The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Vol. 6, No. I. 1989 

Conferences/Seminars 

North African Conferences on Islamic Themes 
.zaghwan, Tunisia 

Sha'ban 7-U. 1409,March 15-19. 1989 

Rabat, Morocco 
Showwal 25-17. 1409/May 31-Ju~ 2, 1989 

181 

This past spring has seen two important conferences on Islamic topics 
which merit observation. 

In mid March CEROMDI, or the Study and Research Centre on Ottoman 
and Morisco Documentation and Information (Centre d'Etudes et de 
Recherches Ottomanes, Morisques, de Documentation et d'Information) held 
the Fourth International Symposium on Morisco Studies in Zaghwan, 
approximately 80 km south of Tunis, and in the capital of Tunis itself, in 
the Hotel du Lac. This meeting lasted from March 15-19, 1989. 

The conference was made possible largely due to the enthusiasm of 
Professor Abdeljalil Temimi, of Morisco descent himself, and was inaugurated 
in the CEROMDI library which Prof. Temimi has built with his own funds 
in the Morisco city of Zaghwan. The ceremony was attended by members 
of the government and diplomatic corps as well as professors from all over 
the Western Mediterranean area. The topics of the symposium covered the 
art and handicrafts of the Moriscos who were exiled from Spa.in in 1610, 
their religious life and the rich legacy they have left in Morocco, Algeria 
and Tunisia, as well as in several libraries in Spain itself and elsewhere, 
such as Paris and Cambridge. 

Participants came from France, Spa.in, Portugal, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt. 
Saudi Arabia, the Unjted States and Puerto Rico. Their papers covered many 
fields, such as interpretation of their documents and description of their 
heritage. The Spanish delegation was led by the dean of Morisco studies 
in that country, Professor Alvaro Oalmes de Fuentes, formerly of the University 
of Oviedo in Asturias and now from the Central University in Madrid: and 
Mikel de Epalza from Alicante. Others were Professor Consuelo Lopez-
Morillas from Indiana University, and Maria Teresa Narvaez from the 
University of Puerto Rico in Ro Piedras. The latter spoke on Mancebo de 
Arevalo, an important yet somewhat mysterious intellectual leader of the 
persecuted Muslims of Castile in central Spain in the 1520s and 1530s, almost 
the same time as the picaro Lazarillo de Tonnes. Communications were in 
French, Arabic, English and Spanish. 



182 The American Journal of lslamic Social Sciences Vol. 6, No. I, 1989 

The Moriscos were Muslims who, from the repudiation of the Treaty 
of Granada in 1499 by Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros, (which had been signed 
in 1492 at the fall of that last Muslim capital of Spain), were forced as 
Granad.ines to become (nominal) Christians. If they wouJd not, they had to 
leave Spain, or were jailed and tortured. Their books and documents were 
confiscated and destroyed (as were similar manuscripts in Mexico during 
these same years, and under these same laws, so that Mexico thereby lost 
an important part of its history). Their mosques were confiscated and turned 
into churches, stables or warehouses. 

From that time on, the Catholic state began to repudiate the rights of 
the Spanish Muslims in the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and, especially, 
Valencia. Once these Muslims had accepted Catholicism, willingly or 
unwillingly, and generally by decree, they were subject to arrest and trial 
by the so-called "Holy" Office of the Inquisition. They had to pay for their 
incarc~ration by the sale of their personal property, and thousands of families 
were made destitute even before a trial was instituted; Muslim women and 
children were subjected to abuse by the Inquisitorial authorities and the general 
public; Muslim girls were sold as slaves for immoral purposes and only 
incidentally to make them Christians. 

In 1668 the peasants and artisans in the Alpujarras mountains to the 
southeast of Granada rose in revolt, demanding their freedom from this 
religious tyranny, but they were savagely repressed by Pedro de Deza of the 
"Holy" Office, and King Philip II's illegitimate half-brother don Juan de Austria. 
They were hunted down brutally, families being split up and dispersed into 
other parts of Spain. Their suffering was unimaginable. It was an offense 
Nor to eat pork or drink wine, and a crime (under Spanish Catholic law) 
to be caught praying to God Alone. 

After 1671, Muslim houses had to have their doors and windows open 
on Fridays so the authorities (and inquisitive neighbors) might be sure that 
the inmates were not offering Friday prayers. Anyone caught in such "illegal" 
activity could be jailed and, still worse. flogged or sent to the galleys as 
slaves. Hundreds of Muslims, especially in and around Valencia on the 
Mediterranean coast, were burned at the stake for their loyalty to God Alone, 
and their refusal to bow down before graven images. 

Meanwhile the few leaders who were left tried to compile lesson materials 
and poems for young Muslims. These were mostly written in "al jamiado" 
(spanish) a/12Jamiyah or Arabic script, just as Persian and Urdu are still 
written in this manner. 

These manuscripts have been found over the past century, hidden away 
for a future time of less persecution. Professor Julian Ribera was active in 
this search. They have been found chiefly in and around Zaragoza in 
northeastern Spain where an important centre of Islam existed ever since 



The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Vol. 6, No. 1, 1989 183 

the Visigothic Unitarians or Arians became Muslim shortly after the Arab 
conquest in the eighth century. The documents have been studied not for 
their reLigious or historic content but because the Arabic script gives linguists 
a way to actually see the pronunciation of Spanish four and five hundred 
years ago, almost like a tape recording today. 

It is important that some of their work be taken over by Muslim scholars 
so that these lesson materia1s can be used for da'wa work in Latin America 
and Spain itself. They will show the new Muslims who are appearing in 
those countries that Islam for nine full centuries (from 711 until 1610) was 
an important part of Spanish life which gave Spain (and Latin America) its 
most historic buildings. especiaUy in Andalusia (and even in important centres 
in Latin America during the first part of the conquest of those areas). 

From May 31st to June 2nd, another conference was held, in Rabat. 
Morocco, for the "Correction of Erroneous Information Published on Islam'' 
because of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. This second conference or round 
table was samller than the one in Tunis, and consisted of several specialists 
from Morocco, Pakistan, the United States, Britain, etc., who discussed 
Rushdie's book. This meeting was sponsored by !SESCO, the Islamic 
Educational, Social, and Cultural Organization of OIC (the Organization of 
the Islamic Conference). 

For this participant in the meeting, the chief feature was the opportunity 
to meet a panel of experts from several Muslim and non-Muslim countries, 
who discussed the implications of this vulgar publication. After reading papers 
and discussing the same, a report was made to ISESCO which will be published 
shortly. 

One pleasant aspect of this conference was meeting several of the leaders 
of the Morisco community in Rabat. They are still there or, rather, their 
proud descendants are, and they form the leadership of much of Moroccan 
intellectual life. 

From both these conferences, it seems that Islam and its history, especially 
on these controversial issues, is not well known by either Muslims themselves 
or by the non-Muslim public. It is easy to spread misinformation of the Rushdie 
sort, or to cloak important literary material like the Morisco poetry under 
the study of linguistics, so this does not reach the public, which needs to 
learn more and more about Islam as this religion continues to revive and spread. 

We therefore need a research center or centers in the Islamic world where 
this material can be sifted and, if possible, ]ead some younger scholars on 
to higher degrees in these recondite fields. In any case there are a few centers 
where this is studied including Bloomington, Indiana; Cambridge; London; 
Oviedo, Alicante and Madrid in Spain; and Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. The 
Islamic Universities in Madina, Islamabad and Malaysia might consider 
opening departments of Morisco and similar studies, and of da'wa based on 



184 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Vol. 6. No. I, 1989 

this research for Latin America (where the use of Spanish and Portuguese 
are essential) . 

With the Rushdie material. what is shown is the utter ignorance of Islam 
by the media and European and American information centers. Rather than 
provide information on Islam, they repeat folklore from the Crusading and 
Zionist clashes which have been the stock-in-trade of their press releases: 
"Moslem" instead of Muslim, for instance, ''Khadafi" as in the name of the 
head of state in Libya, "Koran" for Qur'an, "Sabbath" for Friday yawm a/-
jum'a, and not yawm al-sabt, and so forth. 

The cure for this misinformation should be that Islamic agencies like 
!SESCO and IIIT should hold conferences on various topics that need 
discussion, such as the matter of Islamic terms and values; the place of women 
in Islam; and the use of communications and electronic media in the modern 
age. These should be held in various world centers, inviting a few (not many) 
non-Muslim "experts," and carried on in a non-controversial manner with 
the object of infomling the public at large. 

We need to evaluate our own intellectual resources, muster them, and 
then consider how to meet these challenges. Islam has been meeting them 
defensively, whereas the fifth of the world which is Muslim should be able 
to speak for itself and with the variety of opinion that a great world religion 
merits. 

T. B. Irving 
Cedar Rapids, Iowa