ABSTRACT
This chapter explores concepts of sanctity and the practices of saint veneration among the Mudejars of the medieval Crown of Aragon. Its primary objective is to deconstruct the notion of a Muslim “community of saints” articulated in an anonymous medieval manuscript of Islamic hortatory sermons (mawā‘iẓ). Toward this end, the chapter surveys the evidence from Christian royal and ecclesiastical documents and Islamic hagiographic and biographical literature concerning the identity and the attributes of Muslim saints and their cultic veneration by Iberian Muslims. The focus then shifts to analyzing how the Mudejar preacher redefined the concept of sainthood by making it a communal affair: suffering the oppressive rule of the Christian “polytheists” with patience, contentment, and thanksgiving toward God would transform the Mudejar congregation into a community of “saints” (awliyā’ Allāh). My hypothesis is that the anonymous preacher deployed vernacularized Sufi motifs and practices to construct a path toward popular sanctity for his community with the twin goals of contesting Christian triumphalism and responding to the opprobrium of Muslim jurists who censured the Mudejars for not immigrating to Muslim-ruled lands.
