Genealogical Forgery and Continuity of Christian Worship

Chapter 8 provides a general analysis of how mythical foundational links worked in the religious appropriation of Islamic buildings. The chapter opens with the exploration of the stories that related the foundation of the temples to early Christianity in Roman times or to Phoenician and Hebrew antecedents of Christianity (Pablo de Céspedes, Juan de Mora, Jerónimo Román de la Higuera, and Cristóbal Lozano, among others). In addition, the narratives on religious continuity are studied. These narratives connected the interpretation of mosques to Spanish Christianity, at the time of the Muslims’ arrival, through the remembrance of the Goths and the Mozarabs. Toledo is a special case study in this regard. The chapter closes with an exploration of the inventions of pre-Islamic cult images as a narrative resource for the symbolic appropriation of Islamic spaces. Among other examples Our Lady the Ancient from Seville is analyzed.