Marking the Present: Literary Innovation in Ginés Pérez de Hita’s La guerra de los moriscos

Abstract

At first glance, La guerra de los moriscos; Segunda parte de las guerras civiles de Granada seems to be a logical sequel to Historia de los bandos de los Zegríes y Abencerrajes, for it treats the next salient chapter of Muslim experience on the Iberian Peninsula—the rebellion of the Alpujarras. Indeed, both volumes of Pérez de Hita’s narratives are valuable; the first for its romantic portrayal of Al-Andalus and the second for its sympathetic portrait of the Moriscos. The two works are also similar in structure—Pérez de Hita’s second volume depicts a rise and fall that can be divided into two parts: the beginning of the rebellion and the Moriscos’ rise in strength, complete with a long, anachronistic scene of jousting and games (reminiscent of those found in Historia de los bandos de los Zegríes y Abencerrajes); followed by betrayals within the Morisco leadership (like the betrayal of the Abencerrajes in Historia de los bandos), contributing to the Moriscos’ eventual defeat and relocation to different parts of the peninsula.