Resumen de Between absence and presence: new paths in the historiography of Islam in the New World
This essay proposes a number of possible new spaces for the study of Islam in the Americas, relating this field to questions of cultural relationship in the medieval Mediterranean world – particularly Spain and Italy – and their projection in the Atlantic. After reviewing some of the ways in which Islam shaped the memory of the conquistadores, and influenced the practices of adaptation to the conditions of the New World, the article turns to the debated question of the presence – or absence – of men and women of Muslim faith; it concludes by suggesting that the most fruitful paths of inquiry may lie not in tracing the presence of a Muslim population, but rather in addressing the questions of cultural and linguistic interaction, all the more complex now that it no longer appears legitimate to conceive of a homogenous “Muslim,” “Arabic” or “Berber” cultural bloc.
