This past spring has seen two important conferences on Islamic topicswhich merit observation.In mid March CEROMDI, or the Study and Research Centre on Ottomanand Morisco Documentation and Information (Centre d'Etudes et deRecherches Ottomanes, Morisques, de Documentation et d'Information) heldthe Fourth International Symposium on Morisco Studies in Zaghwan,approximately 80 km south of Tunis, and in the capital of Tunis itself, inthe Hotel du Lac. This meeting lasted from March 15-19, 1989.The conference was made possible largely due to the enthusiasm ofProfessor Abdeljalil Temimi, of Morisco descent himself, and was inauguratedin the CEROMDI library which Prof. Temimi has built with his own fundsin the Morisco city of Zaghwan. The ceremony was attended by membersof the government and diplomatic corps as well as professors from all overthe Western Mediterranean area. The topics of the symposium covered theart and handicrafts of the Moriscos who were exiled from Spain in 1610,their religious life and the rich legacy they have left in Morocco, Algeriaand Tunisia, as well as in several libraries in Spain itself and elsewhere,such as Paris and Cambridge.Participants came from France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt,Saudi Arabia, the Unjted States and Puerto Rico. Their papers covered manyfields, such as interpretation of their documents and description of theirheritage. The Spanish delegation was led by the dean of Morisco studiesin that country, Professor Alvaro Oalmes de Fuentes, formerly of the Universityof Oviedo in Asturias and now from the Central University in Madrid: andMikel de Epalza from Alicante. Others were Professor Consuelo LopezMorillasfrom Indiana University, and Maria Teresa Narvaez from theUniversity of Puerto Rico in Ro Piedras. The latter spoke on Mancebo deArevalo, an important yet somewhat mysterious intellectual leader of thepersecuted Muslims of Castile in central Spain in the 1520s and 1530s, almostthe same time as the picaro Lazarillo de Tonnes. Communications were inFrench, Arabic, English and Spanish ...
North African Conferences on Islamic Themes