Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hermes
206
towards the Arabian historian Cide Hamete Benengeli, I will re-visit Cervantes’
views of Islam and Muslims. I will, further, explore—again, what I see as—the not
yet duly studied possible Arabic influence on Don Quixote. I will do so by com-
paring, for the first time in Cervantine scholarship, the Moorish tale (i.e., “The Cap-
tive’s Tale”) to the Arabian Alf Layla wa- Layla’s Frankish tale known alternatively
as “Princess Miriam the Girdle-girl, Daughter of the King of France” and “The Love
Tale of ʿAli Nur al-Din the Cairene and Princess Mariam, Daughter of the King of
France.” I will finally, albeit briefly, draw attention to the Arabic maqāma genre
whose features and motifs bear some striking similarities to some of the salient
narratological and structural aspects of Don Quixote. The hope is to stir further
interest and future research on the possible (in)direct influence of the Arabic ma-
qāma genre on Don Quixote.5
It is “universally acknowledged” that Don Quixote is introduced at the begin-
ning of the narrative as an obsessive reader of romances of chivalry and a zealous
admirer of Christian knights. “In short,” we are told, “our gentleman became so
caught up in reading that he spent his nights from dusk till dawn and his days
reading from sunrise to sunset” (21). In his seemingly never-ending disputes with
his entourage, specifically the learned curate of the parish and the connoisseur
Master Nicholas, barber of La Mancha, he prides himself on fervently defending
the valor of his favorite knights Amadís de Gaula, El Cid Ruy Díaz, Bernardo del
Carpio,6 giant Morgante, and Reinaldos de Montalban.7 We need to keep in mind
that most, if not all, of the aforementioned knights are largely celebrated in late
medieval and early modern European romances for their gesta against the Moors.
In many respects, some of them might even be described as matamores (Moor
killers) par excellence, conjuring up Santiago, the patron saint of Spain, who has the
epithet Matamoros (“Moor Killer”) (Harvey 7). Actually, Don Quixote in a number
of chapters presents himself as a matamoros. At the beginning of book two, after
coming to know that the Turks/Moors are preparing themselves for an assault on
Nápoles, Sicilia and Malta, Don Quixote informs his companions of his intention
of leaving La Mancha for the sake of conquering what he describes as the lands
of the Turks. Perhaps more tellingly, in the chapter of “The Puppet Show” and to
the surprise of Sancho and Master Pedro, Don Quixote draws his sword and at-
tacks what he thinks are Moors after fancying that they are coming after the figu-
rines of Melisendra and Gaiferos, the Christian heroes of the show. Needless to
remind ourselves that giant Morgante, as depicted in numerous late medieval and
early renaissance romances and epics such as Il Morgante Maggiore (1478), Orlando
Innamorato (1495) and Orlando Furioso (1516), is a brave Moor who à la Othello
abandons his Islamic faith, converts to Christianity, and fervently fights his own
people.8 Briefly stated, and as we will see with Mariam-Zoraida of “The Captive’s
Tale,” it is unquestionably Morgante’s conversion that saves him from the presum-
The name of his hometown, Alcalá de Henares, derives from the Arabic al-
qalat (“the castle,” Phillips 420b), and the town itself retained an Arab quarter
until the end of the Reconquista. Born there some fifty years later, Cervantes
would likely have obtained cultural knowledge of Islam. But he also had first-
hand knowledge of it, for he was captured by Muslims at 27 and sold into five
years’ slavery in Algiers, where he gained close knowledge of Muslims and their
prophet. (179–80)
Cervantes was familiar with such an idiosyncratic physical trait as Mohamed’s back
shāmah (mark/mole) (Hodges 174–79). Conceivably, he must have been aware that
the so-called “idol of Muhammad” was but the invention of both “learned” and
“popular” medieval western accounts of Islam.10 Such presumption and assumption
can be textually adduced from the culturally poignant “Puppet Show” of the Second
Book wherein Don Quixote interrupts Master Pedro for incorporating in his show
what he describes as an unforgivable cultural absurdity concerning Muslims.
For the “learned” Don Quixote, the mere thought that Moors ring bells in
Although his personal experience as a slave to Muslims may have offered him
opportunity to form a more complex view of that religion, and though he may
have felt empathy toward particular Muslims, Cervantes would appear unlikely
to have had any great sympathy for Islam itself . . . Given the strong Catholic
views that Cervantes held, therefore, one might also suspect him of harboring a
less-than-entirely-positive view of Muhammad as putative “prophet” and thus
While his captors found their pleasure in watching two tattooed Moors oiled
from head to foot wrestle amid the clash of cymbals and of drums, he [Cer-
vantes] may have stolen down to the market-place with his brother Rodrigo,
and with Luis de Pedros—a native of Osuna, whose father had been a friend of
Cervantes’ grandfather, the old-time Corregidor of Osuna—to hear the rāwī, the
Arab trouvère. (50)
This said, one cannot forget to hypothesize that Don Quixote, especially in its pica-
resque orientation, bears a striking resemblance to the Arabic genre of maqāma,
a resemblance that so far has remained largely unremarked in western Cervan-
Cide Hamete, the chronicler of this great history, begins this chapter with the
words I swear as a Catholic Christian . . . , to which his translator says that Cide
Hamete swearing as a Catholic Christian when he was a Moor, which he un-
doubtedly was, meant only that just the Catholic Christian, when he swears,
swears or should swear the truth, and tell the truth in everything he says, so too
he was telling the truth, as if he were swearing as a Catholic Christian, when he
wrote about Quixote, especially when he wrote who Master Pedro was, as well
as the soothing monkey who had amazed all those towns and villages with his
divinations. (636–37)
As the book unfolds, however, Cide Hamete Benengeli becomes the wise arbitrator
between the reader and Don Quixote. In many instances Cervantes the author
proves direct in his endorsement of his narrator Cide Hamete Benengeli’s judg-
ment of the veracity of a particular quixotic adventure. Whether this endorsement
is to enlighten us or add to our confusion is another controversial issue. Yet, what
is quite clear is the fact that we find ourselves consciously or unconsciously in-
fluenced by Cide Hamete Benengeli’s comments on many of Don Quixote’s con-
troversial adventures—and the Montesinio Cave adventure is the most compel-
ling evidence. Likewise, Cervantes’ choice of leaving the last word to the Arabian
Cide Hamete Benengeli and his Arabian pen does not only suggest the sealing of
Don Quixote and the refutation of the spurious part published by Avellaneda, as
Lopez-Baralt has emphasized (506). It can also suggest the author’s “fascination”
with this character, to quote Antonio Medina, who has quite daringly, seen in him
One wants both to laugh and to marvel at the purportedly Muslim origins of
Don Quixote itself. One of Cervantes’s most ingratiating (and postmodern)
gambits is to pretend that he is not in fact the real author of the novel but, rather,
has simply had it translated from the recovered manuscripts of a mysterious
and noble Arab named Cide Hamete Benengeli (which translates roughly as Sir
Ahmed Eggplant).31 Though he has never met Benengeli, or anyone who has, he
pays the Arab the most exquisite and elaborate mock homage throughout, a ges-
ture that at this point in history undoubtedly has new and startling pathos. (190)
While Castle’s view is still somewhat more dominant than that of Medina, there is
nothing that can prevent one from inclining to Medina’s conjecture. Perhaps Fred-
erick A. De Armas’ take on the issue in his much welcome Don Quixote Among the
Saracens: A Clash of Civilizations and Literary Genres (2011) prepares us to think
anew about this issue. While gracefully acknowledging that Don Quixote “points
to Christian zeal, the yearning for universal empire, and the riches of other civili-
zations that no longer coexist in Spain” (60), De Armas, and contrary to what one
expects from the title, has not given his utmost attention to the Islamic theme and
has rather focused on the generic tension in the work, which one has to admit
is fascinating. Indeed, failing to mention and discuss several of the textual refer-
ences that I explored earlier, De Armas somewhat leans to Medina’s view and calls
for more studies exploring what he describes as a possible “secret” in the relation-
ship between the Arabian narrator and Don Quixote, the character, and of course
Cervantes, the author of the book (60). Interestingly enough, and at the end of his
book, De Armas surprises us with his assertion that he has discovered “an impor-
tant truth,” which, as he puts it, can be revealed only to discerning readers: “the
Christian knight is at home with the Saracens” (158).32 This “important truth” en-
courages De Armas to come to the conclusion that Cervantes is “at peace” with
the fact that “Spain’s culture cannot be embraced without accepting the moriscos
and the Saracens. The magical power of the Iberian lands calls for their objects of
culture: the ingredients for a new heterodox Balsam, the Moorish helmet of invin-
cibility, the eagle of the Habsburg. Only when together can power return to the
land” (161).33
“What are albogues?” asked Sancho, “for I’ve never heard of them or seen
them in my life.” “Albogues,” responded Don Quixote, “are something like brass
candlesticks, and when you hit one with the other along the empty or hollow
side, it makes a sound that is not unpleasant, though it may not be very beautiful
or harmonious, and goes well with the rustic nature of pipes and timbrels; this
word albogues is Moorish, as are all those in our Castilian tongue that begin with
al, for example, almohaza, almorzar, alhombra, alguacil, alhucema, almacen, al-
cancia, and other similar words; our language has only three that are Moorish and
end in the letter i, and they are borcegui, zaquizami, and maravedi. Alheli and al-
faqui, as much for their initial al as for the final i, are known to be Arabic. I have
told you this in passing because it came to mind when I happened to mention al-
bogues.” (900–01, italics mine)
And:
Blessings on Cide Hamete Benengeli, who wrote the history of your great deeds,
and double blessings on the inquisitive man who had it translated from Arabic
University of Oklahoma
Notes
1 Many thanks to John Fleming, Stephen Rupp, Bruce R. Burningham, William Blair,
Tarek F. Elsayed, David Lennington and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful
comments and feedback.
2 After the Reconquista, the discovery of the New World, the expulsions of Muslims, and
the ensuing ramifications of the Inquisition, Spain came to the international stage as
Christendom’s most powerful actor. It had superseded Protestant England—despite
the misfortune of the Armada—and Catholic France. However, it had still to compete
fiercely with the Ottoman Empire, the world’s leading power of the day. For more on
Spanish-Ottoman relations, see Braudel; Muzaffer Arıkan and Paulino Toledo.
3 As it is well known, Cervantes fought and lost his left arm in the Battle of Lepanto
(1571). While trying to sail back to Spain with his brother Rodrigo, he was captured by
Muslim pirates in 1575 led by the European renegade Deli Memi. After a short time in
Istanbul, he spent five years as a captive in Algiers. He was ransomed in 1580. Along-
side numerous references in his fiction and plays, Cervantes had recorded his captivity
experience in a number of poems, namely “Si el bajo son de la zampoña mía” (If the
Lowly Sound of My Flute) (Mancing 573).
4 I am using Mary Louise Pratt’s phrase which she defines as, among other things, “the
space in which peoples geographically and historically separated come into con-
tact” (6).
5 For more on similar debates on possible influences of Arabic on European literature,
see classics such as Lasater; Menocal; Ranelagh; and, more recently, al-Dabbagh.
6 Bernardo del Caprio is often described in Spanish romances as an ally of convenience
of the Saracen King Marsil of Zaragosa in his struggle against the Carolingians and
their leader Charlemagne.
7 Eric Clifford Graff has argued in Cervantes and Modernity: Four Essays on Don Quixote
(2008), while briefly commenting on this particular passage, that Don Quixote was
“called to action by the expansionist ideology of Spanish chauvinism” (25). Earlier, in
his article “When the Arab Laughs,” he more convincingly spoke of Cervantes as an
example of an early modern Orientalist.
8 This is in addition to the references, namely in chapters X and XVII, to Fierabras/Fe-
rumbras of the chanson de geste, the equally giant Saracen/Moor who, as did Morgante,
converted to Christianity and sided with Charlemagne in his battles against the Sara-
cens/Moors.
9 The same holds true of his most favorite book of chivalry: Tirant lo Blanch, which is
dubbed “the best book in the world” in the passage on the burning of books of chiv-
alry. In short, this fifteenth-century Catalan Christian epic narrated the gesta of Tiran
against the Ottoman Turks. Historians argue that it was largely inspired by the real life
of Roger de Flor, a Templar Knight celebrated for his chivalric deeds against Muslims.
Works Cited
Abu Haidar, J. “Maqāmāt Literature and the Picaresque Novel.” Journal of Arabic
Literature 5 (1974): 1–10.
Agüera, Victorio. Un pícaro catalán del siglo XV: El Spill de Jaume Roig y la tradición
picaresca. Barcelona: Ediciones Hispam, 1975.
Al-Dabbagh, Abdullah. “Modern Universalism and the Myth of Westernness.” The
Comparatist 27 (2003): 5–20.
Al-Dabbagh, Abdullah. Literary Orientalism, Postcolonialism, and Universalism. New
York: Peter Lang, 2010.
Arıkan, Muzaffer, and Paulino Toledo. Yüzyıllarda Türk-İspanyol İlişkileri ve Denizcilik
Tarihimizle İlgili İspanyol Belgeleri. Ankara: Deniz Kuvvetleri Komutanlığı Karargah
Basımevi, 1995.
Benassar, Bartolome and Lucile Benassar. Los cristianos de Alá: La fascinante aventura de
los renegados. Madrid: Nerea, 1989.
Braudel, Fernand. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II,
Vol. I–II. Trans. Sian Reynolds. London: Fontana/Collins, 1976.