The Real(istic) Deal?: Pedro de Urdemalas’ Relationship with Ottoman Jews in Viaje de Turquía (1557) Academic Article uri icon

Abstract

  • Written anonymously in the 1550s, but only published in the twentieth century Viaje de Turquía has been recognized as being an important component of early Spanish Golden Age cautivo literature (i.e., works relating to Christian captivity in Muslim lands) due to its humanistic dialogue and detailed focus on life in Istanbul. However, almost no critical scholarship has been devoted to the significant relationship that the protagonist Pedro de Urdemalas has with the Ottoman Jewish court doctors. While Viaje de Turquía is full of stereotypical characterizations of Jews found in sixteenth-century Spanish society, with particular vitriol directed at Jewish doctors, it also simultaneously and, surprisingly, accurately represents this minority in a favorable light, even with respect to the laws of the Sabbath (and the Jews’ observance of those laws). Essentially, Viaje de Turquía was one of the first works during Phillip II’s reign to bring openly-practicing Jews back to Spain and, unintentionally, represent them positively. Hence, it should be considered a representative template (despite its unpublished status) for later cautivo works of the seventeenth century set in Istanbul whose captive Catholic characters’ interactions with Ottoman Jews mirror the relationships present in this sixteenth-century work.

Publication Date

  • 2019-01-01