FoRMS Davis Elordi (History), "Dual Converso Prophets and the Improvisation of Faith," and Yueling Li (History of Art), "Writing in Sino-Islamic Arts in Ming and Qing China"

Please join The Forum for Research in Medieval Studies (FoRMS) on Monday, October 6th, in Tisch 1014 for our first workshop! This week will include presentations from Davis Elordi (History) and Yueling Li (History of Art). Lunch will be provided, so please remember to register through Sessions if you are thinking of coming. The abstracts and titles for their talks are included below.

Davis Elordi (History): Dual Converso Prophets and the Improvisation of Faith

This paper explores the cultural, theological, and class differences between the extant writings of colonial Latin America’s only two “crypto-Jews.” Crypto-Jew is a historiographical label applied to individuals, baptized in the Catholic Church, of clandestine Jewish heritage accused of practicing the “Law of Moses” and the faith of their ancestors. This paper seeks to disprove previous scholarly assertions of a collective identity and emphasize these crypto-Jews' differences. Questions of identity and class among this group remain largely unexplored outside Iberia, in part because reading with the archival grain encourages the scholar to identify groups of mercantile "Jews" secretly colluding against the Spanish Empire.

Luis de Carvajal, el mozo, and Francisco Maldonado de Silva’s writings provide a contrast to the typical documentation of Ibero-American crypto-Jews. Both freely professed their adherence to the Law of Moses, and they left behind writings containing their religious beliefs and radical self-reinventions, inspired by Roman Catholic texts. Carvajal left behind a memoir when he was executed in 1596; Maldonado de Silva wrote hundreds of letters and journals, of which we only possess three pieces of writing after his death in 1639. Carvajal, posturing as a member of Spanish nobility, and Maldonado de Silva, an educated surgeon, reflect the differences within their social standings. They reflect the limits and potentialities of biblical exegesis in the Spanish Empire, as they both improvised forms of religiosity.

Yueling Li (Art History): Writing in Sino-Islamic Arts in Ming and Qing China

My project explores epigraphic traces of Islam in China from the 16th to 19th century, paying particular attention to manuscripts, ceramics, and portable vessels. I argue that development in script, format and decoration of Sino-Islamic manuscript played a role in consolidating the formation of a local identity and fostering a sense of belongingment for Muslims in Ming and Qing China, when the intersection of ethnicity, religion, class and language struck a delicate balance. Available colophons also testify to active participation of women in the production and transmission of Islam in 17th century China, supporting contemporary accounts and records in mosques. In parallel to the stylization of book arts, Arabic and Persian inscriptions on Chinese porcelain, embroidery, bronze and jade transforms imperial and common objects to carry an extra layer of significance, as vessels for ritual and everyday use, sources of magic and protection, markers of Muslim identity, and expressions of individuals’ faith. In other words, this project aims to push forward an understanding of the macroscopic transmission of religious and intellectual knowledge, and the socio-political networks of Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) China through a microscopic and material lens.