¿Una impronta árabe en las versiones hispánicas de El tesoro fatal (ATU 763)?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to determine whether the Arabic branch of the tale The Treasure Finders Murder one Another (ATU 763) has left a trace in Hispanic literature. In the first section, we examine a sixteenth-century Morisco adaptation of this tale type, and, in the pages that follow, we analyze other versions interpolated in some Islamic doctrinal sources. The results show that the eastern branch of The Treasure Finders Murder one Another is composed of two different subtypes: Or.1 and Or.2. In Or.1, the story is contaminated with the pious legend of Jesus and the Skull and has its roots in some Christian legends of the Early Middle Ages; whereas, in Or.2, the pattern of the type ATU 763 is combined with two different tales: ATU 785 (Who Ate the Lamb’s Heart?) and ATU 750B (Hospitality Rewarded). The evidence from this study indicates that both subtypes have left a trace in the Spanish tradition. The narrative structure of Or.1 appears in an oral folktale collected by Juan Garmendia Larranaga in Tolosa. The plot of Or.2 is perceivable in two Hispano-Arabic stories: the version included in the Morisco manuscript and a parallel written by At-Turtushi in The Lamp of Kings.