, is particularly sensitive to the misfortunes of his original
community. The pages he devotes to Zarçamodonia and Luna are a
tribute to all Moorish women.
Rahma, Carcayona, and Zarçamodonia are very different characters,
and they represent only a part of the vast range of situations analyzed
in The Handless Maiden. While most of the women whose cases are ex-
amined here are free, Juana and perhaps Madalena exemplify the nu-
merous slaves who had only a first name. Madalena, among the mod-
els of religious commitment presented in the book, is accused of
secretly practicing ritual ablutions, while Leonor de Morales would be
found guilty of overt proselytizing zeal. Leonor is especially interest-
ing, as she is denounced by her own husband. This woman, who
proudly faces torture, is the paragon of disorder. She and all her com-
panions are doubly dangerous through acts that both challenge reli-
gious orthodoxy and subvert the roles prescribed for men and women.
FOREWORD xiii
In a word, Madalena, Juana, Leonor, Beatriz, and their ilk are, de-
spite all their differences, resisters. This seems an appropriate unifying
term since it is often used in this book, which is above all a reflection
on the essential contribution of women—and the forms of their contri-
bution—to the resistance of minorities whose identity is threatened.
Indeed, researchers who have addressed these issues have tended to
conclude that by far the most widespread attitude in the Morisco com-
munity—in both men and women, but implicitly among more women
than men—was that of taqiyya, or careful secretiveness, which leads to
clandestine practices.
Perry herself, however, is careful not to rely on the term taqiyya,
which seems to her to imply submission and passivity. The women
who inhabit this book are neither submissive nor passive, and through
them the author invites us to rethink both our vocabulary and our cate-
gories. At the heart of her analysis is resistance in all its forms. Perry
first contrasts conscious active resistance with conscious active accommoda-
tion: should we not see in the latter the traditional taqiyya, now viewed
through a positive lens? Subsequently, three terms of resistance are de-
fined: overt resistance, covert resistance, and unconscious resistance. If
these categorizations do not convince all readers, they serve nonethe-
less to enrich the debate with a fresh perspective. This book counters
the current of works that see in the Morisco community a milieu that
not only is seeking complete assimilation, but is also accepted by the
vast majority of Old Christian society. While it cannot be denied that
in both the Old Christian and the Morisco community a wide range of
strategies and opinions were available, it is nonetheless true that those
in the minority were always under greater suspicion and constraint
in sixteenth-century Spain. That is why the Moriscos resisted, individ-
ually and collectively. And it was often women who embodied this
resistance.
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