Muslim sequential mobilities. Merdia ben Hazman, an "exceptional" case in the Early Modern Spanish Mediterranean. Issue 3 (2nd September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rincones Minda, Érika
• Is Part Of: Journal of Iberian and Latin American studies. Volume 28:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 371
• Page End: 385
• Publication Date: 2022-09-02
• Subjects: Mobility -- migration -- Muslims communities -- Early Modern Iberian Peninsula -- Cross-boundaries; Spanish literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Portuguese literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Latin American literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Civilization, Hispanic -- Periodicals; Portugal -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Spain -- Periodicals; Portugal -- Periodicals; Latin America -- Periodicals; 306.0946
• DOI: 10.1080/14701847.2022.2140951
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-1847

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In 1703 Juan de Junterones bought in Murcia a Christian slave, María de la Cruz, a single woman who had previously been enslaved to Francisco Salinas in Madrid, and who had been baptized in Jumilla. Earlier in her life, she had been a free, married, Muslim woman in Oran called Merdia ben Hazman. Hers was a life of multistage geographical mobility accompanied by radical social, legal, and religious transformations. Yet Merdia was just one of many Muslim individuals who migrated to the Iberian Peninsula in the 17 th and 18 th centuries. By analyzing the experiences of mobility individuals described in the sources as "Muslim, " this article re-centers a heterogonous community that has often been obscured in the historiography. It also explores how processes of identification and self-identification played out in different ways, partly depending on the geographical-historical experiences of different towns and cities and the motivations and expectations of migrants.