Morisco pious miscellanies derive from popular preaching rather than scholarly hadith

Evidence

Among the books owned by Muslims in this late period were many pious miscellanies, usually arranged in a loosely thematic way and designed primarily for religious edification (although often including many items that one might classify as popular narratives designed primarily for entertainment). Because we lack a convenient name with which to designate the genre, it is difficult to discuss them, but the type is indeed easily recognized if one has any familiarity with Morisco manuscripts. I did in the past (Harvey 1958, 164ff) suggest the designation of “paraenetic works” for such volumes, but I now find that to be an absurdly overerudite term, quite at odds with the popular nature of the texts in question. Perhaps “exhortatory miscellany” would be preferable. We may certainly relate the genre to those later devotional (rather than scholarly) developments of hadith literature to which reference has already been made (anthologized Forty Traditions, etc.), but it is perhaps best understood as an offshoot of popular preaching (waz). … The formal khutba or Friday homily, usually short, is something distinct; what I have in mind here were extended popular sermons, at times addressed to large multitudes, and ranging over a broad span of moralizing, admonitory, and edifying material. Those who are familiar in medieval Castilian with, for example, the lively Christian sermons of the archpriest of Talavera (with their frequent warnings of hellfire) may form some idea of the tone of this parallel Islamic genre. We can be quite sure that preaching of this kind continued among the crypto-Muslims, for the works of the Young Man from Ar´evalo contain eyewitness accounts of occasions when the faithful assembled (presumably in secret) to listen to sermons (sometimes given by females!). — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 710

Categorization

• DEFINE: Calls the genre ‘exhortatory miscellany’ and distinguishes it from the formal khutba, drawing a parallel to the archpriest of Talavera’s Castilian sermons.
• SHARE: The detail that sermons were sometimes given by females among crypto-Muslims is a striking niche fact for someone studying women’s religious roles in clandestine communities.
• QUESTION: Female preachers in secret crypto-Muslim assemblies — worth chasing sources to see what the Young Man from Arevalo actually records.