The Function of Spanish History in The Moor’s Last Sigh

From the outset, Rushdie makes use of Spanish historical narratives in an allusive fashion that gauges the reader’s attention. The village of ‘Benengeli’, for instance brings to life the seminal work of Don Quixote by Cervantes where the narrator takes the name of Cide Hamete Benengeli. Also, Moraes’s grandmother named Isabella Souza with her nickname 'Queen Isabella' opens a larger narrative about not only the decline of the Muslim empire and the subsequent itinerant state of the Muslim peoples but the way post-Nasrid political dynamics were poisonous, rather than reconciliatory. It is thus plausible that the function of Rushdie’s references to a broader Spanish narrative, is to enable the reader to rethink imperial history in general.

Moorish Spain, in my opinion is a representation of a multicultural society - one meticulously depicted in Moorish paintings by Aurora where ‘she was using Arab Spain to re-imagine India.’ It constantly refers to the figure of the Moor residing in a ‘hybrid fortress.’ It appears that the Moorish Spain ultimately becomes the solution to problems that figuratively and literally tore India apart- those of religious fanaticism in particular the image of the Babri Masjid which he explores in great depth in his work Midnight’s Children. In a way, the use of Spanish History with the Nasrid Dynasty at the center becomes an alternative historical narrative to the ravaged state of India. While the Moorish dynasty was synonymous with cultural glory, intellectual advancement and Islamic Adab, it also became a place where Islamic philosophers (Al-Kindi) and Jewish philosophers (Maimonides) worked as complementarities in a larger intellectual function. It is then that we look at the British colonial program where it’s imposition of alien culture on the local native becomes a bone of contention with Rushdie. Thus, this work can be seen as a ‘postcolonial rewriting’ of some kind where Ferdinand and Isabella (often considered heroes of the empire) are portrayed as villainous destroyers of high culture.

One can easily contend this viewpoint by stating that Indian culture was never pure or virgin but one can posit that it was complex, one where conquest enriched the culture rather than decimated it. This view finds more traction in Rushdie’s work, Satanic Verses where he talks about ‘Zeeny Vakil’s thesis about the eclectic hybridized nature’ of the subcontinent. Thus, images of Granada and Nasrid become representative of the glory and success of the Muslim empire, one which advanced culture rather than defiled it, making this narrative a critique of the British imperial system.