Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Don Quijote Speaks to Galley Slaves, by Doré
The music is Morisco music, found on Iberian Garden, Vol. 1 by
Altramar. The piece is Muwashshah: Mā li-l-muwallah, 1113-1198.
This music takes place at the beautiful gardens along the Guadalquiver, near Cordoba.
This is during the "convivencia" under Alfonso X (El Sabio - The Wise), the time
before Granda fell: when Christians, Moslems and Jews lived at peace with each
other. Muwashshah are songs in poetic form, with instrumental interludes in the
form of Ibn Bājja (Avempace): 1470-1520. This is Morisco art.
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Don Quijote Speaks to a Chain of Galley Slaves, by Doré Return
Many Morisco men as well as Huguenots were sentenced (to death)
as galley slaves by the Catholic Inquisition. Such slaves were marched
in chain-gangs. Often these marches were in Winter, often with no
shelter or possibly shelter in an Inquisition prison. The elderly and
sick often died, not able to carry the average 150 pounds of chains.
Their social offense was that they were Huguenots, or Jews, or Gipsies,
or were Moriscos, or their property or wives were coveted. Their major
offence was their possibly thinking differently. Evidence of
their crimes might be not eating pork, or eating beef on a fish-Friday,
or praying on a non-Catholic holiday, or washing their clothes, etc.
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