The Multilingual Epitaph of Fernando III in Medieval Seville

Unknown

Second Half of the 13th Century

About This Entry

Fernando III, king of Castile from 1217 to 1252, conquered major cities of Islamic Spain—Córdoba, Murcia, and Seville. He extended to the newly defeated Muslims a degree of tolerance similar to what Muslims had once offered Christians and Jews when they ruled the peninsula. Jews often thrived in this transitional era, serving as mediators between Christian conquerors and Muslim communities and settling in newly taken towns. Despite the political upheavals that defined Fernando’s reign, it was nevertheless a period of scholarly and cultural exchange. Fernando saw his victories as holy triumphs, and his tomb lies in Seville’s cathedral, built over the former Great Mosque. Yet he also viewed his Muslim and Jewish subjects as part of his realm, and Hebrew and Arabic inscriptions are part of his tombstone.

Photo of white stone relief in the bottom of a wall of gold lettering in multiple languages, with a column of repeated castles and lions down the middle.

Latin

Here lies the most illustrious king Ferdinand of Castile, Toledo, León, Galicia, Seville, Cordoba, Murcia, and Jaén, who conquered all of Spain [Hispania], the most loyal, the most veracious, the most constant, the most just, the most energetic, the most tenacious, the most liberal, the most patient, the most humble and the most effective in fear and in the service of God. He conquered and all but exterminated the arrogance of his enemies, protected, raised up, and exalted the men who were his friends; he captured the city of Seville, the capital of all of Spain, from the hands of the pagans and restored it to the Christians, and that is the city where he paid his debts to nature and passed to the Lord on the last day of May in the year of the Incarnation, 1252.

Arabic

Here is the tomb of the great king Don Ferdinand, lord of Castile, Toledo, León, Galicia, Seville, Cordoba, Murcia, and Jaén [who is] the most faithful, the most veracious, the most enduring, the most just, the most valiant, the most propitious, the most noble, the most forbearing, the most victorious, the greatest in modesty, most suitable to God and His greatest servant. He died (God had mercy on him) on the Friday night and God raised him. He honored and ennobled his friends and took possession of the city of Seville, which is the capital of all of Spain, and in which he who broke and destroyed all of his enemies died on the twentieth of the month of First Rabia of the year 550 of the Hijra.

Hebrew

In this place is the tomb of the great king Don Ferdinand, lord of Castile, Toledo, León, Galicia, Seville, Cordoba, Murcia, and Jaén—may his soul be in paradise—who seized all of Spain [Sefarad], the upright, the righteous, the enduring, the mighty, the pious, the forbearing, the one who feared God and served Him all of his days, shattered and destroyed all of his enemies, praised and honored all of his friends, and took the city of Seville which is the capital of all of Spain, in which he died on the night of Friday, the twenty-second of the month of Sivan, of the year 5012 since the creation of the world.

Castilian

Here lies the most honored king Don Ferdinand, lord of Castile and Toledo, of León, of Galicia, of Seville, of Cordoba, of Murcia, and of Jaén, he who conquered all of Spain [toda España], the most loyal and most truthful and the most forthright, the strongest and most decorated, the most illustrious and the most forbearing and the most humble and the one who is most fearful of God, and the one who did the most service to Him; who broke and destroyed all of his enemies, who praised and honored all of his friends, and conquered the city of Seville which is the capital of all Spain and died in it on the last day of May in our era, the year of 1290.

Translated by Sarah Pearce.

Credits

Quadrilineal epitaph of Fernando III, from The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture, ed. Jerrilynn D. Dodds, María Rosa Menocal, and Abigail Krasner Balbale (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 200–1. Used with permission of the publishers.

Discussion Questions

What differences do you notice between the four versions of the epitaph? What do the layers of identity encoded in these versions tell us about the linguistic, religious, and political complexities of Medieval Spanish life?
Why would a Christian king choose to include Hebrew and Arabic on his tombstone?
This tomb was built inside the Cathedral that Fernando had constructed on top of the Mosque of Seville that he himself had ordered to be destroyed. How does the reality of political and religious violence and triumphalism color our idea of Iberian multiculturalism?

The Multilingual Epitaph of Fernando III in Medieval Seville

About This Entry

Credits

Discussion Questions

You may also like

Language:

Places:

Subjects:

You may also like