South of Guadarrama

Preface

This narrative is a work of fiction, and the author invents the main plot. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictionally. Therefore, any resemblance to persons living or dead, events, and local is entirely coincidental or circumstantial. However, the historical background of the plot and real characters are involved tangentially in the narrative, as cultural and political situations are rooted in history.

I choose the environment of the Iberian Peninsula during the Islamic domination because of its cultural period of splendor and wealth ever seen. Córdoba rivaled Baghdad for prominence in the Islamic world with the specificity that different Islamic Caliphs and opponents governed both cities, but the distance kept the peace between them. Finally, a stroke of fate caused a family massacre over the other to establish an independent domain throughout Andalusia. In the two hundred and fifty years that followed, the Umayyad Andalusia developed a sophisticated, cultured, and technologically advanced society.

Besides, this period is often touted as a model of coexistence between the three monotheistic religions and as a false example of this harmony and peace that could co-exist today between the same protagonists of this troubled and bloody modern conflict between Arabs and Jews.

The main characters based on historical figures are Abu Amir Muhammad (Almanzor) and Subh, the mother of the boy caliph Hisham II. However, I mentioned historical characters that do not have intense involvement in the plots a few times because they are essential actors of the period. For example, General Ghalib and his daughter Asma, who became the wife of Almanzor, the Jewish doctor Benzécri, based on renowned physician Jew Hasdai Ibn Sharput, who lived and worked in Córdoba from 913 to 970. Finally, I cited the caliphs, possibly contemporary with the narrative.

To write a story over 1000 years past, we need massive research on uses, customs, time data, and aspects of local architecture in Córdoba. Instead of interrupting the narrative with too many footnotes, I preferred to inform some of these sources here, not in order of importance, because they offered helpful information. So, I emphasize:

1. Spanish Islam; History of the Moslems in Spain Reinart Dozy;

2. The Moor in Spain by Stanley Lane Poole;

3. The Córdoba Mosque by Farhat A. Hussain,

4. Recuerdos y Bellezas of Espanã Córdoba by Peter D. Madrazo,

5. Homage Al-Andalus: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain Michael Barry,

6. The Ring of the Dove of Ibn Hazm,

7. Christian Martyr in Muslim Spain Kenneth Wolf,

8. Concubines, Eunuchs, and Patronage in Early Córdoba Glaire D. Anderson;

9. Religious and Cultural Conversion to Islam in Ninth-Century Umayyad

Córdoba Jessica A. Coope.

10. La Conjura de Córdoba de Juan Kresdez

11. Leyendas de Medina Alzanara de Manuel Pimentel

12. Uma vida de mujer: Subh de Marín, Manuela (1997).

13. Leyendas de Al-Ándalus de Antonio P. Peñasco (2014)

These documents were consulted with several articles on the Internet about Andalusia, the Umayyad dynasty, Almanzor, and ancient manuscripts of the Quran, especially the manuscripts found at the University of Birmingham and San'a mosque in Yemen.

Finally, I could not fail to mention a historical novel I read while building Chapter 1 (2nd part of the story). I am referring to "Requiem for Córdoba" by Marilyn Ekdahl Ravicz. My plot and Ravicz's story start with the same character, Sultana Subh, who, in my action, is involved in similar objectives in different ways. Coincidence cannot even be a classification for this. It would be impossible to create a plot in this period of Muslim history in the Iberian Peninsula without putting Subh as a protagonist. As the work of Marilyn Ravicz is grounded in deep historical research, I also started to take it as a reference for environment and customs and even as inspiration for the vibrant descriptions of characters performed by her. I let myself use a passage that I knew from Ravicz's work, and I consider it essential to use it in some way, and I could only do so based on her description. The use of a lattice structure to separate the women was not unusual in interior decoration, on the architecture of balconies and galleries of the houses, allowing women to look at the street without being seen by men, the Purdah. I do not know, or at least I have not found reports of portable structures for this purpose, and therefore I assumed that this was an adaptation of Ravicz. The scene I refer to is when Subh gave up, in front of her conspirator friends, of using the lattice structure that separated them during meetings. This scene, which takes place in Chapter 15, needed to exist, and the context could not be much different from that described by Marilyn Ravicz, although developed with other characters.

I have a constant concern in historical accounts to keep the consecrated historiography and respect the closest possible dates of the facts. Thus, the fiction plot parallels the historical events that determine the periods of their occurrence. However, I condensed the development of the actions using a shorter period in the historical time ranging from 981 to 997, when the invasion of Compostela happened until 1002 or 1003 at Almanzor's death.

Due to some commentson the significant aspects of Córdoba society, such as data on demography,architectural designs, cultural projects, and scientific projects and about thenumber of poor houses and nobles, number of inhabitants and villagers orservants of Al-Zahara Palace, the information provided on Chapter 1 are derivedfrom Arabic sources and reproduced by European writers from 19th century suchas Stanley Lane Poole. Have they exaggerated? Maybe, but judging from the ruinsof the palace and the magnificence of the Great Mosque of Córdoba (Aljama),today transformed into a Catholic cathedral, we realized that if there wereexaggerations in the descriptions was because the greatness had impacted at thetime, and still makes impacts today.