Spain Travel Paratge. Catalan, Occitan. Word roots in history.

 I. Introit

Happenstance juxta
Pose. Brain-catching hotel ad -
La Hotel Malcontenta! *

Palamos! Paratge
Torremirona, Platja
de Castell 12. There.
 
A passing chuckle:
La Hotel Malcontenta **
Seeks disgruntled guests:

Missed it! An opp lost!
Delayed? We must return. Honk
If you're unhappy.

II.  Backtrack

Surprise. Accommo's
Elegant. Self-flagellate
For first neg impress. **

III. Perspectif

Catalan paratge:
Languedoc's Occitan, word
Roots, in Cathar death.***

Languedoc's Occitan. Now in Catalan. Montsegur, Pyrenees' last bastion of paratge, 1244 CE, pyres

Old Malcontenta:
Dissent. Tyrants' target. Killed
Elixir, Paratge.
.............................................................

*  Paratge here as part of an address.  New usage for us.

**  La Hotel Malcontenta, Palamos, street view/; and hotel website at  http://www.hotelscombined.com/Hotel/La_Malcontenta_Hotel.htm?languageCode=EN  Lonely Planet gives it 5 stars. Citeslisted here to make up for early chuckle at the name,  http://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/catalonia/costa-brava/hotels/la-malcontenta

**  Now:  Consider Paratge, as it crosses the Pyrenees.

The term "Paratge" is here shown as a Catalan word, part of a postal address.  Paratge meant, in earlier explorations, the concepts of courtesy, inclusion, magnanimity, as among the medieval Christian Cathars in the Languedoc, now France.  Borders and connections over the Pyrenees were fluid. The Cathar-Languedoc language was Occitan. Word now in Catalan.

Paratge - see its appearance even in old warfare, as conducted by more noble humans than we produce today, see Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, and  http://worldwar1worldwar2.blogspot.com/2009/12/paratge-in-warfare-two-jerusalem.html.  Paratge.  The duty to do the right.  Common good governance.

Western religion:  astray when it exterminated dissenters.  Perhaps dissenters held more truth. See pudding.

Cordoba

Roman Bridge, Cordoba, Spain
.
Roman bridges are still in use - that is the one at Cordoba.

I understand that the Moors had conquered Spain by 711, except for some mountain regions. They ruled for 800 years , and, unlike the Christian areas, welcomed Jews in administration, ambassadorships and finance. Cordoba was the seat of the Umayyad caliphat, its peak in the 10th Century. See original source material at ://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/conqspain.html


Cathedral, Cordoba, Spain
.
Building encompassing building.

The Cathedral at Cordoba contains within it the huge Mosque originally there - they just built around and over. Huge. The Christians finished their reconquest in the 1490's. See www.red2000.com/spain/cordoba/index.

With the reconquest, however, came the Spanish Inquisition, see www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Inquisition; and www.spanish-fiestas.com/history/inquisition; and the expulsion and death of any who opposed the form of Catholicism of Ferdinand and Isabella.

Salamanca - The Cathedral Facade (Moorish(, Shell House, Order of St. JamesOrder

Salamanca, Spain, Cathedral facade

Spain was controlled for five hundred years or so by  the Moors - the architectural and other influences are everywhere.

Here is another kind of influence - individuality. The shell shapes affixed to the side of this house cast different shadows as the day moves on.



.
Salamanca, Spain, Shell House

See it at //www.travelinginspain.com/salamanca/salamanca2.htm/ Casa de las Conchas. It was built in the 1500's and is now a library, but once was the palace of Rodrigo Maldonado. He was a knight, of the St. James Order (is that part of what much later was named the New Orleans St. James' Infirmary in our culture? I went down to the St. James' Infirmary.... blues - hear this New Orleans traditional at ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-atDxmfnIrI&feature=related).

The Order of St. James was formed in the 12th Century, see The Ancient Military Order of St. James of the Sword at ://jvarnoso.com/orders/stjamesrev.html/ It was part of the First Crusade, and upon return, its members continued on the Iberian Peninsula, gathering recruits. It also aided the Iberian kings in the reconquest from the Muslims. See its full history at the site.

The shell is the insignia of the Order. It also is the sign carried by many pilgrims on their pilgrimages - the scallop shell.

St. James' Way is the name of the Pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela - the pilgrims carried scallop shells to show their status as Pilgrims, not carrying much, so please do not rob. See a German pilgrim represented as leaving for Santiago de Compostela, at Speyer,Germany - see Germany Road Ways, Heidelburg, and Speyer and Pilgrims  Meet Jakob Spilgar there.

Castles, Crusades. Cultural, Religious Protection for Crusaders. St. Bernard of Clairvaud. Compare Jihad.

Castle, Spain, roadside view in passing.

Castles in Spain.

Castles are visible all over Spain.  Moors occupied Spain from the 800's until the final Reconquest by Spain's royalty and others by 1492.  The process of reconquest took centuries, chipping away.  The pointed arch-shaped crenellations here look Moorish, but the flat crenellations look like later Crusader work.  How to research?


From the visible remains of the Moorish time, in architecture, food, and a flowering of its culture (Jews and Christians could remain, under "dhimmitude" restrictions, but still participating in the culture), take some time to research the religion, the mindsets in conflict. *

 Many castles were used as Crusader* castles, even if original structures were Moorish.  They were often also repurposed in the Reconquest of Ferdinand and Isabella. See http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture25b. Some castle were built by one group, then used by successive powers.

This one, identity unknown, resembles Castle La Mota where Queen Juana la Loca was imprisoned.  She is buried at the Cathedral at Granada, with her husband, Philip; and with Ferdinand and Isabella. Read the site for a view of life in one of these castles, involuntarily there. Spain Road Ways, Granada.

...........................................................................

*The Crusader Mindset. Definitive for the Middle Ages.

1.  The West was ultimately beaten, soundly, and the Crusades a failure.And the West was trounced.   It was the Western equivalent of a Jihad in some ways, except that Jihad is, I believe, a defensive matter.  The one who is targeted has to commit an act so egregious, so much a part of a pattern, that the Jihad response is required, part of the submission required to be good. Jihad means to strive, and is part of a process, not engaged in as an isolated or personal matter.  Everyman's overview:  start at http://www.answers.com/topic/jihad/ 

My understanding is that Jihad is, ultimately, the desire to do what is needed, and that which is seen as an ultimate good, but to do it defensively - see http://www.submission.org/muhammed/jihad.html; whereas, the West loves the Offense. Which is worse?As you research, note that you will not find "translations" of the Koran.  It cannot be translated.  The closest would be the designation of "meaning of the Koran". See Pickthall's Meaning of the Koran at http://www.khayma.com/librarians/call2islaam/quran/pickthall/index.html.

2.  Find parallels to Jihad, but as an offensive and not defensive matter, in the West: Look for the concept of "evildoers".  That idea, that evildoers as defined by the Popes and others, had such non-human characteristics that they could be killed with impunity.  It was not a sin.  A crusader's sins would be forgiven, if going off to the crusades.  Who could resist?

EVILDOERS IN MOTIVATING FOR THE CRUSADES

Religious protection for Crusaders

SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX:  1090-1153

"Neither dealing out death nor dying, when for Christ's sake, contains anything criminal but rather merits glorious reward.

"The soldier of Christ kills safely and dies the more safely.

"Not without cause does he bear the sword. He is the instrument of God for the punishment of evildoers and for the defense of the just.

"When he kills evildoers it is not homicide, but malicide, and he is considered Christ's legal executioner."

St. Bernard of Clairvaux thus drummed up enthusiasm for the first Crusade, as quoted at http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/religion/monastic/bernard. Do a "find" for "evildoers" and come to the passage where killing an evildoer is not killing a man, so it is ok.

A similar description of the dehumanization of the Muslims.   Killing not a sin.

"If he kills an evildoer, he is not a mankiller, but, if I may so put it, a killer of evil.

"He is evidently the avenger of Christ towards evildoers and he is rightly considered a defender of Christians.

"Should he be killed himself, we know that he has not perished, but has come safely into port.

"When he inflicts death it is to Christ's profit, and when he suffers death, it is for his own gain.

"The Christian glories in the death of the pagan, because Christ is glorified; while the death of the Christian gives occasion for the King to show his liberality in the rewarding of his knight."

The past offers a window to the present.  Cultural attitudes remain.  President Bush favored the terminology "evildoers" -- See http://www.archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/16/gen.bush.terrorism/. Do your own search.