A Moor of Granada: Prophecies as political instruments in the entangled histories of Spain, Portugal, and the Middle East 16th-18th centuries

Abstract

This paper argues that the hitherto unknown Portuguese “Profesias dadas por um Mouro de Granada” (Prophecies given by a Moor of Granada) (copied 18th c.) should be seen as an example of messianic-political prophetic imagination in early modern Portugal and Spain. Our discussion will focus on the political uses of Sebastianism in Portugal and on the various ways in which prophetic language became entangled with broader prophetic discourses in the Iberian territories that resulted from centuries of Christian military and religious struggle with Islam and Muslims.