Women in history: Zoraida the Christian

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the late image of Isabel de Solís, that Zoraida of
Christian origin and consort of Muley Hacén in the last decades of the Nasrid Kingdom of
Granada. The corpus will not be limited to the contemporary historical account, but will have
its start in later representations. From there, our aim is to expose and highlight the image of
this female character from an approach that starts from history itself to see its projections in
the late literary imagination. Between Christianity and Islam, Zoraida the Christian or Isabel
the Islamized become a single character with a double profile, experiencing ups and downs
in her faith and religious beliefs throughout her life: the imagined one more than the real one.
As late literature focuses on her love story with the Nasrid king Muley Hacén, the character
abandons her historical essence and becomes a symbol and icon of love and sacrifice in
medieval Spain. In this way, an exotic figure slips in, to a certain extent, sought out in the
folds of the imagination and subject to the intentions of memory. Thus, the construction of its image will vary according to religious and cultural criteria, together with perspectives and
visions inherent to the literary creation of each author.