In my school days, memorising was a skill that you needed for certain topics such as Arabic, History and Religious Studies. These subjects along with many teachers shared common traits: rigidity and lack of imagination. It made us students either hate it or learn much later in life that the information acquired was wrong or lacked details that were never questioned at the time.
This all came to mind while reading the Crimson Manuscript by Spanish writer Antonio Gala that talks about Abu Abdullah Al-Sagheer — known as Boabdil in Spanish — the last Arab ruler of Andalusia. Being called Al-Sagheer — little or junior in Arabic — led many of us to believe that he was a young boy at the time he was overthrown by the Catholic kings Isabel and Fernando in 1492. Not to mention the famous quote that we memorised in school told by his mother while leaving Alhambra for the last time: “Like women you weep over a reign that you never looked after like men”. My image of him was that of a nine-year-old boy riding a donkey and escaping Granada. But in reality, he was in his early thirties at the time and was called junior for a reason: his uncle was Abu Abdullah senior.
Our curriculum mainly focused on the conquest of Abdul-Rahman Al-Dakhil, the founder of the Arab dynasty in Andalusia that reigned for 800 years. There is also a mention of the weakness factors that ended the reign and Abu Abdullah’s name along with his mother’s stinging words (no reference of that quote in Gala’s novel).
The novel is based on recordings found in the chancellor’s office in Alhambra 500 years later. Antonio Gala gives voice to the last king that’s unknown to many of us: his upbringing as a prince, the civil wars and politics that were surrounding him and most importantly the immense influence — along with bad decisions — made by his mother to ensure the crown remaining within her lineage.
The book is pretty long and detailed (630 pages) describing the geo-political situation of Andalusia at the time. However, what makes it fascinating is the fairness that Gala treats the whole subject with: Arabs weren’t as bad as Spanish history likes to present them. In their reign Christians and Jews were respected, lived in peace and the taxes they paid prevented them from being recruited as soldiers at times of war. This made the country prosper in many fields including agriculture, architecture, literature, and science.
In addition, develop a mixture of culture that was — and still — unique to Andalusia influencing its music and language alike. According to Gala, the main reason for the weakening of the Arab reign was the arrival of the Almoravids — religious extremists from Morocco — to help the Andalusians win the war against the northern Christians. It gave rise to the kingdom’s division and civil wars that led to its fall. The book is a Spanish modern classic that was published in 1990 and won the Planeta prize.
Surprisingly, it’s not published in English yet (I read the Arabic version which was really good except for some poets that were directly translated from Spanish). Abu Abdullah’s tragical life is well described by Gala from his childhood in Alhambra to his final days as an old man in exile in Fes. The book is not a happy read yet it’s full of facts left out by our curricula and history books —not purposefully, I hope. Though history is written by the victors, it’s always good to know the untold story of the other side too.
(Rasha al Raisi is a certified skills trainer and the author of: The World According to Bahja. rashabooks@yahoo.com)
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