Resumo de The Red Manuscript (el Manuscrito Carmesí). Author: Antonio Gala

No visit to Granada (Spain) can be fulfilling without
reading this book beforehand. Antonio Gala masterfully
takes us through the life of the last moor king of Granada,
Boabdil, and the tragedy of a life linked to both the love
for his wife and children, and the love to Granada. In
Boabdil's eyes (or Galas' eyes should we say) Granada
intensifies its colour and mysteries, becomes a living
being that ends up covering the reader and makes him feel
sad at the end of the book, for making love to Granada is
not possible. In this book, an aging Boabdil already in
exile in Fes (Morocco) tells us, in a tragic and romantic
tone, how he grew up surrounded by beauty in the
magnificent 'La Alhambra'. How he learnt to love the
gardens, the birds, the people. How love was exuded from
stones, flowers and fountains, and how he was touched by
this magic spell of senses. How tragedy and happiness
usually take place at the same time. How a human being like
him, debilitated by his sentitive up-bringing, was thrown
into the throne of a kingdom where, in the blink of an eye,
the smell of fruits could turn into the smell of blood (for
the story of Boabdil is written with the 'war for Granada'
(c. 1482-1492) in the background). Boabdil's story takes us
through the last years of Moorish domination in southern
Spain (known as Al-Andalus for the moors, Andalucia for the
Spanish). During this time, he alternatively had to fight
his own father, his uncle, his mother, the kings of Spain,
and the excitable people of Granada; and usually to all of
them at the same time. During his first field battle
against the Spanish, he was caught and imprisoned. After
lengthy negotations a truce was signed with the kings of
Spain, whereby he would regain his freedom in exchange of
his own children being taken away from him (and remained
separated for several years). He is a puppet in the hands
of his demanding and ambitious mother (who lost favour of
her husband for a younger concubine). He was given the
nickname of ?Zogoiby? (the unfortunate) at birth, and the
prediction seemed to pursue him for life. He lost
everything he was given, including the city of Granada,
that he had to surrender in humiliating circumstances to
the Spanish kings (the tragedy of this event becomes
magnified by history, as few kings can put a date and time
to the exact moment when they lost their kingdom). He was
forced to depart with his family and granted lands to live
somewhere else. When leaving Granada across the mountains,
he turned round to have a last sight of his city, and tears
of sadness came down his face. His mother then resentfully
nagged him with these devastating words: ?cry as a woman
what you can not keep as a man?. After loosing his kingdom
he however regained his family (his beautiful wife Morayma
and their children). Happiness lasted little, as she died
shortly after. Boabdil then left Spain for good, and
travelled to Morocco where he would live long after. This
rather romantic view of the life and times of Boabdil is
somehow the spirit that remains in the streets of Granada;
tragic, beautiful, eternal. The spirit of Granada comes out
of the walls and stones in its streets as you walk by. You
don?t know why, but you?ll feel it, as I did.

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