By: Aaron Stamper
This story-map is based on a comparative research project that followed two fascinating travelers around the Mediterranean world in the 16th and 17th centuries. Aside from the early modern timeframe, two other themes helped to structure this study – religious expression in “foreign” lands and sensory experience in unfamiliar circumstances. What did Iberian Christians encounter in North Africa and beyond? How did they interpret their surroundings? What did Muslims traveling in Christian Europe experience? How did they adjust (or refuse to compromise) their own practices in kingdoms on constant alert of the looming Ottoman invasion?
Herein the reader will find the Jewish-converso, Luis del Mármol Carvajal (d. 1600) – a native Granadan that worked his way through the ranks of the Spanish military into a position of relative influence in Iberia. Luis began his military career at the age of 11 when he accompanied Charles V’s (r. 1516-1556) campaign against Tunis in 1535, leaving from the port of Barcelona. This piece will explore Mármol Carvajal’s adventures through North Africa and his return to Christian lands. He spent, in total, 22 years in Africa – nearly 8 of those as a slave. By the time of his manumission, the soldier was 25 years old and eager to travel – not immediately back to Christian lands, but to Egypt and beyond . . .
Some years after Luis’s death, the Moroccan ambassador, Aḥmad ibn Qāsim al-Ḥajarī (d. 1650s, 1060-1070AH) found himself in France hot on the trail of pirates accused of stealing money and goods from a group of expelled Spanish moriscos. Although a well-respected royal ambassador by the early 17th century, Aḥmad came from humble beginnings in a small town of western Spain – Hornachos. He received a decent education between Madrid and Granada and in 1599 – under increased suspicion of heresy – he and a friend faked their identities and slipped across the strait to Morocco. From there, he entered the service of Aḥmad al-Mansūr (r. 1578-1603, 986-1012AH) and rose to the rank of secretary and Spanish interpreter for Mawlī Zīdān (r. 1608-1627, 1016/1017-1036AH), in 1608. Starting in 1609, Felipe III (r. 1598-1621) expelled all Muslim descendants from the Iberian Peninsula. During their forced departure, a number of moriscos were robbed on French ships bound for Morocco. Five of the victims lodged a complaint with Mawlī Zīdān which resulted in al-Ḥajarī’s diplomatic mission in 1611 to secure recompense in the Netherlands and France . . .
On a final note, this study will move beyond providing a “glimpse through the eyes” of two men from humble beginnings. Methods from the emerging sub-discipline of sensory history will play a primary role in exploring the full sensorial experience of al-Ḥajarī and Mármol Carvajal. Both travelers expressed their confusion, comfort, familiarity, and frustrations as they navigated unfamiliar material and spiritual environments. Both encountered a variety of languages and customs. They were confronted with strange material objects and the presence of “foreign” peoples. The early modern Mediterranean world, as the reader will find, was just as vibrant, puzzling, and ever-changing as the one we find ourselves in today.