MOROFILIA AND EPIC REPRESENTATIONS OF “THE NOBLE MOOR” IN GUERRAS CIVILES DE GRANADA (1595) BY GINÉS PÉREZ DE HITA, “TRANSLATOR” OF ABEN HAMÍN
MOROFILIA AND EPIC REPRESENTATIONS OF “THE NOBLE MOOR” IN GUERRAS CIVILES DE GRANADA (1595) BY GINÉS PÉREZ DE HITA, “TRANSLATOR” OF ABEN HAMÍN

Summary/Abstract: Historia de los bandos de los Zegríes y Abencerrajes, caballeros moros de Granada, mainly known as the First Part of Guerras civiles de Granada, was published in 1595 by Ginés Pérez de Hita, recounting the Mudejar and Moorish ambience of the XVIth century Andalusia. At a time when literature and history were harmoniously connatural, this morisco novel was built as a tense construct balancing fiction and history. While it fulfils the social and cultural function of the epic poetry, it simultaneously elevates the political and cultural mission of history. It so happens that Guerras civiles relies extensively on the immense popularity that the romancero morisco had during the XVIth century. Nevertheless, beyond its obvious literary qualities, it is an accurate history of the rivalries between Muslim nobles of the Nasrid dynasty and the dissentions arisen within the very family governing the Muslim state. As it inevitably ponders and speculates upon the contrast between self-representation and representation of others in the Early Modern Spanish Andalusia, we aim at studying the way in which the stereotype of the new literary hero of “the noble moor” emerges and gets to be firmly established in what is considered to be a historical account of the Moorish res gestae in Granada.

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