History of the Moors of Spain — Story, Setting & Ideas

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In Category - Medieval Society

Authors: Florian, 1755-1794 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2007 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Islam; Arabs -- Spain; Spain -- History -- 711-1516; Islamic Empire -- History; Muslims -- Spain -- History Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 61,002

Reading time 266 min

Text sections 6

Before opening History of the Moors of Spain — Story, Setting & Ideas, the edition data offers a quick orientation: 61,002 words, 4 hr 26 min estimated reading time, and 6 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 25.3 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Islam,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #22337

Florian's 18th-century French history of Moorish Spain, translated in 1840, examines Arab conquest, Islamic rule, and the chivalric culture of Granada, blending narrative with analysis of Moorish-Spanish interactions.

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Florian's History of the Moors of Spain, first published in French in the late eighteenth century and translated into English in 1840, opens with a publisher's advertisement that immediately challenges the reader's assumptions. The publishers assert that the Moors were not the barbarians commonly imagined, but a 'degenerated race' with a 'period of great brilliancy' in arts and science. This framing sets the tone for a work that seeks to rehabilitate the reputation of Islamic Spain, while also acknowledging the violence and fanaticism often associated with the Moors. The text is structured in epochs, beginning with the origin of the Arabs and the rise of Islam, then moving to the conquest of Spain and the establishment of Moorish rule. Florian's narrative is both historical and literary, incorporating poetry and romanticized episodes, such as the tale of Zelinda and Gonzulo, which illustrate the 'delicate and peculiar gallantry' of the Moors of Granada.

Diction and the Dual Portrait of the Moors

Florian's diction consistently juxtaposes opposing qualities to characterize the Moors. In the excerpt on Granada, he describes them as possessing an 'extraordinary union of softness and cruelty, of delicacy and barbarity.' This antithetical phrasing recurs throughout: the Moors are 'tender' yet 'ungovernable,' 'devoted' yet 'ready to revolt.' The translator preserves these contrasts, using words like 'ferocity' alongside 'magnificence' and 'splendour.' Such lexical choices create a portrait of a people defined by internal contradiction, a strategy that serves Florian's broader argument about cultural exchange between Moors and Spaniards. The text does not resolve these tensions but presents them as inherent to Moorish identity.

Voice and the Role of the Translator

The English translation, credited to 'an American lady,' carries a formal, eighteenth-century rhetorical voice. Sentences are often periodic and balanced, as in: 'It cannot now be determined whether the Moors derived this extraordinary union... from the Spaniards, or whether the Spaniards acquired these characteristics from the Moors.' This balanced structure reflects Florian's own prose, which frequently poses unresolved questions. The translator also retains French-influenced phrasing, such as 'the delicate and peculiar gallantry,' lending an air of refinement. The voice is authoritative yet speculative, inviting readers to weigh evidence rather than accept dogma. The inclusion of a supplementary 'Brief Notice of Islamism' by Rev. S. Greene further layers the text, adding a contemporary theological perspective.

Structure and the Use of Poetry

Florian intersperses verse within the historical narrative, as seen in the rhymed couplets of the Zelinda and Gonzulo episode: 'Zelinda reached the soft retreat / Where Gonzulo his fate must meet!' This poetic insertion breaks the prose flow, offering a sentimental counterpoint to the military and political chronicles. The poem employs conventional romantic imagery—'myrtle shade,' 'wing of love,' 'tearful glances'—that echoes the chivalric ideals Florian attributes to the Moors. Structurally, these verses serve as illustrative vignettes, humanizing historical figures and emphasizing the theme of love as a driving force. The shift from analytical prose to lyrical poetry mirrors the text's broader oscillation between historical argument and literary embellishment.

Setting and the Geography of Contrast

The setting of Granada is depicted as a locus of paradox: a place where 'the most tender, the most devoted, the most ardent of lovers' also 'dexterously deprive their enemies of their heads' and display trophies on battlements. Florian anchors this contrast in physical spaces—the 'soft retreat' of a myrtle grove versus the 'towers' and 'palaces' adorned with severed heads. The description of Moorish women as 'the most fascinating women in the world' is supported by a quoted historian's account of their 'grace and gentleness' and 'delicate and slender proportions.' This geographical and social setting becomes a stage for the interplay of civilization and barbarism, a theme Florian develops through specific references to Gothic courts, the Cid, and the lingering gallantry of Spain.

Readers approaching Florian's History of the Moors of Spain should attend to the interplay between the translator's voice and the original French author's rhetorical strategies. The text is as much a literary artifact of the Enlightenment as it is a historical account, shaped by the publisher's agenda to revise perceptions of Islamic civilization. The appended 'Brief Notice of Islamism' offers a contrasting, more orthodox Christian perspective, inviting comparison. For a full understanding, consider how Florian's poetic interludes and antithetical diction construct a nuanced, if sometimes contradictory, portrait of Moorish Spain.

I’ve often turned to Florian’s Moorish chronicle, charmed by its chivalric glow. Lately, it sits beside Mediæval Wales Chiefly in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: Six Popular Lectures — Text and Context. Both speak of borderlands where knights sang in borrowed tongues, and where faiths, however frayed, once found a courteous, shared twilight. A quiet kinship of lost courtliness.