A wealthy Granadan Muslim could prosper by collaborating with Castilian rulers

Evidence

In an aljamiado manuscript in Cambridge University Library (Harvey 1958, 335–37), in the context of the narration of a visit to an estate in the Granadan countryside belonging to a very well-to-do Granadan Muslim called Ali Sarmiento, the author tells how he had seen and copied there a document emanating from the Castilian royal chancery setting out the privileges and protection to be accorded to his host in recognition of services rendered to the Crown. Ali is described as very old (“more than a hundred”!) but extremely well-preserved. He was described as a former “catred´atico” in Granada (which I interpret to mean imam or perhaps khatib in the city—the c´atreda being, in my opinion, the minbar or pulpit of the mosque—but I am aware that another possible interpretation is to give the term its more normal Castilian interpretation of “professor”). It is also stated that he was an alim (“a learned man”) and very rich, so that during Ramadan “meat was never lacking in his house, whether for the poor or for the servants.” “After the loss of Granada no [other] Moor ([sic]; the aljamiado manuscript itself reads moro here) remained with such wealth. For as this man was so much in the good graces of the Christian King and of his prelates, he had whatever he wished.” — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 219

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the sociology of collaborationist elites under conquest — comparable to the comprador classes studied in Milgrom’s trade institutions work or the Japanese occupation-era collaborations.