Christian Perceptions Research Articles

Lost in Translation, Found in Transliteration: Books, Censorship, and the Evolution of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of London as a Linguistic Community, 1663–1810 by Alex Kerner

Reviewed by: Lost in Translation, Found in Transliteration: Books, Censorship, and the Evolution of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of London as a Linguistic Community, 1663–1810 by Alex Kerner David Sclar Alex Kerner . Lost in Translation, Found in Transliteration: Books, Censorship, and the Evolution of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of London as a Linguistic Community, 1663–1810 . Leiden : Brill , 2018 . 283 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009420000562 Early modern Jewish communities formed and operated in complex ways. Over centuries of frequent and extensive migration, Jews lived in close proximity with other Jews, established rules of conduct, shared resources, and retained common heritages, memories, and commitments. Yet, spread through disparate cultural contexts, Jewish rituals, traditions, societies, experience, and thought varied greatly. In recent years, scholars have toiled to uncover communal self-fashioning, the function of subcommunities, and the nature of pan-Jewish identity. Alex Kerner's book on the Western Sephardic community of London is a welcome contribution to this broad objective of understanding Jewish communal life in the early modern period. Kerner's innovation is to bring theories of language and cultural translation, typified by Peter Burke's work on early modern Europe, to the Sephardic Jews of London (Shaʿar Hashamayim Congregation). Using archival documents and published pamphlets, Kerner shows how lay leadership (or, the Mahamad) oversaw "written communications (books, pamphlets, administration) and the languages used by the community institutions and members" in a bid to shape and control communal cohesion (13). To Kerner, the wardens of the community, fearing Christian perception and vilification of Jews, sought to anticipate and eliminate potential threats emanating from within. Tying this to earlier trends of confessionalization, Kerner argues that language policies were as strong a force on the community as religion or ethnicity. Kerner divides the book into three parts, each of which includes an introduction. Part 1 details the initial 1664 censorship article, which accompanied the birth of the community, and presents its evolution deep into the nineteenth century. Part 2 discusses various ways in which language played a factor in communal identity and control, particularly in ritual, administration, and publication. Part 3, taking up more than half the book, manifests these theoretical concerns in a chronological narrative of Sephardic publishing and publication attempts in London through the early nineteenth century. In parts 1 and 2, Kerner offers a deep analysis of the censorship bylaw, showing parallels with English Quakers and presenting it as a response to a slew of conversionary tracts published by apostate Ashkenazic Jews in the seventeenth century. He also articulates the two-century evolution of Shaʿar Hashamayim's publication policy: members of the community were banned from engaging in print activity (printing, editing, translating, publishing) without express permission of the Mahamad; initial threats of ḥerem (excommunication) were dropped by 1677 as communal involvement proved increasingly voluntary; frightening sacral punishments gave way to monetary fines by 1733; the 1781 protocols, the first to appear in print, incorporated a rationale for publishing prohibitions; and a copy of the 1784 version included a handwritten English translation alongside the printed Spanish, indicating linguistic shifts. In addition to [End Page 190] demonstrating the correlation between a shrinking community and a weakening Mahamad, Kerner shows how the bylaw controlling local Jewish publication amalgamated Dutch communal policies, Iberian inquisitional cultural heritage, and English censorship policies. In part 3, Kerner analyzes publishing permissions and rejections found in the archives of Shaʿar Hashamayim and offers a bibliographic history of publications issued by English Jews in the eighteenth century. He shows how Hebrew and Spanish, representing the community's dual heritage, were rarely deemed problematic, while English publication almost never received approval. For example, the Mahamad refused the request of Moseh Nieto, son and brother of successive chief rabbis, to publish his English translation of the Hebrew prayer book in 1734, but granted a license for his Spanish translation ( Livro de rezas ). According to Kerner, the Mahamad displayed a leniency toward Spanish, because of the unlikelihood that it "could be used against the interests of the community" (64). Though that assertion raises questions about the Sephardic Diaspora more broadly (Did fear of retribution prevent Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam or Hamburg from publishing...

Sartre: o existencialismo em torno da morte

The theme of death has always been present in the history of philosophy and is also present in Sartre's existentialist texts. The main work that deals with death is: “The being and the nothingness” of 1943, on which this article is concentrated. In this work, death is seen as the limit for nadification. However, the important conception of atheistic existentialism in the work “Existentialism is a humanism” also stands out, in which death is presented as an end, without the postmortem perceptions of Christianity. It will also deal with the text “Nausea”, as a way of thinking about death and its absurdity. The theme of the absurd is also described in the work “The being and the nothing”, and it is the first key for reading this phenomenon of the limit of life, but which is still life. One last issue to be addressed, and no less important, is being-for-another, the conception of my death faced by the other, and how this other reacts and underlies, in a sense, my own death.

RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL ROLES OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE

This article examines changes to the role of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (CHS) from its construction to the Latin Kingdom and argues that these changes reflect shifts in Christian perception of sacred space. When it was first built, the CHS was only a monument to the profound event of Christ’s resurrection. During the Heraclian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, the very structure of the CHS became sacred and Jerusalem became revered as the city of the Holy Sepulchre. As Muslims conquered Jerusalem in the late 7th century AD, the CHS became increasingly emblematic of Christianity itself. Eventually, the CHS was used as a rallying cry to incite European Christians into a crusade. During the Crusader Period, the CHS was transformed into a symbol of Frankish rule. As pilgrims became more intimate with the CHS, Jerusalem’s sacred geography was expanded from only the CHS to include sites encompassing all aspects of Jesus’s life. With these changes to the roles of the CHS, Christians went from originally distrusting sacred space, to embrace the church as their sole axis mundus (sacred space), to accepting the presence of multiple axis mundi on earth; the CHS was among them.

Russian history in “Lives of the Saints” of St. Dimitry of Rostov

The subject of this research is the largest printed compilation of the lives of the saints venerated by the Russian Orthodox Church – “Lives of the Saints” by St. Dimitry of Rostov (1689-1705). Despite a widespread opinion that the only printed book on the Russian history until the middle of the XVIII century was the “Synopsis” by Innokenty Gizel, the author refers to “Lives of the Saints” as a landmark of historical writing that reflects crucial events in the Russian history from ancient times until early XVIII century. Traditionally viewed as a literary and hagiographical landmark, “Lives of the Saints” by St. Dimitri Rostov were out of the scope for the researchers of Russian historiography. This article is the first to conduct comprehensive analysis of historical records contained in the lives of Russian saints as part of the compilation “Live of the Saints”. Emphasis is places on the representation of events of the past. The research demonstrates that “Lives of the Saints” included descriptions of the milestones in Church and political history. Featuring certain aspect of scientific writings (accuracy of dates, critical analysis of sources, reference apparatus), they conveyed a special, Christian perception of Russian history as a chain of miracles of the saints and the Virgin Mary. The conclusion is made on the considerable importance of “Lives of the Saints” in proliferation of information on the Russian past among broad population, and formation of historical memory of the Russian society of the XVIII – XIX centuries.

Метаморфоза «плоти» (Амвросий Медиоланский и становление западно-христианской антропологии)

What is the reason of the established perception of Christianity as a doctrine declaring body not only unimportant aspect of man, in contrast to incorporeal immortal soul, but also the fetters that are to be broken away from? The author attempts to answer this question through the analysis of the Biblical “flesh”, “soul” and “spirit”, which the Fathers and Doctors of the Church assumed to be identical to Greek and Latin notions. Thus, the notion of flesh in the Old and New Testaments may be used in their works as synonymous to body. As a result of such semantic metamorphosis, now and then implicit, the early Christian authors generate idea of man revealing traits of Greco-Roman anthropology, above all Platonism, i.e. the dualism of soul and body, as well as the negative attitude toward corporality. Which departs from the Biblical idea of man as an integral being made by the good Creator. The works of St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, Doctor of the Church, religious figure and one of the greatest advocates of Christianity, help us to understand the process of this exceptionally important semantic transformation.

Emergence of the Clerical Corporation in Western Europe (11–13th Centuries) and in Russia (17–18th Centuries)

Traditional Christian confessions — for example, in Catholicism or in Orthodoxy — in scholarly literature, in modern legislation, or at the level of everyday consciousness, are understood primarily as clerical corporations. This corporate reading of modern Christianity also influences the understanding of the phenomenon of religion itself, as it happens, for example, in the famous essay on the “field of religion” by P. Bourdieu. This reading also determines the perception of Christianity as a historical phenomenon as well, which, within the framework of such a representation, appears as a corporation at every moment of its historical existence. This article argues that a “clerical corporation” is not a form of social organization that was originally inherent in Christianity, but a historical phenomenon that embraces various confessional contexts at different times. In particular, the emergence of a clerical corporation is fixed within the framework of an asynchronous comparative perspective relying on the examples of Western European Catholicism of the 11th — 13th centuries, and Russian Orthodoxy of the 17th — 18th centuries.

To Live like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain by Olivia Remie Constable

Review Article| January 01 2020 To Live like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain by Olivia Remie Constable Constable, Olivia Remie, To Live like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain, ed. Vose, Robin, foreword by Nirenberg, David (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), 248 pp. Leor Halevi Leor Halevi Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Common Knowledge (2020) 26 (1): 181–182. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-7900168 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Leor Halevi; To Live like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain by Olivia Remie Constable. Common Knowledge 1 January 2020; 26 (1): 181–182. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-7900168 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsCommon Knowledge Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 2020 Duke University Press2020 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: LITTLE REVIEWS You do not currently have access to this content.

To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain, by Olivia Remie Constable

To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain, by Olivia Remie Constable

Religious Studies Achievements of Myroslav Popovych

Problems of the essence of religion, its place in the history of spiritual and cultural life of the Ukrainian people were not in the field of direct scientific interests of the famous Ukrainian philosopher, long-time director of the Institute of Philosophy by H.S. Skovoroda of NAS of Ukraine, academician Myroslav Popovych. He referred to them only when comprehending the history of culture in Ukraine, some in the analysis of the twentieth century as a bloody period of world history, some in explaining the problems of being human. Thus the scientist considers religion as a component of culture, and it is a complex of material, spiritual, intellectual and emotional features of society, includes the basic rules of human existence, system of values, traditions and beliefs.
 The article deals with the religious factor in the life of the ancient Slavs, the role of the Bible in the formation of the religious consciousness of ancient Ukrainians, the nature and evolution of the Christian doctrine. The author analyzes Popovich's thinking about the perception of Christianity by the people's consciousness with its doctrine and rituals, about finding by Christians a balance between Eros and Thanatos, about austerity, holiness, etc.

ИНТЕРПРЕТАЦИЯ БИБЛЕЙСКОЙ ЛЕГЕНДЫ ВОСКРЕШЕНИЯ ЛАЗАРЯ В ТРУДАХ ЛАТИНСКИХ АВТОРОВ IX-XI ВВ. И ПРОИЗВЕДЕНИЯХ ПОЗДНЕВИЗАНТИЙСКИХ ПИСАТЕЛЕЙ

The article considers the problem of interpreting the biblical legend of Lazarus’s Resurrection in the works of the Latin authors of the IX-XI centuries and in the late Byzantine literature. The researchers introduce new information acquired from the previously untranslated works by Remigius of Auxerre, Odo of Cluny, John the Carthusian, George Kodinos, encyclopedist Maximus Planudes, emperor John VI. The paper compares medieval perception of the biblical legend of Lazarus’s Resurrection and the interpretation proposed by Holy Fathers in the IV-V centuries. Analysing commentaries of the Latin authors of the IX-XI centuries and the late Byzantine writers, the researchers identify similarities between patristic interpretation of John chapter XI and medieval Christian perception of the legend of Lazarus. The paper also reveals differences in the exegesis of ecclesiastical writers, whose works represent dynamics of the key events in the life of the church, where the legend of Lazarus is a response to theological challenges facing Christianity.

To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain

To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain

Iluzje polityczne stwarzane przez misjonarzy wśród Asyryjczyków w Hakkari: relacja R. Termena i jej kontekst polityczno-religijny

The objective of this paper is to highlight religious and political problem of last decades of the Christian communities in Hakkari region in South-Eastern Turkey before their total annihilation. The source is a report written by Russian general Richard Termen (1870–1937), who in the period 1905–1908 was a vice-consul in Ottoman province Van. Significant part of his report is dedicated to the activity of Christian missionaries of different denominations and countries, such as Russian Orthodox missionaries, French missionaries representing Roman Catholic Church, English (Anglican) missionaries and American missions of various protestan Churches, among Assyrian Christians in Hakkari. General Termen emphasized that Assyrians who mainly belonged to the Church of East (so-called “nestorians”) and felt strong ties with its history and traditions, willingly changed their denomination identity when it was to bring them political hopes. Partially, it was a result of political nature of Islam which dominated in Ottoman Empire and made Christians the second-class citizens. Severe discrimination, corruption of the Turkish state officers and endless violence from bands of Muslim Kurds made Assyrians so desperate that they were ready to the mass emigration or to war against Ottoman Turkey in alliance with any country. Any non-Muslim government appeared to be better than what they experienced, which was witnessed by the Assyrians who travelled to Russia for work. Another important motivation for political change of religious denomination was their perception of Christianity as the uniform religion in different forms. Assyrians would rather die than embrace Islam, but readily became Russian Orthodox, Anglicans or Catholics subsequently for several times, when they felt some political or financial benefits. And perhaps the most important political and religious problem of Western missions among Assyrians was that the Churches had very small impact on the governments in Europe and USA, much smaller than that in the Eastern world. As a result, many promises made by missionaries or expected by Assyrians were just in words. In fact, this phenomenon caused final catastrophe of Christianity in Hakkari region, because Assyrians first lost their religious unity, and then deceived by the political promises were left alone and massacred by overwhelming Muslim forces of Turks and Kurds.

Jesus Christus im Hinduismus

For many Europeans, the reception of Jesus by a polytheistic religion is a difficult thing to understand. One of these religions, Hinduism, looks at Christ in a particular way. From the end of the 18th century, the Christian message became an intense concern of many Hindu teachers who would adopt many Christian perceptions without a concrete conversion to Christianity. The first and most important personality among them was Ram Mohan Roy, the spiritual father of modern India. First of all, the present paper aims to bring to light some aspects of the religious evolution of the great Bengalian intellectual, such as his evolution within Unitarianism. Secondly, the research will focus on the reception of Jesus in his work, trying to systematize the main directions of the thought of the first Hindu author who dedicated a work to the second person of the Holy Trinity.

Perception of Christianity and Christian Peers in the Drawings of Muslim Children: The Example of Pforzheim/Germany

Bu arastirmanin amaci, 9-15 yas Musluman cocuklarin, diger dine ve diger dinden akranlari hakkindaki algilarini, resimleri yoluyla tespit etmektir. Bu arastirmaya 57 ogrenci katilmistir. Arastirma, nitel arastirma yontemlerinden; sanat temelli arastirma ve yari- yapilandirilmis gorusme desenleriyle desenlenmistir. Veriler, resimlerin gostergebilimsel analizi, yari-yapilandirilmis gorusmelerin betimsel analizi ile toplanmistir. Cocuklarin cizimlerinde, en cok duz anlami iceren goruntusel gos­tergeyi kullandiklari, ikinci olarak neden-sonuc iliskisi iceren, belirti gostergesi ni kullandiklari, en az kullanilan gosterge turunun ise simge oldugu gorulmustur. Arastirmada cocuklarin ic dunyalarinin resimlere yansidigi gorulmektedir. Arkadasinin dininin onemli olmadigini ve diger dinin mensuplariyla birlikte yasamaktan rahatsizlik duymadigini ifade eden cocuklarin resimlerine, hosgoru temelli gostergeler yansimistir. Ote yandan arkadasinin dinin onemli oldugunu ve Hristiyan bir toplumda yasamaktan memnun olmadigini ifade edenlerin resimlerine on yargi temelli gostergeler yansimistir.

Olivia Remie Constable. To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain.

O<scp>livia</scp> R<scp>emie</scp> C<scp>onstable</scp>. <i>To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain</i>.

To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain, by Olivia Remie Constable, ed. Robin Vose

To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain, by Olivia Remie Constable, ed. Robin Vose

To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain, written by Olivia Remie Constable

To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain, written by Olivia Remie Constable

Scientism, Nationalism, and Christianity: The Spread and Influence of Kotoku Shusui’s On the Obliteration of Christ in China

Owing to Zhu Zhixin’s introduction and Liu Wendian’s translation, Japanese anarchist Kotoku Shusui’s On the Obliteration of Christ came to have a great impact on China’s Anti-Christian Movement following the May Fourth Movement. What these three texts oppose is not only Christian authority, but also political power. In a continuous line, these writings lay the basic framework for Chinese anti-Christian speech in the 1920s, as the combination of scientism and nationalism began to shape people’s perception of Christianity.

Crucifixion in Roman Antiquity: The State of the Field

Crucifixion in Roman AntiquityThe State of the Field Felicity Harley (bio) Chapman, David W. Ancient Jewish and Christian Perceptions of Crucifixion. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament II/244. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008; republished by Baker Publishing Group, 2010. Pp. xiii + 321. €29.00. Chapman, David W. and Eckhard J. Schnabel. The Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 344. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015. Pp. xxiv + 867. €39.00. Cook, John Granger. Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 327. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014 (a second enlarged edition scheduled to appear in 2019). Pp. xl + 549. €79.00. Samuelsson, Gunnar. Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament II/310. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011; rev. ed. 2013. Pp. xxxii + 364. €79.00. Late in January 41 c.e., a newly composed mime about the exploits of the notorious Roman bandit Laureolus was performed before the emperor Gaius and his guests in the Imperial Palace, on Rome's Palatine Hill.1 The performance was part of the ludi Palatini, a private festival held in honor [End Page 303] of the deified Augustus; the historian Josephus observed that at the mime's climax, the capture and crucifixion of the runaway slave turned robber, a great quantity of fake blood was shed across the stage.2 In the same city several decades later, before tens of thousands of spectators, blood remained central to the staging of the same mime but was no longer artificial. The poet Martial records that the dénouement was a live execution, a criminal being cast in the role of Laureolus and executed on stage, suspended not from a theater set but from a real cross (non falsa cruce), before being fatally mauled by a bear: Nuda Caledonio sic uiscera praebuit ursonon falsa pendens in cruce Laureolusuiuebant laceri membris stillantibus artusinque omni nusquam corpore corpus erat. Laureolus, hanging on no false cross,gave up his defenceless entrails to a Scottish bear.His mangled limbs were still alive, though the parts were dripping with blood, and in his whole body there actually was no body.3 In the modern imagination, crucifixion (from the Latin verb crucifigo, "to fasten to a cross") constitutes a highly specific method of execution: the fatal suspension of a living victim from a cross-shaped scaffold. This narrow definition is conveyed linguistically by the English word and its equivalents in a variety of modern languages, and visually by the remarkably stable iconography of Jesus's crucifixion that was formulated by the late sixth century and circulated widely. On this understanding of crucifixion, the death of Laureolus on "no false cross" is easy for us to visualize; and on this scaffold, the victim becomes an easy target for the bear, who claws away his flesh in an add-on torture that both hastens and colors the death. In fact Martial does not provide any specific information about the scaffold. He takes some delight in describing the bloody process [End Page 304] of disembowelment, lingering over the fact that despite being little more than a hanging carcass, severed nerves cause Laureolus's lacerated limbs to twitch, as though still alive.4 Yet nowhere does he describe the shape of the scaffold (crux), or the method used to affix Laureolus to it. A similar lack of interest in these details, which are fundamental to the modern definition of crucifixion, is betrayed in Josephus's account wherein Laureolus is simply described as crucified (σταυρωθέντα), as though the reader knew exactly what this entailed and so supplied the particulars from their imagination or memory. Yet what those particulars were is a moot point. In antiquity, there was no single word to designate "crucifixion" in the narrow way that term is used and understood in various modern languages today. Hence the recovery of ancient understandings of crucifixion is a complex process, more so than is customarily assumed, with the methods of doing so contested, as a recent body of literature has demonstrated. When searching for descriptions of or references to crucifixion in ancient sources it is...

To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain by Olivia Remie Constable

Reviewed by: To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain by Olivia Remie Constable Yasmine Beale-Rivaya Constable, Olivia Remie. To Live Like a Moor: Christian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Edited by Robin Vose, foreword by David Nirenberg, U of Pennsylvania P, 2018. ISBN: 978-0-8122-4948-4. To Live Like a Moor is, unfortunately, Olivia Remie Constable’s final contribution to the field of Medieval Iberia. Published posthumously, Constable was unable to finish it before her passing. It is missing the final planned chapter. The final manuscript was prepared for publication by her former student, Robin Rose. In the editor’s preface, Rose explains that her intervention in the manuscript was “deliberately minimal” and was limited to including conclusions to each chapter “for the sake of consistency” (xv). She notes that one planned chapter, that of “Evolving Christian Perceptions of the Arabic Language,” and another one related to music, poetry and song were not completed and, therefore, not included. Despite its incompleteness, it is an exemplary illustration of what organized, exhaustive and well-written research produces. In this book, Constable masterfully documents how day-to-day cultural habits such as dress, bathing, and food, that are, in many ways, passive cultural acts, reveal a great deal about assumed and unconscious cultural identities, how they come about, and how they evolve. Through these commonplace topics, she paints a vivid picture of what life must have been like for a person of the Muslim faith living under Christian rule after 1567. David Nirenberg provides the foreword, which situates the book in the broader scholarship. He explains that the surrender of Granada in 1492 and the subsequent “choice” given to Muslims to convert to Christianity or face expulsion created a new category of peoples, the Moriscos (vii). The change of religion and, therefore, identity, meant much more than just a change of religious beliefs or practices. With this new category, questions of religious identity arise, mainly “what it meant to be Muslim, what it meant to be Christian, and what aspects of a person’s behavior or belief needed to change in order to make the transition from the one to the other” (vii). Through the analysis of everyday actions, Constable seeks to answer the essential question of what it meant to convert from Islam to Christianity in Christian Spain beyond the practices tied to specific religious dogma. The first chapter, “Being Muslim in Christian Spain,” is the account of a memorandum written by Francisco Núñez Muley to the chief administrator [End Page 111] of the city of Granada, in 1657, some seventy-five years after the conquest of that city by Christian forces. This memorandum was written in response or even as a rebuttal to the ban on practices that were perceived to be of Islamic origin. Núñez Muley was born of an elite Muslim family shortly before the conquest of the city and had converted to Christianity. Records show that he was employed in the household of the archbishop of Granada. It seems that Núñez Muley was not a marginal or an unknown character to the city administrators. His memorandum discusses such traditions as “bathing, dressing, naming, language, and music” (1) in the aftermath of the conversions. The memorandum focuses not so much on the religious reasons for certain practices as defined and demanded by holy texts and religious law. Rather, the rebuttal offers other rational reasons, often economic, for those same practices that are offensive to the Christian authorities. This chapter shows that laws regarding how to deal with the Christian-Muslim problematic in Granada changed over time and were informed by the perspectives of the archbishop of Granada and Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros. In chapter two, “Clothing and Appearance,” Constable plots the progression of expectations and laws in both the Christian and Muslim circles that defined how one should dress and how this dress is part of a “visual identity” of a group or person. Núñez Muley defends the use of Islamic clothing, especially in the case of women, because it would cause economic hardship to have to...