Appropriating mosques as churches rhetorically reframed seizure as building

Evidence

In every town, however large or small, that God had permitted us to win from the Saracens, we have built a church for Our Lady Saint Mary.” Jaume uses the word “built” (edificada), it seems, to indicate either a new construction or the rededication of an appropriated mosque. Jaume earlier describes how he had seized a mosque near the castle of Murcia, affirming simply that it would not be proper for him to have to hear the call of the muezzin as he slept. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 918

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows how ‘edificada’ (built) semantically absorbed appropriation of existing buildings into church construction — a linguistic erasure of conquest.
• FICTION: The muezzin’s call disturbing the conqueror’s sleep is a wonderfully humanizing, ironic detail — sound as territorial claim.