Spanish Mystic Women of the Golden Century within the Ottoman Empire: Seven Arabic Manuscripts Found in Aleppo (Syria)

Abstract

This work reports on the existence of seven manuscripts conserved in three different collections of Aleppo (Syria): the Greek-Catholic/Melkite, the Georges and Mathilde Salem Foundation and the Maronite libraries. These seven co­pies contain the Arabic translations of some mystical works written by two mystic women of the Spanish Golden Century, Teresa de Ávila and María de Ágreda. The history of these Arabic versions, translated right in the heart of the Ottoman Arabic provinces, constitutes an interesting object of study that is directly linked with the manner in which many  European Western works passed to the Mediterranean Levant during the 16th and 17th centuries.