Despite the suppression of the Catholic authorities … archaeological vessels reveal the continuation of Islamic eating practices in Granada

Granada, in the region of Andalusia in southern Spain, was the last city in Islamic Iberia known as Andalusia – a region that once spanned most of Spain and of Portugal for centuries – before the last city fell in 1492 to the Catholic army.

In the process, the indigenous Andalusians, who were Muslims, were allowed to continue to practice their religion. But after a decade of increasingly hostile religious surveillance by the new Catholic system, the practice of Islamic traditions and worship has been banned, but recent archaeological excavations in Granada have revealed evidence that Islamic dietary practices have subsided. pursued in the shadows for decades after Catholic rule, according to a recent study by university researchers.Read also The roots of the phenomenon of Islamophobia in Andalusia adopted the insult to the Messenger of Islam and fueled the horrors of the Inquisition and established the extremist Christian right ”A stranger in the Levant and Andalusia”… when Darwish addressed Arafat on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the fall of Granada He received $ 2.5 trillion in Andalusia, and he was funded by “the richest man” in history and managed by companions, Christians and Jews… The Foundation of the Islamic House of Money The lost lover in paradise dies. Iraqi Sheikh of Andalusian historians Abd al-Rahman al-Hajji misses death Christians and Jews… The Foundation of the Islamic House of Money The lost lover of paradise dies. Iraqi Sheikh of Andalusian historians Abd al-Rahman al-Hajji misses death Christians and Jews… The Foundation of the Islamic House of Money The lost lover of paradise dies. Iraqi Sheikh of Andalusian historians Abd al-Rahman al-Hajji misses death

The term “Moreschi” was used to refer to the original Muslims who were forced to convert to Catholicism in 1502, after a decree issued by the King of Castile. Similar decrees were issued in the kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon in the following decades, causing armed uprisings.

After the fall of Andalusia, the Moriscos enjoyed, between 1492 and 1501, some of the privileges of the treaty of cession which guaranteed them the conduct of their rituals, including prayer and fasting. their Islam on charges, the most important of which was to refrain from eating and drinking during the day of Ramadan, as well as cleaning and performing prayers.

At the time of the Inquisition and for a century until the final expulsion, the Moriscos were the object of numerous slanders which questioned the sincerity of their conversion to Christianity against the backdrop of the Ramadan fast, and at the beginning of the 17th century. century, ecclesiastical authorities were completely convinced that the Moriscos were Muslims and that there was no hope for their Christianization, King Philip III decided on the great expulsion in 1609, according to a previous report from Al-Jazeera Net.

For many, the conquest of Granada symbolizes the Alhambra, as this hilltop fortress, which was once the majestic residence of Muslim Nasrid (Bani Nasr or Bani Al-Ahmar) rulers, became a royal court under the new Catholic system. Today it is the most visited historical monument in Spain and the best-preserved example of medieval Islamic architecture in the world.

Today, archeology offers us new opportunities to look at the impact of the conquest on local Andalusian communities, far from the walls of the Alhambra, according to the article co-authored by Alex Blaskowski, associate professor of archeology Medieval at the University of Reading in Great Britain, and Guillermo Garcia Contreras Ruiz, professor of medieval, post-medieval archeology at the University of Granada, and Marcus Garcia is a postdoctoral researcher at York University.

Discover the historical monuments of Cartuja

Excavations preceding the development of the University of Granada campus in Cartuja, a hill on the outskirts of the modern city, revealed traces of human activity dating back to the Neolithic period (3400-3000 BC). https://player.vimeo.com/video/244171589

But between the 13th and 15th centuries AD, at the height of Islamic Grenada, many small houses with gardens (orchards) and small palaces of the elite Bani al-Ahmar were built on this hill. Then, in the decades following the reign of the Catholics, the monastery was built at Karthusi here and changed the whole of the surrounding areas, with the demolition of many previous buildings, according to an article published by the three researchers of the site ” The Konfrsishn ”(The Conversion).

Archaeologists have discovered a well attached to a house and a plot of agricultural land. The well was used as a landfill to remove unwanted building materials, but other wastes were also found, including a unique collection of animal bones dating from the second quarter of the 16th century.

Secret implications of culinary practices

Discarded “archaeological” waste provides insight into how food was prepared and consumed at that time. Most of them resemble fragments of animal bones, as well as the remains of plants and ceramic dishes, and represent an invaluable register preserved from the culinary practices of Antiquity. houses.

In particular, animal bones can sometimes be linked to specific diets adhered to by different religious communities, the researchers say. Publicity

The majority of the bones in the Cartuja well come from sheep and a small number of cattle. The older age of the animals, mostly castrated males, and the presence of portions rich in meat indicate that they were cut by professional butchers and bought at the market, rather than being raised locally by families. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Iky0O1W5dSg?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=ar&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

Pottery and ceramic vessels next to the bones reflected Andalusian eating practices, which involved a group of people sharing food from large vessels called “tifors,” and the presence of these vessels declined rapidly in Granada in the early 16th century. .

Small bowls, which reflect the individualistic approach to diet preferred by Catholic families, have replaced Andalusian tifor, which reflects the practice of collective eating. Researchers say they concluded from the combination of large dishes, mutton bones and the absence of pigs (pork could have been avoided by Muslims) that the ships belonged to a Moorish family who lived there and ate secretly Andalusian food.

Food politicization and control

The Catholic system did not approve, and ultimately banned, eating practices associated with Andalusian Muslim identity. The consumption of pork has become the most famous expression of the control of eating habits by the Inquisition. Echoes of this food revolution can be seen today in the role of pork in Spanish cuisine, including processed meat exported around the world.

The Inquisition had previously focused on those suspected of adhering to Jewish practices (banned in 1492) in the second half of the 16th century, and increasingly focused their attention on Moors suspected of secretly practicing Islam. , especially avoiding pork. In the eyes of the law promulgated at the time, these Muslims were officially Catholics, so they were considered heretics if they continued to adhere to their previous faith. In addition, as religious and political loyalty became equal, they were also seen as “traitorous” enemies of the state.

The discarded waste of Cartuja, the first archaeological example of this type from the Moreschi house, illustrates how some Andalusian families have clung to their traditional food culture despite the transformations of their world, at least for a few decades.