FROM MUSLIM TO CHRISTIAN GRANADA  Inventing a City's Past in Early Modern Spain

Description

In 1492, Granada, the last independent Muslim city on the Iberian peninsula, fell to the Catholic Forces of Ferdinand and Isabel. In 1595 treasure hunters unearthed some curious lead tablets written in Arabic. The tablet documented the evangelization of  Granada in the first century A.D by St. Cecilio, the city’s first bishop. This proved that Granada was in truth an ancient Christian settlement, in spite of the long Muslim occupation. The tablets  were later condemned by the pope as forgeries in 1683,. The people of Granada, however, created a new civic identity through an analysis of the sermons, ceremonies, histories, maps, and devotions that developed around these plomos as they were called. This study offers new perspectives on the impact and implementation of Counter-Reformation Catholicism