In her latest novel, entitled "A Week in Andalusia" by Turkish writer Rana Demirez - issued by Culture House for Publishing and Distribution 2022 - the author narrates the journey of "Manolia";
The Turkish student in the last year in the Department of History and working in the Department of Andalusian Studies, with her professor Altay, who was scheduled to attend a scientific symposium in Granada to present his scientific article on the restrictions of the Muslim courts of Andalusia. in Andalusia.
Andalusian era
During her journey, Manolia meets her guide Matthew, to find themselves with Andalusia in the 14th century, and they live an unexpected journey;
Where the pearl of Granada, and the Alhambra, which she always dreamed of visiting.
Turkish novelist Rana Demirez started writing at an early age and has published 4 novels (Al Jazeera)
During their tour around the palace, they were surprised by the tunnels through which they lost their way, first with their coldness and then with their great engineering technique, and they also encounter the secret that made the Sultan hand over all the Andalusian cities, including the capital, Cordoba, in exchange for preserving the palace.
On January 2, 1492, the Spaniards entered Granada, and the treaty of surrendering the country was signed in the Alhambra, after which King Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Saghir (1460-1533) was forced to hand over his keys to King Ferdinand V (1452-1516) and leave.
In a glimpse of fantasy, the novelist states in her book, “This choice (the handing over of Granada without a fight) was in order to protect science and technology and preserve it for future generations, and perhaps for this reason Abu Abdullah handed over the city without a fight, as he did not want it to be harmed.
For his part, says Spanish Arabist Ignatius Gutierrez, Professor of Arabic Language, Literature and Contemporary History in the Islamic World at Autonoma University in Madrid;
"What the Turkish writer is referring to is true, as Abu Abdullah al-Saghir wanted to preserve the souls of the inhabitants of Granada and not to harm its construction."
Guterres: Abu Abdullah al-Saghir wanted to preserve the residents of Granada and not to prejudice its urbanization (Al-Jazeera)
Guterres adds to Al Jazeera Net, "Therefore, the Christians calmed down, knowing that the Kingdom of Castile was determined to destroy or harm the city in the event of a confrontation with Muslims."
Gutierrez shows that Abu Abdullah's opponents "did not fulfill their agreement with Bani al-Ahmar, regarding respect for the population and their property and their right to remain under the authority of the invaders, supporters of Isabella and Ferdinand."
Alhambra Palace
The writer introduces us to the history of the palace and narrates its history in brief. When the Umayyad dynasty was established, the place was established as a castle in the beginning, and it was called the Red Castle because of its red color.
After it was occupied by the Catholics in the year 1492, the royal family took it as its headquarters, and added to it according to its patterns its motto (yoke and arrows) on the top of the arches, in order to confirm its ownership of it.
The writer seemed to be fully aware of the details of the palace, its minutes and history, so she photographed the Andalusian markets and talked about the antique stones known as the Marin.
And about the influence of the Alhambra on her experience in this book in particular, the author says, "The Alhambra inspired me, and I imagined how it looked like its most wonderful day when I was there; that's why I wanted to create a character that witnessed what Andalusia looked like in both cases, which necessitated the introduction of the idea of travel Through time through the astrolabe.
"My goal is to blur the lines between history, reality and fantasy, and I did not draw a line between them to make the reader wonder about the possibilities," Rana Demirez confirms in her speech to Al-Jazeera Net.
On the other hand, the Syrian writer and novelist Thaer Al-Nashef, who resides in Austria, believes that "the author of the novel tried to paint a more aesthetic image of the Alhambra, different from the image of the city of Granada that people used to imagine in their minds or through their visual observations."
The intertwining of history and imagination
And about the time of the novel, Al-Nashef sees in his talk to Al-Jazeera Net that "no matter how big the imagination of the past is, the fantasy with which the pages of the novel overflowed is not alien to the narration, but rather came to keep pace with a historical era that does not lose its importance through time."
The novelist's artistic perspective was not the result of an abstract creative state of mind, but rather built her narrative text based on research and studies she conducted on the Andalusian era.
The Syrian novelist Thaer Al-Nashef believes that the author of the novel tried to paint a different picture of the Alhambra Palace (Al-Jazeera)
The Syrian novelist Abdul Rahman Matar, who resides in Canada, believes that "the novel has an easy and enjoyable narration, and a beautiful, captivating language, through which the writer addressed a number of ideas related to history and civilization with a contemporary, open and unfamiliar vision, not only in the history of the region, but the world."
The collapse of an Andalusian era and the beginning of another
Demirez spoke in the novel about the crimes of the Inquisition and the horror that afflicts those who hear the word "Catholic", and indicated that Queen Isabella (1451-1504) associated her name with the tragedies that befell the Andalusians after the Catholics took control of Granada;
The last stronghold of Muslims in Andalusia.
The history books talk about the Catholics who used various types of torture methods, and mastered the killing and criminality;
From the hanging cage, the iron bull, the pelvis, the dislocated one, the heretic fork, the Inquisition chair, and other means of torture at that time.
And the author states in her novel that "after the fall of the last stronghold of Granada in 1492 there was no hope left. I could not believe it, they were able to continue their lives in secret, somehow, by changing their identity, religion and title."
The Syrian poet and novelist Ibrahim Al-Youssef, who resides in Germany, describes the novel as “a digging argument in its apocalyptic dimension that takes more than one side, among which are the fingerprints of those the Spaniards tried to portray - as the novel shows - different from what they are, while these - according to the chapters of the novel itself - were able to leave A positive, civilized, cognitive impact on humanity.
Although the Arab library is teeming with dozens of Arab and foreign novels that were written about the Andalusian era, the Syrian writer Al-Nashif believes that "this novel was distinguished from other novels by a deep dive into the mysteries of Andalusia, although this exciting dive came through building the architecture of the novel according to the fantasy pattern." .
A Late Call: A Brief History of Andalusia
Andalusia is located in southern Western Europe on the island of Iberia, and the Muslims conquered it and resided in it for 8 centuries, during which they built a civilization that lit the way for the European Renaissance later, but they lost it due to conflicts and a life of luxury and amusement, and Granada was the last jewels of Andalusia, which was lost in 1492 AD.
After the marriage of Isabella I of Castile (1451-1504) to Fernando II of Aragon (1452-1516), and their alliance against the Muslims;
They resolved to seize the last strongholds of Andalusia, where violent battles erupted between the two sides. The Muslims left southwestern Europe (Andalusia) from the gate of the famous Alhambra Palace Granada in 1492, after an Islamic rule that lasted 770 years;
Which resulted in the formation of the Kingdom of Spain, which in turn went through many transformations.
And about presenting a special vision about the presence of Muslims in Andalusia, and whether the novel is a late plea, author Rana Demirez says in her speech, “Andalusia is a very special topic, Muslims as well as people of different religions lived together and in peace there; that is why the region has a rich heritage still. Waiting to find out."
"The presence of Muslims there affected not only European history, but also our geography; we were and still are linked to them through the legacy they built, of science, religion, architecture and art."
fantasy and history
When asked about the coexistence between the historical and the fantasy in the novel, and about the boundaries between them, the writer answers, “As an art historian, I believe that history contains imaginary elements, because what historians do is originally re-establishing the past, which inevitably brings a certain perspective on possibilities and imagination to fill in the blanks, Sometimes without evidence.
"When I write my books, I do the same thing; I have been inspired by historical sites and some of the events that led me to create the atmosphere in my books."
Ibrahim Al-Youssef talks about the author by saying that "this novelist, who recently saw her remarkable production, completed 4 novels at the age of 17, which is something that calls for recognition that we are in front of an exceptional creative spirit."
It should be noted that the writer Demirez pushed her hero to take other trips, the purpose of which was to review the Arab history in Egypt (Alexandria) and the Turkish history in the time of Byzantium.
Al-Youssef believes in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net that "the experience of the novelist and in light of reading novels in its place is an extension of the names devoted in the world of the art of the Turkish novel, to then record this addition through its reliance on history, albeit in its stark fantasy dimension, so that her novel dealt with a plea for specific Andalusia; Andalusia." They are: culture, vision, imagination, and dream.
Ibrahim Al-Youssef believes that the novel is a pleading and an excavation in Andalusian history (Al-Jazeera)
Scriptwriters and directors of modern films usually resort to fantasy to enchant the viewer's eye with unimaginable events in reality. The same novelist has also published the novels "Lights of Shadows", "A Night in Hagia Sophia" and "A Year in the Palace".
Regarding the incorporation of fantasy in the historical novel, Thaer Al-Nashef says, "The fantasy that the author of the novel resorted to is not without reliance on history and excavating its pages based on documenting the journey of the heroine of the novel." Therefore, from the point of view of the novel, "it is only a biography of the writer, in which she relied on The first-person narration method.” Then he continues to discover that “the novel in its entirety is a documentation of the Turkish researcher’s observations, and that it belongs to travel literature, which made the novel seem like a historical novel.”
The writer Abdul Rahman Matar also states that "the other feature of the novel lies in the fact that the writer based her creative treatment on fantasy, to present her point of view, or her ideas related to the history of Andalusia."
As for the author, Rana Demirez, she concludes her speech by saying, "Creating a historical atmosphere in the past, especially from the point of view of the history student, who is the protagonist of the novel, inevitably brings a certain approach to that inspiring mystical atmosphere of Andalusia, so that history and imagination are intertwined in the narrative."