Raza
Al Borayque

Al Borayque
"The Jews of Spain and the Expulsion of 1492"
Edited by M. Lazar and S. Haliczer, pp. 153-236

Manticore, mantiserra, mermelcoleons, mermaids, etc.

Click to see:
  1. Manticore with male head
  2. Manticore, hermaphrodite with female's head, 1607
  3. Monstrous creatures, 1478
  4. Manticore with Jew's Head
  5. Jew as a grotesque beast, Valencia

What then is an "Al Borayque"? The following is a definition of an "Al Borayque"1, 2:

  1. Wolf's mouth (hypocracy, as they are heretics and sinners pretending to be Catholics, recognized by their holidays observing Sabbath like Jews, practicing circumcision like Jews and Muslims, eating meat during Lent, praying as Jews, their fasting days, festivals, never confessing or communing, not observing the Lord's day, nor going to mass, praising neither Jesus Christ nor the Virgin Mary. Jacob said of his son Benjamin: "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf".)
  2. Horse's muzzle (also swift like a horse, to shed blood in battle)
  3. Man's eyes (a neophyte alboraycos looks like a charitable and endearing human, but they are inhuman and cruel, only human in appearance, but are really devils [Saint John calls them a synagogue of devils...].)
  4. A dog's ears (sometimes the ears of an elephant)
  5. A horse's neck (or a camel's neck) and a horse's mane (like a horse not fit for work in the mountains nor in rugged soil, but only fit for ambling in squares and streets, trying to cheat Catholics. Their work being useless, heretics as orators they can only be dishonest defense lawyers).
  6. Breast of a mule
  7. Body of an ox
  8. Serpent's tail (because conversos poison the world with their heresy) or camel's tail
  9. At the end of the tail, A crane's head with a peacock's body ("And as the cranes live in great fear amongst us and under the cover of darkness, so do these people who live in fear amongst us; and in the same way as it is quite impossible to kill cranes, because they protect themselves behind layers of feathers, it is almost impossible to bring to justice and execute an alborayco because they protect themselves with important sums of money and bribes")
  10. An elegantly clothed human leg with a well-shod foot
  11. Another leg shod as a horse
  12. Another leg an eagle's leg with talons (claws)
  13. The last leg a lion's with a paw without claws
  14. Hooves like an ox
  15. Fur of many colors (like the morciegalo [bat] that lives in the night, they have teeth like animals but wings like birds: they are neither birds nor animals, neither Christians or Moors, but are Jews).
  16. It eats all kinds of food
  17. Hermaphroditic (neither male nor female; "The tribe of Benjamin sinned in sodomy ... From the Jews it was transmitted to the Moors, and from the Moors to the bad Christians ...").
  18. A saddle of precious construction: seat support of fig-tree wood
  19. Stirrups of many metals (signifying the many types of conversions of alboraycos; "one would hardly find any heretics amongst the conversos naturales [natural converts, i.e., willingly converted]; on the contrary, in the kingdom of Toledo and Murcia, in all of Andalusia and Estramadura, one will hardly find amongst them [i.e., conversos] any sincere Christians").
  20. A fiery bridle's bit, reins as finely polished as a sword's steel

The Alboraique was a mythical monster that was said to have been Mohammed's mount as Mohammed rode to heaven upon his death (though this does not appear in the Koran). The idea of the Alboraique (and other fantastical creatures such as the Manticora) originated in the Middle East (Persia), but extended to the Iberian Peninsula, as early as the 13th century. During the 15th century the Alboraique was modified by "someone close to Torquemada" and used as a propaganda tool against Jews and conversos.


1   Moshe Lazar, "Anti-Jewish and Anti-Converso Propaganda: Confutatio Libri, talmud and Alboraique", in Moshe Lazar, Stephen Haliczer, Eds., "The Jews of Spain and the Expulsion of 1482", Labyrinthos Press, Lancaster, CA, pp. 153-236.
.
2   Dwayne Lee Carpenter, Ed., Tratado del Alboraique, Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, MS. 17567, Madison, 1993, pp. 1-9.

Back