Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in history class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Mammer and I'm fair dowdy and bear with
Speaker 1: us non English majors, who are going to start this
Speaker 1: episode with a poem written in fifteen oh three. Time
Speaker 1: wounded me, exiling me, sending me stumbling to roam the world,
Speaker 1: so that I've spent two decades on the move. He
Speaker 1: chased my friends from me, exiled my age mates, set
Speaker 1: my family far so that I never see a face
Speaker 1: I know, father, mother, brothers or friend. Riach your heart
Speaker 1: a little bit, doesn't heartbreaking poem, and it makes you
Speaker 1: wonder who is the poet, where was he exiled from?
Speaker 1: And why was he exiled? And a simple answer to
Speaker 1: why is the reconquista my friends. So let's talk about
Speaker 1: that a little bit more. In the early eighth century,
Speaker 1: most of the Iberian Peninsul Love was occupied by Moore's
Speaker 1: or Spanish Muslims, and before the invading Muslims from North
Speaker 1: Africa came through, most of the peninsula had been Catholic,
Speaker 1: although we should also mention that there was a very
Speaker 1: strong Jewish community on the peninsula. Yeah, and the society
Speaker 1: was pretty multi ethnic though, with Jews and Muslims and
Speaker 1: Christians all well represented. But you shouldn't think it was
Speaker 1: this golden age for religious freedom that was there was
Speaker 1: there's still some repression, yeah, but it was a golden
Speaker 1: age for sciences and art um and the Jews and
Speaker 1: Christians did have a very prominent place in society, even
Speaker 1: though they were minorities. They weren't just shuttled to the side.
Speaker 1: But around seven eighteen a new movement came into being,
Speaker 1: the reconquista or the reconquest or recapturing, depending on how
Speaker 1: you translate it um. But it wasn't until the eleventh
Speaker 1: century that it became the formidable beast that it would
Speaker 1: end up being. And if you're wondering who's recapturing, what
Speaker 1: it was the Christians attempting to recapture the Peninsula from
Speaker 1: the Muslims. And by the eleventh century it was kind
Speaker 1: of an opportune time to be trying to do that
Speaker 1: because the Muslims had fractured into different sects and Spain
Speaker 1: was divided into the city states, and as we've learned
Speaker 1: in a lot of our podcast, sometimes city states are
Speaker 1: easier to take down than a big unified country. Um
Speaker 1: so if there was gonna be a crusade, now is
Speaker 1: the time for it happen. And there were plenty of
Speaker 1: people who wanted a crusade. Christian fervor was growing on
Speaker 1: Pilgrims traveled to the shrine of St. James at Compostla
Speaker 1: to pray for the retaking of Spain. The pope was
Speaker 1: selling indulgences to raise money. Christians and nights all around
Speaker 1: Europe became involved, and in the Peninsula was about half
Speaker 1: Christian occupied and half Muslim. But by twelve fifty two
Speaker 1: Christians had everything but Granada, this rich area on the
Speaker 1: southern coast. But then in the fourteenth century there's this
Speaker 1: turning point natural disasters and soue there's the Black plague,
Speaker 1: and the population and is terrified, and they're looking for
Speaker 1: someone to blame, because of course, things like this happened
Speaker 1: for a reason, right, it can't just be an unfortunate,
Speaker 1: unfortunate set of circumstances, And they turned to the Jews.
Speaker 1: The Jews were to blame for all of these disasters
Speaker 1: befalling them, and a friar specifically accused them of blood libel,
Speaker 1: which was using the blood of Christian children in their
Speaker 1: religious rituals. So the Christians rioted, and at the end
Speaker 1: of it all there was a massacre of one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand Jews. It's called the Massacre of and the motto
Speaker 1: of the whole thing was convert or die. And that
Speaker 1: wasn't the end of persecution for Jews on the Iberian
Speaker 1: Peninsula either. Isabella made sure of that. And that is
Speaker 1: Isabella Catolica, Queen of Castile and Aragon. And as maybe
Speaker 1: you've picked up by your name, she was wholly behind
Speaker 1: the Rayconquista, believing it just and holy. A lot of
Speaker 1: her efforts concentrated on the Jews of the peninsula. Some
Speaker 1: were suspected Jews who had converted to Christianity officially at least,
Speaker 1: but uh it was believed that they were still following
Speaker 1: their religion in private. And during the Spanish Inquisition, which
Speaker 1: of course she established, her chief inquisitor, Torquamada, burned thousands
Speaker 1: of people at the stake. This is a pretty famous
Speaker 1: point in history, and her and her husband Ferdinand's other
Speaker 1: efforts were aimed at Islam and their attempts to conquer Granada,
Speaker 1: the last holdout of the Spanish Muslim community began in
Speaker 1: fourteen eighty two and would continue for a decade. According
Speaker 1: to legend, she swore to wear the same clothes until
Speaker 1: they were all conquered, and to finance these wars, Castile's
Speaker 1: piggy bank was completely drained, and she and Ferdinand taxed
Speaker 1: the people heavily and lavished money and artillery on boats
Speaker 1: and supplies. But why was Granada so special? Well, Granada
Speaker 1: was a cultural center for Muslims, and it was a
Speaker 1: center for arts and sciences and learning. It had all
Speaker 1: of these amazing buildings and decorative scenes and arts. So
Speaker 1: I mean, it was really kind of the place to
Speaker 1: be for a lot of people. And it had been
Speaker 1: ruled by the Nasri, who, uh, they've been in charge
Speaker 1: since about twelve thirty eight, so quite some time by
Speaker 1: the time where Isabella here. Um, they didn't have the
Speaker 1: calmest rule though there were the Christian armies continuously stirring
Speaker 1: up trouble, exerting pressure on them for several centuries. They
Speaker 1: were forced to pay tribute, and um, you know, they
Speaker 1: suffered from that to a certain extent, but managed to
Speaker 1: stay standing for hundreds of years, and perhaps the greatest
Speaker 1: contribution of the Nazrid rulers to the world was building
Speaker 1: and decorating the Alhambra, which is also known as the
Speaker 1: Red Castle. The Alhambra gets eight thousand visitors a year
Speaker 1: and it's considered the best example of Spanish Moorish architecture
Speaker 1: in the world. And it's gorgeous and if you've never
Speaker 1: heard of it, it's what's left of a citadel, a
Speaker 1: palace of kings and officials quarters. It was built between
Speaker 1: twelve thirty and thirteen sixty on a hill overlooking Granada.
Speaker 1: And you should really Google image it because it's lovely.
Speaker 1: He's been sending me pictures of it, lots of pictures.
Speaker 1: We're gonna want them in your inbox or not. We're
Speaker 1: gonna go through sort of a list of what you
Speaker 1: would see if you Google imaged it, or if you
Speaker 1: if you visited it even better. So there's this open
Speaker 1: court surrounded by halls and chambers. There are ornamented walls
Speaker 1: and ceilings. There's marble and alabaster, glazed tile, carved woods,
Speaker 1: all these sumptuous materials used. There's stucco stalactite vaulting, which
Speaker 1: sounds like the best ceiling treatment I can imagine so pretty.
Speaker 1: There's water everywhere throughout the complex, filigreed windows, these gorgeous gardens,
Speaker 1: ornamental Arabic script that um in poetry and passages from
Speaker 1: the Korans and aphorisms, and there's color, color color everywhere,
Speaker 1: So get your get your mental picture ready. And then
Speaker 1: is a fort, right, there is a fort the Alcazaba,
Speaker 1: the citadel, which is the oldest part of the Alhambra
Speaker 1: and also the worst preserved. It was a red castle
Speaker 1: used for defensive purposes in the ninth and tenth centuries.
Speaker 1: So this isn't really the part that people usually talking
Speaker 1: about when they're talking talking about. Probably no. And we've
Speaker 1: also got, uh, I guess some some tiny examples the
Speaker 1: more famous parts of doing a hearth castle for yes,
Speaker 1: just clossing over it. The Court of the Lions is
Speaker 1: possibly the most famous room in the Alhambra, built by
Speaker 1: Nasred Sultan Mohammed the fifth and in the middle what
Speaker 1: you'll see is the Fountain of Lions. It's a basin
Speaker 1: made of alabaster with twelve white marble lions holding it up,
Speaker 1: and back in the day it was some sort of clock,
Speaker 1: with each of the lions representing an hour, but Christians,
Speaker 1: after the way kon Quista took it apart to see
Speaker 1: how it worked and weren't able to figure out how
Speaker 1: to put it back together again. That happens sometimes we
Speaker 1: take things apart. Marshall brain might have got to know
Speaker 1: what do sure And some say it was a gift
Speaker 1: from a Jewish leader, And so the lions represent the
Speaker 1: twelve tribes of Israel. Then there is the Hall of Kings,
Speaker 1: with paintings on a leather ceiling showing the lives of royals,
Speaker 1: and almost all of the other art in the complex
Speaker 1: is free from figures, but it's painting, so that's a
Speaker 1: nice peek into their lions, definitely, and their lives in
Speaker 1: this room were pretty wild. This is where the parties
Speaker 1: and orgies were held. And there's even a story that
Speaker 1: dozens of princes were beheaded in the room and their
Speaker 1: heads were left there after one of them was accused
Speaker 1: of touching the Sultan's favorite, and instead of just settling
Speaker 1: the matter with the guy who did the touching, Sultan
Speaker 1: took care of all of them. I think that's a
Speaker 1: lesson there. There's also the Hall of the Two Sisters,
Speaker 1: which has this beautiful honeycomb dome and colored tiles that
Speaker 1: inspired the art of mc usher. And we've got the
Speaker 1: Slid de los Abenzerajes, where supposedly are Sultan Boabdil, who
Speaker 1: talk about in just a minute invited some powerful chiefs
Speaker 1: of the abens Arage family and then killed them all.
Speaker 1: And we also have the court of the window Grill,
Speaker 1: which is sort of the ultimate in if you're imagining
Speaker 1: what Moorish architecture looks like Washington. Irving stayed here in
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty nine when donkeys roamed around, so he uh
Speaker 1: he started the tale of the Alhambra here. It was
Speaker 1: must have been a pretty aspiring site began donkeys impressive architecture,
Speaker 1: And there's a quote from his the Alhambra by moonlight
Speaker 1: on such heavenly nights, I would sit for hours at
Speaker 1: my window and hailing the sweetness of the garden and
Speaker 1: musing on the checkered fortunes of those whose history was
Speaker 1: dimly shadowed out in the elegant memorials around. But you
Speaker 1: would think such a beautiful building would have been well tended. Sarah,
Speaker 1: much loved for enemies centuries, does have enemies. One of
Speaker 1: them is the earth itself that has survived an earthquake
Speaker 1: and an there's Napoleon who tried to blow it up
Speaker 1: in eighteen twelve. Fortunately a Spanish soldier cut the fuse
Speaker 1: and saved this beautiful I'd not like to mind his
Speaker 1: own business. No, I think we have found out. The
Speaker 1: Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Five didn't think the nasred
Speaker 1: palaces were quite good enough for him, so he built
Speaker 1: one in the Renaissance style right in the middle of everything.
Speaker 1: So you picture this beautiful Moorish architecture and with a
Speaker 1: similarly beautiful but ridiculously out of place, very strange Italianate
Speaker 1: palace in the center. Michelangelo's student Pedro Machuca built it.
Speaker 1: So pictures something Michelangelo esque in the middle of this,
Speaker 1: this red castle with you know, this ornate Arabic script.
Speaker 1: They just the two things just don't go together. It's
Speaker 1: very odd looking. And we've given you all these descriptions
Speaker 1: to sort of give you the best idea we can
Speaker 1: of what life was like before Isabella arrived. You know,
Speaker 1: what life was like for this dynasty of sultans, and
Speaker 1: just some of the stuff going on these things, yeah,
Speaker 1: just with headings and what life looked like before Isabella
Speaker 1: arrived and what the last king of Granada, Boabdil, was
Speaker 1: fighting for um when he ultimately to surrender. So going
Speaker 1: back to Granada, it wasn't just Christian pressure, pressure from
Speaker 1: these Christian armies that was a problem within the Nozrel dynasty.
Speaker 1: Muhammad the eleventh, also known as Boabdil, who have mentioned
Speaker 1: twice now, was the last Nozred Sultan and he became
Speaker 1: ruler in fourteen eighty two after his mother convinced him
Speaker 1: to rebel against his father, and this began a succession
Speaker 1: struggle that weakened the Muslim community in Spain considerably because
Speaker 1: it's split into factions, people who were for Boabdil and
Speaker 1: people who were for his father. And further complicating things
Speaker 1: was the fact that his father wouldn't pay tribute to Castile,
Speaker 1: so they're splitting themselves. Isabelle's forces don't even have to
Speaker 1: do it for them. Fernand and Isabella are starting their
Speaker 1: siege of Granada which started in fourteen one, and so
Speaker 1: the final Nasa Red Sultan had no other choice but
Speaker 1: to surrender in fourteen nine two, so the surrender end
Speaker 1: of the reconquista. It also ended about eight hundred years
Speaker 1: of Muslim rule UM. Interestingly, Isabella chooses probably the feast
Speaker 1: day of the Epiphany to enter the city victorious. You
Speaker 1: can just imagine this scene of the great Catholic queen
Speaker 1: entering her conquered land. Well, and the story goes that
Speaker 1: Boabdal is watching this happen from maybe a hill outside
Speaker 1: the city, watching them all enter, and uh, he sized
Speaker 1: the more's last sigh, and he began crying, and supposedly
Speaker 1: his mother, the one who had convinced him to fight
Speaker 1: his father, said to him, weep like a woman for
Speaker 1: what you couldn't defend like a man. And then he
Speaker 1: was exiled to Maghreb by Isabella and Ferdinand. And Isabella
Speaker 1: and Ferdinand interestingly, you know, they're known for for their
Speaker 1: inquisitions and their religious intolerance. It's interesting that initially at
Speaker 1: least they promised that the Muslims could keep their religion UM.
Speaker 1: But in March fourteen ninety two they issued the Edict
Speaker 1: of Expulsion that was against the Jews. The Jews had
Speaker 1: three months to convert or to get out of the country.
Speaker 1: A hundred thousand of them fled Spain and the rest
Speaker 1: converted to Christianity. Some were still secretly practicing their religion,
Speaker 1: and many of those people were found out and tortured
Speaker 1: and killed during the Inquisition. Um So by the early
Speaker 1: six hundreds there just aren't that many places left in
Speaker 1: Europe for the Jews to go. But the Muslim oppression
Speaker 1: didn't start for about seven years, So I mean, that's
Speaker 1: what I find sort of odd about this, that there
Speaker 1: was even that delay. It seems like something Isabella and
Speaker 1: fernand would have done immediately. They banned Arabic and many
Speaker 1: were forced to convert. Many Muslims were forced to convert,
Speaker 1: and Muslim converts to Christianity were known as Moriscos. Some
Speaker 1: were genuine converts and some were crypto Muslims and practice
Speaker 1: their religion in private. But in sixteen o nine they
Speaker 1: were exiled altogether and most went to North Africa and
Speaker 1: pleaded for help from the Ottomans, but it was helped
Speaker 1: that they didn't get and work on the Alhambra to
Speaker 1: restore it began in eight and today it in its gardens.
Speaker 1: The Hanna relief A are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Speaker 1: But the story of our persecuted Jews and Muslims on
Speaker 1: the Iberian Peninsula doesn't end there. And the poem we
Speaker 1: began this podcast with is by the Jewish doctor and
Speaker 1: poet Judah Ravanel, who left Spain in fifteen oh three.
Speaker 1: So we'll pick up with our conversos and our exiles
Speaker 1: in another episode we have coming up, and that brings
Speaker 1: us to listener mail. So we received a lot of
Speaker 1: mail about the McBeth Curse episode, A lot of mail. Again,
Speaker 1: many of it. We've mentioned this in our last podcast.
Speaker 1: We do realize the play that Lincoln went to see
Speaker 1: was not Macbeth. It was our American cousin. We misspoke.
Speaker 1: But we also got some other good ones. Yeah, cool
Speaker 1: emails about I guess incident. Yeah, other things we can
Speaker 1: add to the Curses rap sheet. Our first one is
Speaker 1: from Sherry and she wrote, I have an anecdote about
Speaker 1: that Scottish play. Nothing tragic, but my friends and I
Speaker 1: think it's funny. I was in a play once, not McBeth,
Speaker 1: and one of the lead actors scoffed at the curse,
Speaker 1: constantly saying Macbeth backstage and even working the word into
Speaker 1: one of the songs during the show. Well, his character
Speaker 1: ate a lot on stage, and it was usually soft
Speaker 1: easy to eat food. He proceeded to bite into a
Speaker 1: breadstick while on stage during a performance and promptly broke
Speaker 1: a tooth. He doesn't make fun of it anymore. Bump
Speaker 1: um okay, I have one from Rob, he said. When
Speaker 1: I was younger, I was cast as Malcolm in a
Speaker 1: production of Macbeth, and from the very beginning of the
Speaker 1: rehearsals people began to talk about the curse. All we
Speaker 1: were allowed to say backstage was the Scottish play, and
Speaker 1: if ever the fatal title would slip out of someone's mouth,
Speaker 1: the cast would curse them. Needless to say, this got
Speaker 1: tired after some time, and I never believed in the
Speaker 1: curse until on opening night and actress playing one of
Speaker 1: the witches began to scream out Macbeth as loud as
Speaker 1: she could. This of course freaked out the cast and
Speaker 1: people began to worry over what might happen. Not but
Speaker 1: a minute later, this same actress came screaming into the
Speaker 1: dressing room. Apparently she had sliced open her hand on
Speaker 1: the set and the cut was so deep that she
Speaker 1: was not able to go on that night, but rather
Speaker 1: had to make her way to the emergency room. The
Speaker 1: show went off without a hitch, and there were no
Speaker 1: more instances of real blood but no one spoke the
Speaker 1: name of the play again. Oh, We've got a few
Speaker 1: more we do. This one is from Natalie. She wrote
Speaker 1: a few years ago. I was in a production of
Speaker 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The actor playing Voldemort
Speaker 1: was amazing, an amateur actor that we had audition on
Speaker 1: a whim. I was playing Ron Weasley, so I went
Speaker 1: off stage during the large chess game. Harry then comes
Speaker 1: face to face with Voldemort. We have choreographed a wonderful
Speaker 1: fight scene and at the end Harry threw Voldemort off stage,
Speaker 1: sliding on the floor. Then he would get up and
Speaker 1: tackle Harry off stage. Right before we went on, we
Speaker 1: warned people not to say Macbeth, but to replace it
Speaker 1: with a Scottish play. One actor I thought it was
Speaker 1: all fake and said Macbeth several times. All went well
Speaker 1: into the last scene when Harry threw Voldemort onto the
Speaker 1: floor and he slid right into the corner of the wall.
Speaker 1: He got up and tackled him, but collapsed off stage
Speaker 1: and was carried out as quickly as they could. He
Speaker 1: got an insanely bad concussion and we had to postpone
Speaker 1: the rest of the shows. This is true. Never say
Speaker 1: Macbeth in a theater. Never. I like that that one
Speaker 1: combines Voldemort two, which is another name You're not just today.
Speaker 1: He who shall not be named Beeth is the same,
Speaker 1: all right. I have one from Abigail. I majored in
Speaker 1: acting in college and have experienced several small manifestations of
Speaker 1: the Macker's curse. Most notably I worked on a production
Speaker 1: of Life as a Dream by Pedro Calderon de la Barca,
Speaker 1: which has often been referred to by dramaturges as the
Speaker 1: Spanish At Macbeth. Our stage manager mentioned this one night
Speaker 1: during rehearsal, much to the chagrin of all these superstitious
Speaker 1: members of the production, And when we demanded she exit
Speaker 1: and performed the ritual to undo the curse, she laughed
Speaker 1: it off, and a few of us throughout the quote
Speaker 1: from Hamlet Angels and ministers of Grace defend us, which
Speaker 1: is traditionally what one says if the Scottish play is
Speaker 1: quoted in a theater. No bad fortune occurred until two
Speaker 1: nights after we opened, when during a fight scene, one
Speaker 1: girl had her fingernail ripped off by a foil, another
Speaker 1: had a chunk of hair ripped out by that same foil,
Speaker 1: and the lead actress was punched in the nose when
Speaker 1: the other actor misjudged his distance. Of course, we all
Speaker 1: quickly pointed to the stage manager's invocation of the m
Speaker 1: word and were relieved nothing worse transpired, and that blood
Speaker 1: was spilled, which is said to break the curse. Wanting
Speaker 1: to prove us all superstitious fools, the lighting designers snuck
Speaker 1: into the theater after the show and yelled Macker's name.
Speaker 1: After the performance the very next night, in another fight scene,
Speaker 1: the lead actor overshot his mark, face planted on the floor,
Speaker 1: and sliced his head open in a wound so bad
Speaker 1: we had to call intermission early just to clean up
Speaker 1: all the blood on the stage and costumes, and of
Speaker 1: course to get him to stop bleeding. So let that
Speaker 1: be a lesson to all that the Curse of Macbeth
Speaker 1: still causes mayhem in theaters even now in the twenty
Speaker 1: one century. I've learned my left them. This one is
Speaker 1: from Bryce, an actor who performs at a semi professional
Speaker 1: theater of by kids, four kids, and he says I'm
Speaker 1: usually a pretty reasonable and non superstitious guy, but I
Speaker 1: refuse to say Macbeth in real life, even when not
Speaker 1: in the area of production. He says, writing it, I
Speaker 1: can do, which explains the email and not a phone call.
Speaker 1: This stems from a time when someone said the word
Speaker 1: and didn't perform the countercurse. In the middle of one
Speaker 1: of the shows, as I was waiting in the wings,
Speaker 1: I heard a small thud from behind me, only to
Speaker 1: look up and see one of the stage leaves start
Speaker 1: to fall over in my direction. I quickly grabbed it
Speaker 1: and held it up frantically, whispering to one of my
Speaker 1: fellow bewildered actors to go get the stage manager. The
Speaker 1: leaf almost crushed me and almost hit the other two
Speaker 1: leaves behind it, which would have destroyed part of the theater.
Speaker 1: This was during the relatively mild mannered Mr. Popper's Penguins.
Speaker 1: I remember other things happening as well, but I can't
Speaker 1: remember specifically what those things were. And he says to
Speaker 1: vital parts of the countercurse that you left out is
Speaker 1: that after spitting, you must yellow profanity into the air,
Speaker 1: which Sarah, I think I would be good at, and
Speaker 1: you can only perform the countercurse outside of theater rounds.
Speaker 1: I love that Macbeth brought in both Baltimort and Mr
Speaker 1: Popper's Penguins both combination. Ever, I had no idea, so
Speaker 1: if you would like to send us an email with
Speaker 1: similarly fun stories, right history podcast at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. We also have a Facebook fan page and
Speaker 1: a Twitter feed at Missed History. And if you'd like
Speaker 1: to read a little bit more about what we were
Speaker 1: talking about, we've got a great article if you search
Speaker 1: for Spanish Inquisition on our homepage at www dot how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands
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