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Mapping the Frontier between Islam and Christendom in a Diplomatic Age: al-Ghassânî in Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Oumelbanine Zhiri
Oumelbanine Zhiri*
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Abstract

This essay analyzes the travel account authored by Moroccan ambassador Muhammad al-Ghassânî, who visited Spain in 1690–91. The account shows the evolution of the early modern frontier between Christian Europe and Islamic North Africa, from a militarized boundary to the development of diplomatic relations. Both an agent and witness of that history, al-Ghassânî describes a heterogeneous space: he surveys the border, explores the foreign land of modern Spain, and reimagines the memory of al-Andalus. His important account, based on sharp observation and serious research, helps nuance the prevailing view that Arab culture had ignored Europe before the nineteenth century.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 69 , Issue 3 , Fall 2016 , pp. 966 - 999
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Renaissance Society of America

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