La convivencia, la mezquita and al-Andalus: an Iqbalian vision

Yaqin, Amina

Abstract

This article offers a critical close reading of the Urdu poet philosopher Muhammad Iqbal’s poem “Masjid-e Qurtaba” (The Mosque of Cordoba), written in 1933 when the poet travelled to Spain. He was officially invited there to pray, a unique occurrence since the mosque’s conversion into a cathedral. The poem is illustrative of the period known as al-Andalus, celebrated for its cross-cultural spirit of la convivencia (coexistence) under the sovereignty of the Umayyad dynasty. The article argues that the secular and the religious are not diametrically opposed ideas in the Indo-Islamic tradition of Urdu, and that Iqbal’s poem articulates a historic cultural conversation at a time of political national identification in the 1930s.

Citation

Yaqin, A. (in press). La convivencia, la mezquita and al-Andalus: an Iqbalian vision. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 52(2), 136-152. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2016.1164972

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 8, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jun 24, 2016
• Deposit Date: Mar 14, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 5, 2016
• Journal: Journal of Postcolonial Writing
• Print ISSN: 1744-9855
• Electronic ISSN: 1744-9863
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 136-152
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2016.1164972