Introduction

"Don Quijote de la Mancha" foremost is a story about contrary views and different perspectives.  Don Quixote has read so many romances of chivalry (“roman” means novel in verse) that he cannot differentiate between literary and real world anymore. In fact most comedic situations in the story arise due to the harsh differences between reality and idealist perspective of Don Quixote.  Cervantes argues that our interruption of the world is thoroughly subjective. Regardless of the object we are looking at, our past experiences, choices, and the decisions we have made define our perspective. To understand what motivated Cervantes to choose this theme, I decided to explore the history of Spain and contemporary issues during his time. This was a time when different ideologies clash both within Europe, and between East and West.

Iberian Peninsula

Cervantes starts his book by claiming that he is not the author of Don Quixote.  He introduces himself as a historian who has stumbled upon this biographical account by sheer accident:

I was standing one day in the Alcana, or marketplace, of Toledo, when a lad came up to sell some old notebooks and other paper to a silk weaver who was there. As I am extremely fond of reading anything, even though it be the scraps of papers in the streets, I followed my natural inclination and took one of the books, whereupon I at once perceived that it was written in characters which I recognized as Arabic. I recognized them, but reading them was another thing. I began looking around to see if there was any Spanish-speaking Moor by who would be able to read them for me; It was not very hard to find such an interpreter (419)

Furthermore, in chapter 22 he introduces this source as: “Cide Hamete Benegeli, the Arabic and Manchegan author, in the course of thus most grave, high sounding, minute, delightful and imaginative history, informs us that following the remarks that were exchanged between the Don Quixote de la Mancha and Sancho Panza"(451). Why does Cervantes create an Arabic historian to tell his story? During this time Muslims and Arabs were perceived very negatively by the church and authorities in Spain. Moors were referred to as savages who has crossed to Europe and occupied Christian land. Between the times Cervantes wrote Part I and II of “Don Quixote”, three-hundred thousand Moriscos were expelled from Spain to Africa. It is important to understand the demography and history of Spain to comprehend Cervantes criticism of mainstream ideology better.

Long before Spain comes to existence as a modern State, Greeks called that region Ibēría. Iberia was a land that people from different part of Europe had migrated to and were living in tribes alongside each other.  It took the Romans two centuries to defeat Iberian tribes and after their victory Romans called this region Hispania (hence the name Hispanic people and Spain). They reigned over the region for 600 years between 19 B.C. to the 5th century before highly Romanized Germanic Visigoths attacked Rome and settled in Hispania.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Visigoth_migrations.jpg

Visigoth Kingdom (5th–8th centuries) decayed to chaos relatively soon. A Visigoth nobleman named Julian, Count of Ceuta, wrote a letter to an African Muslim general, Musa bin Nusayr, and told him about how people in Hispania are suffering under the rule of new king, and that he should invade their country and free them. This was just a plot to weaken the reign of Roderic, the new king. Nevertheless Musa assigned the job to Tariq ibn Ziyad and send him with 7000 thousand soldiers to conquer Hispania, and so he did. These Muslims who came from Africa and later were joined by Arabs were called Moors.

Al-Andalus (711 to 1492)

Al-Andalus and Christian kingdoms circa 1000 AD

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus#/media/File:Al_Andalus_%26_Christian_Kingdoms.png

This is one of the places that Cervantes’s philosophy on duality of perspectives comes handy. There are two complete opposite beliefs about the way Muslims governed Al-Andalus (the name Muslim gave to the region). Some people and historians completely demonized Muslims by reciting primary sources that claim Muslims ruthlessly killed and raped Christens, beheaded nobles, and did not show mercy to anyone. Other historians offer romanticize version of war and claim people welcomed Muslims with open arms and show little resistance to their invasion. However, everyone seems to agree that Muslims renovated Spain entirely. John Glover Jackson in his book “The Empire of the Moors” give few example of life under Muslim rule:

People of different faiths were allowed to live there. Non-Muslims were called dhimmi. Though they had to pay extra taxes for the protection they were receiving. Furthermore, they were allowed to have their own courts and judges, and they could take part in local politics. However, their most important contribution to European society was introduction of Paper. It was first in Toledo that Muslims brought this Chinese technology and created the first paper mill factory in 1150. This made writing very affordable and accessible to everyone. It is safe to assume that without these factories Don Quixote could have quite a harder time to see the light of the day. So it is not far-fetched to think Cervantes created Cide Hamete Benegeli, the historian, to appreciate the role Moors played in bringing education and these technologies to Spain.

If you are interested to find more information about this era, I encourage you to watch this two hours long documentary on “Al-Andalus History of Islam in Spain”:

Work Cited

John G. Jackson, “The Empire of the Moors,” in Ivan van Sertima, ed., Golden Age of the Moor (New Brunswick: Transaction, 1991), 86

When the Moors Ruled in Europe. Dir. Timothy Copestake. Perf. Bettany Hughes. Channel 4, 2005. Web. 14 Nov. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtCj0NvhYyI>.