MARY ELIZABETH PERRY. The Handless Maiden: Moriscos and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Spain. (Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World.) Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2005. Pp. xvi, 202. $35.00.

Abstract

The history of Spanish approaches to cultural diversity holds special interest as the Western world takes on the new challenges of multiculturalism. In the medieval and early modern periods, the strong and equally proud faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam coexisted in the Spanish peninsula. Like good marriages, the positive dimensions of the resulting interaction among different peoples never made an impression in official court documents; instead, it is the wrangling and the abuse and the violent strife that emerges in the written record. Mary Elizabeth Perry investigates the Christian-Morisco side of this apparent tension. Her book reveals the tragedies behind the Muslim challenge of maintaining cultural identity in the midst of powerful assimilating pressures from the nation-state. Moriscos were Muslims and their descendents who had been baptized into Spain's dominant Christian religion. Their conversion was constantly subject to suspicion because of the obligatory way in which Islamic beliefs and rituals were suppressed as part of the crown's efforts to unify ideologically the Spanish kingdoms. Spain's experiment in compulsory spirituality is analyzed by Perry with grace, precision, and cultural sensitivity. Her study stands out above all for its clear and concise exposition of the political pressures that the Morisco population faced with regard to the perpetuation of its medieval Andalusian heritage. Perry deftly identifies the legal mechanisms by which the Spanish crown gradually tightened control over both public and private manifestations of Islamic traditions, and shows how Morisco communities responded to the situation. A unique contribution of her book is its focus on domestic Morisco reactions to the new power dynamics. Gathering up evidence of minority opinions is never an easy task for historians of the early modern period, and Perry approaches the challenge by culling the archives of Inquisition records, Aljamiado literature, private correspondence, and popular legends.