WEBVTT
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During the central
centuries of the Middle Ages
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we witnessed the development
of the Romanesque style:
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the architectural school
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that has left
the greatest number of testaments
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on the Iberian Peninsula.
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Its appearance in the second
half of the eleventh century
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represented a genuine
constructive phenomenon
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that managed, in very little time,
to fill the western world
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with churches created according
to certain shared principles.
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This, therefore,
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was the first
international European art,
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which would last two long centuries
before giving way to the Gothic.
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This religious art
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incorporates the novelty
of adding reliefs to walls,
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providing rich repertoires
of images such as the ones
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we find in the French
Abbey of Saint Foy of Conques.
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Along with formal
sacred representations,
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we find startling images of hell
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and an infinite
collection of fantastical creatures.
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The significance
of some of these images
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continues to provoke
debate among specialists,
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as we know this was a symbolic art,
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intended to instruct
the uneducated masses.
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Romanesque art is thus spoken
of as a kind of “Bible in stone”.
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To the narration
of the lives of the saints
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added representations
that brought feudal society to life,
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where some prayed, others tilled
the soil and yet others made war.
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Both the quotidian scenes
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and the fantastic
figures demonstrate
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that these reliefs
did not only limit themselves
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to relating Holy Scripture,
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but that they also reflected
the reality of their era.
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Images of sinners also abound
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in specific parts of the temple,
such as the corbels.
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Located
on the exterior of the churches
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and flattened
by the weight of the roof,
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the corbels were often populated
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by those individuals excluded
from the society of the time.
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Thus, Romanesque sculpture
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not only fulfilled the role
of teaching religious doctrine,
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but also served
to praise and condemn
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the social behaviours of the time.
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Certain images confuse even
the present-day spectator,
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who finds more
of an attempt at diversion
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than moral
teachings in these figures.
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Yet throughout
the European Romanesque
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there are stubbornly repeated
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representations
of an apparently mocking nature,
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such as obscene figures
or faces with lolling tongues.
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Their presence
in such diverse locations
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and across two centuries
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shows us that they were
intended to transmit a message,
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this message being
responsible for their diffusion.
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The clerical supervision
of the temple’s images
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prevented the sculptors from
enjoying any creative liberty,
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placing their chisels firmly
in the service of the Church.
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The obscene figures
represented the sins of the flesh
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and their grotesque appearance
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attempted to reflect
their moral perdition.
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For their part, the characters
with the protruding tongues
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portrayed the blasphemous
and slanderous,
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at times animalised by the very
brutality attributed to them.
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The writings of the era reflect
the monks’ insistent censure
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towards such behaviours,
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allowing us to understand
the significance of the images.
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Among the many maleficent
and heterodox characters
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that inhabited
the Romanesque temples,
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we find figures directly related
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to the context of the Crusades
and the battle against Islam.
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Some of these
demonised individuals,
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such as those we can see in this
facade of Santa María de Uncastillo,
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represent the religious enemy.
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The Muslim dancers
and the depictions of combat
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are just some
examples of this repertoire
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that illustrates the interreligious
environment of the time.
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The representation
of the Muslim in Romanesque art
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is the central theme
of a recent study entitled:
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"The Imagined Enemy.
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Spanish Romanesque Sculpture
and the Fight against Islam".
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Its author, Doctor Inés Monteira,
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has dedicated more than a decade
to analysing this question.
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Romanesque sculpture
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clearly reflects the context
of the fight against Islam,
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given that the primary
promoters of Romanesque art
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were also the protagonists
behind the Crusades
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and behind what
we know as “La Reconquista”
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that is, popes and monks, mainly,
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the Church
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and also the cristian kings
from the Peninsula
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and the lords, the local governors.
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This explains why images of battles
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began to inundate
the walls of certain churches,
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they represented most of the time
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the fight between
christians and muslims.
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Throughout today the main part
of the polychromies disappeared
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and a huge number
of reliefs are today deteriorated
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I have been able to analyse
many elements of these reliefs
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allowing the identification of
each side (Christians and Muslims).
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Elements like attire
weaponry of each party
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both Christian and Muslims
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and other important elements, like
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the cross in the helmet
od the Christian knight
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connecting those images
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with the sacralized war
of that moment.
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You also can find physical traits
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attributed to each party
that are very eloquent.
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These images
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were a valuable instrument
of politico-religious propaganda:
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they justified the war as holy
by comparing the Christian knight
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with saints and martyrs
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that were also par
of the decoration of the churches.
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This encouraged
enlistment in the Crusades
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and the combat against Islam.
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At the same time,
the war was legitimate
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before the entirety of the people
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that suffered
the casualties of their relatives.
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These reliefs being part
of the Church the house of God,
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announced that
the war was wanted by God.
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The era
of the Romanesque’s expansion,
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between the eleventh
and thirteenth centuries,
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witnessed the dizzying advance
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of the Christian conquest
of the Iberian Peninsula.
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As the front line
advanced southwards,
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new Romanesque temples were erected,
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allowing, on one hand, consolidation
of the territorial occupation
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and, on the other,
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symbolisation of Christianity’s
triumph over Islam.
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This process has traditionally
been labelled the Reconquista,
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despite the fact that this
term is not altogether accurate
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from a historical point of view.
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The Visigoth people
that dominated the Iberian Peninsula
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at the time of the Muslim invasion,
in 711,
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had also come from afar.
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The Hispano-Christian kingdoms
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that began to conquer Islamic lands
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from the eleventh century
onwards were, in fact, constituted
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long after the disappearance
of the Visigoth kingdom,
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and maintained
no dynastic ties with the same,
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even if they pretended so.
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This is not a recovery literally.
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The term “reconquest”,
then, more accurately reflect
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the ideology
of the era’s Christian kings,
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who hoped to present
their territorial expansion
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as the recovery
of something that belonged to them
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by fair inheritance.
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The establishment
of a common artistic style
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in the temples
of western Christianity
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was a consequence
of the Gregorian Reform,
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a reform promoted by the papacy
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that hoped to unify
the ecclesiastical rite
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in all the feudal kingdoms
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and increase
Rome’s power in the West.
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The monastic order of Cluny
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was a valuable tool
at the service of the pope
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for the introduction
of Romanesque art
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and the Roman Rite in Europe.
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The Cluniac monks
emerging in Burgundy
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acquired enormous power
during the Romanesque period,
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and were the foremost advocates
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of the construction
of churches in this style.
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They built abbeys
along the Way of Saint James
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and in other areas
that would later be imitated
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by the parishes of small towns.
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The papacy
was also particularly preoccupied
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with waging the war against Islam.
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The Islamic hegemony
in the Iberian Peninsula
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led Rome to demand
that the Spanish kings
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conquer Al-Andalus.
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In 1064 Pope Alexander II
summoned French horsemen
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to head for and to take Barbastro,
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offering indulgences in return;
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namely the pardoning
of the combatants’ sins.
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Barbastro is considered
as a forerunner to the Crusades,
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which would later set forth
for the Holy Land,
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at the end of the eleventh century.
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Cluny echoed this ideology
that sanctified the war,
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an ideology that found
its greatest method of diffusion
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in the stone of churches.
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In Romanesque sculpture,
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the Christian knight frequently
bears the cross on his shield,
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the emblem
par excellence of the Crusades.
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The Muslim’s shield generally
presents a circular shape
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and is decorated
with arabesque motifs.
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On other occasions,
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the enemy of the faith
carries an elongated shield,
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but can be identified
by other traits
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such as the four crescent moons,
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although the polychromy
that one day covered these reliefs
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has disappeared.
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The soldiers’ weapons refer
us to the reality of the era,
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allowing us to identify
the Christian and Islamic sides.
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The sword,
with its cruciform shape,
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was considered a noble weapon,
distinctive of the knight of God,
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as was the lance.
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We can read this in the chansons
de geste of the time.
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Epic literature
also reveals that other arms
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habitually employed
by the fighters from Al-Andalus,
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such as the axe and the mace,
had highly negative connotations.
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These orally
transmitted narrations
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qualify these instruments
as ignoble weapons,
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typical only
of the “Saracen infidels”,
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and today assist us
in interpreting certain reliefs.
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At times, the individuals armed
with an axe also wear a turban,
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and on occasions
these instruments even bear demons,
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in a clear attempt to identify
the religious enemy with the Malign.
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The same occurs
with the bows and arrows,
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weapons characteristic
of the Al-Andalus fighters
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that appear alongside
them in sculptures
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of the Muslim warriors.
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The era’s papal documentation,
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monastic texts
and chronicles throw themselves
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into the enshrinement
of the religious war,
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presented
as a necessary undertaking
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and as a battle
between God and the Devil.
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Both in these learned sources
and in the chansons de geste
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we can see the propagation
of an anti-Islamic ideology,
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which came to create
a pejorative concept of the enemy.
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Muslims were classed
as “devils”, “liars”,
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“idolaters”, “fornicators”
and “irrational animals”.
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The defamation of Islam
was thus extremely widespread
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and manifested itself in images
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that transferred
the discourse from the authorities
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to the unlettered populace,
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transformed into
a powerful stimulus for war.
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In certain churches,
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such as the French cathedral
of Oloron-Sainte-Marie,
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we find the image
of the captive Muslim.
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Situated
on the trumeau of the entrance,
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the infidel prisoner
is shown as a living display
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of the triumph over Islam.
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The figure
of the vanquished enemy
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employs the model
of the classical Atlas,
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sustaining the weight
of the religious building.
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Literally crushed by the church,
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the captive
wears oriental attire
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and gesticulates
with the ugly expressions
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that also characterise the Saracen
in the chansons de geste.
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The depiction
of the conquered adversary
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acts to personify
the Christian triumph,
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evidenced by the defeat and
humiliation of the “false faith”.
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These images
reflect a historical reality,
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given that
the capturing of prisoners
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was a common part
of the warmaker’s spoils.
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At the same time, however,
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it symbolises
the superiority of Christianity,
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as it was believed none other
than God conceded these victories.
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Within the cathedral
of Oloron we also find
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several characteristic
heads with Negroid features,
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an image often repeated
in Romanesque corbels.
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Although the majority
of those in Al-Andalus were,
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in fact, locals converted to Islam,
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the Almoravid armies
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began to incorporate
numerous Sub-Saharan soldiers.
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This ethnic group, without a doubt,
0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.239
caused a great impact in a society
where the cohesion of the group
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was based
on the rejection of diversity.
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The first known
black people at that time
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belonged to the Islamic side,
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and their artistic representation,
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with exaggerated
and even caricatured traits,
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allowed the portrayal
of the religious enemy
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as the counterpoint
to the Christian,
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highlighting physical differences
0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:25.200
and assigning
them demonic qualities,
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as an evil nature was
attributed to black skin.
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The ideology of crusade
also found a place in sacred images,
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particularly
in those of the warrior saints.
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The apostle Santiago (Saint James),
whose supposed relics
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are venerated in Santiago
de Compostela’s cathedral,
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began to be depicted
as an armed knight,
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as he appears in a relief
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that gives access
to the cathedral’s treasury.
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Various legends
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relate how the apostle
had miraculously appeared
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in the midst
of the battles against the moors,
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to fight and attain
victory for the Christian side.
0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:07.600
Here lies the origin of the famous
Saint James the Moor-slayer,
0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.840
whose figure appears
in innumerable Spanish churches
0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:12.800
of later times.
0:15:12.879 --> 0:15:17.760
Saint James can often be found
crushing a Muslim beneath his mount,
0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.400
with other knightly
saints such as Saint George
0:15:21.479 --> 0:15:24.840
also displayed
in this manner on occasion.
0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.239
The transformation of Saint James
into the paradigm of the Reconquista
0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:31.239
allowed the battle against Islam
0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:36.360
to be perceived as a labour of holy
men and as a contest desired by God.
0:15:36.439 --> 0:15:40.800
We can thus verify that the
papacy’s sacralisation of the war
0:15:40.879 --> 0:15:44.439
led to a fusion
of the figures of saint and warrior,
0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.800
two entities
entirely contrary in origin.
0:15:51.439 --> 0:15:52.800
The most powerful argument
0:15:52.879 --> 0:15:54.600
to convert
the struggle against Islam
0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:56.720
into a sacred mission, however,
0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:00.640
consisted not only
of sanctifying the crusading knights,
0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.320
but also of demonizing the adversary.
0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:07.040
The conflict was framed
0:16:07.119 --> 0:16:11.400
as a strugggle waged
in God's name against the Devil,
0:16:11.479 --> 0:16:16.000
as he fight of God against the Demon,
as the duel between good and evil.
0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.760
It is expressed
as such in the texts of the era
0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.280
and so too we find
it formulated in the images.
0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.560
That’s why you often
can see in Romanesque sculpture
0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.560
alongside combat between knights,
0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:31.879
or between soldiers
dressed like the era s warriors,
0:16:31.959 --> 0:16:35.239
other allegorical images,
more symbolic,
0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:39.119
in which a soldier
bearing the cross on his shield
0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:46.479
confronts a monster or a beast,
or a dragon, frequently.
0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:48.879
Sometimes
is Samson fighting the lion
0:16:48.959 --> 0:16:51.920
the one alongside the combat scenes.
0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.400
These images offered
0:16:54.479 --> 0:16:58.040
an allegorical interpretation
of the struggle against Islam
0:16:58.119 --> 0:17:00.760
and expressed specially
0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:07.200
the spiritual dimension
assigned to this religious war.
0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:09.600
Muslims demonization causes,
0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:13.439
subsequently,
their “animalization” in art.
0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:17.720
The famous Song of Roland,
0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:19.160
the epic poem most recited
0:17:19.239 --> 0:17:21.600
in the squares along
the Camino de Santiago,
0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.360
narrates Charlemagne’s dream
0:17:24.439 --> 0:17:27.200
following Roland’s death
at the hand of the Muslims.
0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:29.479
The poem says:
0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:33.320
"Then comes from the woods
a great lion, full of fury,
0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:37.040
arrogance and audacity,
and challenging his very person,
0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:38.200
attacks him.
0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:40.800
Both roll
body to body in the battle,
0:17:40.879 --> 0:17:42.640
that Charles cannot determine
0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:46.600
which of the two
is above or below”.
0:17:47.479 --> 0:17:51.560
Many representations of the time
show the Cristian knights
0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.320
fighting against lions,
griffins and dragons,
0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:56.320
all symbols of evil.
0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:59.040
These images
allow a further step towards
0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:01.080
the consecration of the war,
0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.479
linking victory
over worldly enemies
0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.879
with triumph over the devil.
0:18:07.959 --> 0:18:10.439
Since its inception,
Christian art
0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.680
has represented
the devil in animal form,
0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:15.760
as the Book of Revelation
describes it
0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.959
as the ancient beast
and the beast with seven heads.
0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:22.800
The symbolic nature
of the Romanesque image
0:18:22.879 --> 0:18:26.560
allows it to refer both to the
devil and to the sinners of the day
0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:29.119
through the use
of bestial representations,
0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:33.920
and, in particular, through
the image of “animalised” men.
0:18:35.439 --> 0:18:38.400
Monastic texts
insistently described
0:18:38.479 --> 0:18:41.959
Muslims as a bestial people.
0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:44.000
This accusation was defended
0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.439
by indicating
their lustful instincts
0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:51.560
and the irrationality that led
them to remain in a “false faith”.
0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:53.280
In the epic poems,
0:18:53.360 --> 0:18:56.560
the Saracens often
took on a special deformity,
0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:58.360
the degree
of caricature being such
0:18:58.439 --> 0:19:02.760
that their appearance belonged
to the realms of the fantastic.
0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:06.479
We find certain descriptions
of Muslims as implausible
0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:10.439
as that of Agolafre
in the poem Fierabras,
0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.560
with his eyes
located on the back of his head
0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:18.040
and whose ears are large
enough to serve as an overcoat.
0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.400
Other Muslims, as in the saga
of the Chevalerie d Ogier,
0:19:22.479 --> 0:19:26.400
are endowed with two mouths,
two noses and four arms.
0:19:26.479 --> 0:19:27.520
In this manner,
0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.600
the Saracens carried
their heresy drawn on their faces,
0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.280
through features
such as physical misfortune,
0:19:33.360 --> 0:19:39.959
bestial traits or a range
of other monstrous deformities.
0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.360
The Poema de Fernán González
explains perfectly
0:19:43.439 --> 0:19:46.720
that ugliness was an attribute
of moral dimensions,
0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.040
indicating that the Muslims were:
0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:51.600
“uglier than Satan
with all his convent,
0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.400
when he emerges from hell
filthy and coal-blackened”.
0:19:55.479 --> 0:19:59.119
Deformity, monstrosity
and beastliness, then,
0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.760
are tools for social
and religious exclusion,
0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:05.800
both in epic literature
and Romanesque art.
0:20:05.879 --> 0:20:08.320
This is a conceptual procedure
0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:10.680
that allows the expression,
in figurative terms,
0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.119
of the subject’s moral degradation.
0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:14.200
In this manner,
0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.680
the attribution of a disagreeable
countenance to certain collectives
0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:22.360
aimed to reflect
a corrupt and diabolical soul.
0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:25.280
One of the animalised
representations
0:20:25.360 --> 0:20:27.200
of the Muslim in Romanesque art
0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:30.040
is the archer-centaur.
0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:31.439
On the battlefield,
0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:35.119
the Al-Andalus combatants
were compared with centaurs,
0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.760
given their technique of mounting
the horse with short stirrups,
0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:42.160
known as “a la jineta”.
0:20:42.239 --> 0:20:44.080
The great agility
of these horsemen,
0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:46.000
in such harmony with their mounts,
0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:48.920
caused considerable losses
on the Christian side,
0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:51.600
as they could
turn to fire their arrows
0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.280
even as they retreated.
0:20:55.320 --> 0:21:00.040
On the contrary, the Christians
wore heavy armour and long stirrups,
0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:04.320
meaning that they
could only attack head-on.
0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:06.200
Certain Romanesque centaurs
0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.879
wear turbans
or exhibit Negroid characteristics,
0:21:09.959 --> 0:21:14.479
making their identification
with the Muslims clear.
0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:17.800
This mythological being
also served to symbolise the sin
0:21:17.879 --> 0:21:21.800
that Christians
insistently related with Islam:
0:21:21.879 --> 0:21:23.439
that of lust.
0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:26.640
The mermaids and Tritons,
0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.400
who in the Romanesque period
symbolised the sins of the flesh,
0:21:29.479 --> 0:21:31.879
also wore
turbans from time to time,
0:21:31.959 --> 0:21:34.360
portrayed as the lustful infidels
0:21:34.439 --> 0:21:39.000
invented by
the anti-Islamic ideology.
0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.000
At times, the bird-bodied sirens
0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:46.040
also appear in turbans
or show Negroid features.
0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:49.920
Although the animalisation
of the Muslim in art and writing
0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.959
had a metaphorical sense and
was generally understood as such,
0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.040
this approach fostered
the growth of a powerful
0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:59.720
xenophobic sentiment in society.
0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:02.680
The mental procedure
for these associations was,
0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:04.760
in reality, very simple:
0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.400
the exclusion of the religious
community was equated with
0:22:07.479 --> 0:22:09.800
the expulsion
of the human race itself,
0:22:09.879 --> 0:22:15.479
making a monster of all that
did not embrace Christianity.
0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:17.920
The wars waged between
0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:20.879
Christians and Muslims
throughout history
0:22:20.959 --> 0:22:24.080
began precisely
in the era of the Romanesque,
0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:26.200
when the historical processes
0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:30.879
known as the Reconquista
and the Crusades commenced.
0:22:30.959 --> 0:22:34.439
These military confrontations
were based on an ideology
0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:37.560
that became deeply rooted
in the collective imaginary
0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:41.479
and made territorial
conquests possible.
0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:43.479
The search for a common enemy
0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:47.640
provided a powerful cohesive force
for western Christianity,
0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:52.160
contributing
to its unity and its expansion.
0:22:52.239 --> 0:22:54.200
The pejorative view of the Muslim
0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:57.640
made popular in the central
centuries of the Middle Ages
0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:00.720
was far from
any attempt to reflect reality.
0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:04.119
It was common for
the faithful who attended church
0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:06.600
to never have seen a Muslim,
0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:12.000
knowing them only through sermons
and the images in the temple.
0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:15.760
The Muslim we find
in Romanesque sculpture, then,
0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:18.560
is the product
of the ideology of the age
0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:22.320
and takes the form
of a visual metaphor.
0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:26.239
He is an imagined enemy
and not a real entity:
0:23:26.320 --> 0:23:32.439
a caricature created in the service
of a war in God’s name.