TITLE:
Destruction as Divine Decree: Images of Horror and Destruction in Andalusian Lamentations
AUTHORS:
Abdallah Tarabieh
KEYWORDS:
Lamentation on Cities, Hadith, Almoravids, Almohads, Istisrakh
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Literary Study,
Vol.13 No.4,
September
25,
2025
ABSTRACT: This comparative study aims to shed light on the growth and intensification of city lamentations in Andalusia in the shadow of events and persecutions that occurred. Many poets attribute the bitter fate of the residents and acts of destruction and ruin as punishment from heaven. The lamentation of cities (رثا المدن) was characterized by its spiritual-religious tone reflected in verses from the Bible and Quran. This genre, whether Muslim or Jewish, expresses a religious-national message reflected in hadiths(الحديث) (traditions of the Prophet) or Quranic and Biblical verses. “Jewish scholars in the Arab-Jewish cultural world during the Middle Ages regarded the Bible as a literary creation, without doubting its essence as a divine prophetic book.”1 This research examines the reflection of horrific scenes of massacre and burning of entire neighborhoods, descriptions of destruction and ruin, and forced conversion that befell Muslims and Jewish communities in Andalusia. Conversion and forced inversion to Christianity were intended by the Church to prevent Muslims and Jews from conducting a religious way of life other than Christianity, and consequently, the Christian conquerors took measures like destroying mosques and synagogues or converting them into churches.