Paradise Lost – The Fate of the Moriscos in Grenada Trilogy by Raḍwa ‘Āšūr. Postcolonial Contexts

The paper focuses on a historical novel, a genre that enjoys great popularity in Arabic literature. Based on historical material incorporated in literary fiction, the contemporary Arab writers try to deal with the most important subjects of ongoing intellectual discourse, such as colonialism, neocolonialism, and postcolonial identity. The analysed material is the novel The Granada Trilogy by Egyptian writer Raḍwà ‘Āšūr (Radwa Ashour), which in 1994, won the Best Book of the Year Award granted by the General Egyptian Book Organisation and the first prize at the first Arab Women’s Book Fair in 1995. It has been translated into many languages, including English and Spanish. The three-volume chronicle covers the period from 1491 to 1609, i.e., from the fall of Granada to the total expulsion of Muslims from Andalusia. The article aims to show that the author of The Granada Trilogy illustrates the gradual and deliberate elimination of Arab-Muslim culture in Spain as another act of the West-East confrontation, putting it in the colonial and neocolonial context of contemporary conflicts in the Arab World.