Spanish Literature

C

The Moors

When the Moors invaded Spain in ad 711 they brought with them an established language, religion, and social and political structure. They built numerous Muslim universities where the study of medicine, mathematics, philosophy, and literature flourished. The work of ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, for example, was studied in Spain long before it became well known in the rest of Europe. An extensive literature developed partly because Moorish caliphs (rulers) themselves were poets and authors of note. Art and architecture also thrived. Writers include Ibn Hazm, author of the 11th-century poem Tawq al-hamama (The Dove’s Neckring); Ibn al-Arabi, an interpreter of Islam’s conservative, mystic Sufi sect; and Averroës, a physician, jurist, and philosopher.

A sizable Jewish population appeared in Spain during the early Middle Ages, bringing commercial, administrative, intellectual, and artistic talents. The mixture of Christians, Arabs, and Jews on the peninsula produced an unstable but highly creative literary environment. Religion, society, and politics were the subjects for each group’s literary works. One of the best-known non-Moorish authors of this period was Maimonides, a Spanish-born Jewish physician and thinker. His works include the Mishneh Torah (1170-1180), a 14-volume book on Jewish law written in Hebrew, and Guide for the Perplexed, a work written in Arabic around 1190.

III

Toward a National Literature (11th Century to 15th Century)

Under the Moors, Toledo had become a cultural center, where Arab, Hebrew, and Christian scholars translated the important works of Islamic and ancient Greek culture into Latin. These works concerned the areas of philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, mineralogy, medicine, and geometry. When the Christian reconquest of the peninsula began in the 11th century, Toledo became a strategic objective for forces led by the king of Castile, Alfonso VI, who was a descendent of Visigoths. Alfonso captured Toledo in 1085, and the Muslim School of Translators came under Christian custody. The tradition of learning in Toledo continued under Alfonso, and Christian scholars from elsewhere in Europe also joined activities at the school. The school’s activities strengthened the development of a national language and literature.

The gradual retaking of Spain by the Christians proved to be not only political, military, and religious, but linguistic as well. Over the years, as Christians from the north slowly reconquered Spain, the Spanish dialects of northern Spain, such as Castilian and Leonese, became dominant. These dialects slowly replaced Arabic and Mozarabic (a Romance language with many Arabic words) as the spoken languages. Writing in these northern dialects also became standard as Christian forces pushed the Moors farther and farther south during the 12th and early 13th centuries.

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Spanish literature of the late Middle Ages took many forms. Uneducated but highly entertaining bards sang stories of the Christian heroes; scholars wrote and translated works under the direction of monarchs; and monks, clerics, and priests composed poetry about the natural and spiritual world. The whole of these works helped define the emerging Spanish state under Christian rule.

A

The Earliest Spanish Literature

The first truly Spanish works of literature appeared just before the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula. These works took the form of songs called jarchas. They first appeared as short stanzas at the end of a muwassaha, a kind of poem written in the second half of the 11th century in Arabic and Hebrew. Scholars believe they came from a much older oral tradition of Vulgar Latin, a colloquial form of Latin spoken in the Roman Empire.

In their simplest form, jarchas combined styles of Arabic or Hebrew poetry in Mozarabic, but they also were written in other Spanish dialects as the reconquest spread. Although sung by men and boys, jarchas most often express the point of view of a woman in love who seeks solace and advice. In theme and form they are similar to later cantigas de amigo (love songs) that belong to oral traditions of the 12th, 13th, and early 14th centuries in Galician, a dialect of northwestern Spain.

B

The Troubadour Style and the Epic

Even though the reconquest created linguistic, political, and social instability on the peninsula during the late 12th century, the first great works of Spanish oral literature appeared at this time. These were poems composed by troubadours, medieval poets who sang for the people in village squares and for the nobility in castles and royal courts. The troubadour poets flourished in Spain as a result of pilgrimages to the burial place of Saint James, the patron saint of Christian Spain, in the city of Santiago de Compostela. This tourism popularized performances of the troubadour poets not only in Santiago de Compostela but also in stopping places along the way. Troubadours entertained the pilgrims with songs and long, narrative poems called epics, which recounted the deeds of Christian heroes.

The epics were composed mainly in a poetic style known as mester de juglaría (craft of the troubadour). Verses could be of various lengths, although most were 12 to 16 syllables long, with a caesura (pause) in the middle. They employed a form of rhyming in which the last accented vowel in a line, and any vowels after it in that line, were repeated in the lines that followed. The Spanish epic tradition differs from other European epic traditions in its focus on social and political realities and in its lack of extensive exaggeration, supernatural forces, and fantasy. One of the most celebrated works in Spanish literature, El cantar de mío Cid, is an epic poem in the troubadour style.

Although scholars are divided about the source of El cantar de mio Cid, many believe it was composed around 1140. A Christian monk wrote down its almost 4,000 verses in the Castilian dialect in 1307, but the work was based on cycles of songs from an older oral tradition. The poem focuses on Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known as El Cid Campeador (an Arabic title meaning “Lord Champion”). Rodrigo was born in 1043 in the town of Vivar in north central Spain. A noble with great power, he first served in the Christian reconquest under Ferdinand I, the king who united the kingdoms of León, Galicia, and Castile. After Ferdinand’s death those kingdoms were divided among his heirs and Rodrigo remained loyal to King Sancho II of Castile. After Sancho was assassinated, the Cid served under Sancho’s brother Alfonso VI (then king of Castile and León) but fell from favor because of disagreements with the new king.

El cantar de mío Cid begins in approximately 1081, when Alfonso banishes the Cid, and it covers the Cid’s activities as he marches east to conquer Valencia for Christian forces in 1094. Despite their disagreements the Cid never swerves in his loyalty to Alfonso, and Rodrigo rules Valencia in his king’s name until his own death in 1099. The poem is noted for its realistic, detailed description of the code of chivalry and other customs of the period, its accurate rendering of political alliances, and its dramatic touches. In some ways, the poem is a guide to exemplary Christian behavior. The Cid is depicted in the poem not only as a model of loyalty, but also as a great military figure, a leader of soldiers, a friend to Christian and Arab allies, a just enemy, and an honored and honorable family man.

C

Evidence of a Dramatic Tradition

Little is known about early Spanish drama, although troubadours performed plays as well as epics to amuse people. Fragments remain of a religious play written in the mid-12th century in the Castilian dialect, Auto de los Reyes Magos (Drama of the Three Wise Men). The work, a simple reenactment of the birth of Jesus Christ, is also one of the earliest plays written in a Romance language. Although only five fragments remain, many scholars consider the play to be evidence of a rich medieval tradition of religious drama in Spain.

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