Show: Reconquista
bookelfe gave me AU version of a historical time period, containing a semi-successful (or, alternately, interestingly unsuccessful) revolution where none actually existed.
Uh, Becca? Hope you like massive ensemble shows.
The year is 1485, and Valencia is buzzing with unrest. The union of Castile and Aragon and the fervent Catholicism of the new king and queen make it very, very dangerous to be a Jew, a Muslim, or even a good converso. Granada, the last outpost of Moorish Spain (al-Andalus), can't hold up much longer. If Fez makes a treaty with Castile and Aragon -- if the Ottoman Sultan doesn't come west to help out -- if the young hotheaded sultan of Granada sells his country for his freedom -- Granada will fall, and al-Andalus will be gone forever.
Clearly, it is time for revolution.
Opening credits: The Decemberists - O, Valencia!
BACKGROUND
(WARNING: I have now spent so much time on Wikipedia working this up that I don't remember what is common knowledge or not. This may be nonsensical.) Okay, so you gots your Iberian Peninsula, which is Spain and Portugal. Spain used to be made up of small Catholic countries and a big Muslim region called Al-Andalus, made up of individual kingdoms. Two hundred years before this, Catholic Spain started "reconquering" Al-Andalus, until there were basically two major Catholic countries, a bunch of tiny Andalusian outposts, and things that Morocco sometimes owned. When Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand of Aragon, we get unified Spain (still called Castile and Aragon), and unified Spain thinks those Andalusian outposts look mighty tasty. Muslims living in Catholic Spain are called mudejares, Jews are called ... Jews, converts are generally called conversos and specifically (insultingly) called moriscos if they were Muslim and marranos if they were Jewish. All of those titles are pretty much a guarantee that your life will suck under Ferdinand and Isabella.
France and England are busy licking their wounds after the Hundred Years' War, so the major people to worry about are Fez (in Morocco), Venice, Rome, Portugal, and THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, who are halfway through their enormous expansion. Everyone is scared shitless of the Ottoman Empire because, unlike anyone in Europe, their army actually works.
CHARACTERS
THE VALENCIANS
Ibrahim ibn Umayya
F. Murray Abraham
show facts: Ibn Umayya is the magnetic underground leader of the revolutionaries, in that half the time he's incredibly compelling and the other half he's repelling his closest allies. He thinks Castile is weak, Aragon is tired, Granada senile, Fez infantile, and the Ottoman Empire parasitic. He doesn't like the Jews and he doesn't like conversos. But this whole thing was his idea, and he's the one who's going to lead it. Oh, and that isn't his real name. It's a call to arms. The Umayyads are coming back.
history facts: The imaginary grandfather of the very real Aben Humeya.
Ana bat Naftali Nasi
Cote de Pablo
show facts: Ana didn't have any brothers, which was inconvenient, because the Nasis are the best bankers in Valencia. Her husband died a couple of years ago and Doña Ana now controls the purse strings, the children, the family's secret prayer services, and more importantly, the use of one of their vaults for the revolutionary meetings. If Ibn Umayya doesn't like that what they're using as a meeting place is also a de facto synagogue, Ana privately thinks, Ibn Umayya can suck it. Without her funding and contacts, this revolution isn't going anywhere.
history facts: The imaginary mother of the very real Gracia "Balls of Steel" Mendes Nasi. (omg I love you Gracia Mendes marry me)
Faraj ibn Musa
Khalid Abdalla
show facts: Faraj ibn Musa is a dyer. He's also an illegitimate member of the Granadan royal line, a soldier par excellence, a husband, and a father. He's never converted, he's paid the taxes, he's kept his head down, he's been pissed on, and he's done. Who has two thumbs and is going to command the moriscos? This guy! Unless the Inquisition catches him, in which case, not so much with the thumbs thing.
history facts: The imaginary and relocated father of Farax aben Farax. Oh, Farax aben Farax. He's cruel! He's sacred! He's a dyer! He's a bandit! He's an illegitimate prince! He's a jackass! Basically he is exactly like Robin Hood, in that his existence is historical but everything else about him is totally imaginary.
Maria de Cartagena
Sitara Hewitt
show facts: Maria de Cartagena is the epitome of a good converso Catholic housewife. She has five children, she dresses modestly, she goes to church every Sunday, and she houses and feeds bandits regularly in her inn. Oh wait! Yeah, see, Maria loves Jesus, but she really loves her bandit family, which at last count features a son, two nephews, her brother, and three cousins. And it's kind of like a tradition to the Cartagenas to hate the crown of Aragon. So when the revolutionaries of Valencia need transit out of there fast, she's got the halfway house, and she knows the people who have the guns.
history facts: Sadly, none.
Gracia Zacuto
Melanie Laurent
show facts: Gracia believes strongly in Truth and Goodness and Protection and the Revolution and Not Being Killed When Her Father Refuses To Convert. If her father mostly believes in mathematics and astrology, that is okay, she will take care of him! And maybe that means she will take care of him by getting them involved in a revolution! It happens.
history facts: Gracia is imaginary but her father is real. See below.
Abraham Zacuto
Hank Azaria
show facts: Rev Zacuto thought he was just on his way from Zaragoza to Cartagena. They were just going to say in Valencia until after the winter rains, they weren't going to get caught up in all this nonsense, but now that they are, he's willing to help, as long as it doesn't get him discharged from the university. And as soon as he figures out where he put his commentaries on Herotodus.
history facts: The imaginary adventures of a real guy. A historian and astronomer.
THE OTTOMANS:
Elkanah bar David Capsali
Shaun Toub
show facts: Elkanah speaks five languages, and he knows how to say "Do you have the documents?" in all of them. Sure, he looks like an itinerant rabbi, but under that hat he is Bayezid II's constable and spy. He's here in Castile and Aragon to talk to the Catholic Monarchs, but he's gotten somewhat hijacked by the Valencian rebels. He and ibn Umayyah do not trust each other one bit. That is probably why they get along so well.
history facts: The imaginary adventures of a totally real dude! The Capsalis were a power family of Grecian Jews, and Elkanah really was an law-enforcement official of the Ottomans who spent a lot of time taking care of marranos. Obviously I have fudged the details.
Bayezid II
Mehmet Kurtuluş
show facts: Bayezid II is just coming into his own when he gets an unexpected offer from Spain. They don't just want his support against the inevitable encroachments from the Castilians, they're offering him the whole peninsula if he can take it. But Morea is a much handier target and domestic issues loom large. Can he trust the reports? Can he back a revolution, on principle? Can he afford to extend the empire this far?
history facts: This guy.
Kemal Reis
Farhad Mamudov
show facts: Ahmed Kemaleddin ("reis" means admiral) is a pirate, and the Iberian peninsula is just one ripe delicious target. He knows his sultan has many hard decisions to make, he knows there are good reasons not to torch the whole coast -- not least because there's no guarantee they'd win -- but he really, really protests the way they're letting Fez walk all over the waters. This could be the making of his career. Besides, his nephew Piri is getting antsy, and it's tough being a Serious Pirate Admiral when your ten year old ward keeps trying to slip off the boat to "get a better look at the coastline."
history facts: This guy, who actually did fight Spain, sacked Malaga, and brought refugees back to the Empire after the expulsions. It's just that all of those things happened a little late in the timeline. He is also the For Reals uncle of Piri Reis the famous cartographer, who was For Reals there at the time.
THE GRANADANS
Muhammad XII
Mika
show facts: Muhammad has it so hard. His dad died this year, which is really super sad, and then he's been in prison in Lucena, which also sucks! Sure, there was that little coup he pulled off which ensured the ruin of Granada, but he really just wants a little sympathy here. Is that so much to ask? He'd give anything for an understanding ear and his kingdom back. Including his kingdom.
history facts: Okay, so Boabdil might not actually have been like that, but I am sticking to my guns here. In the actual timeline, Muhammad gave his country to the Catholic Monarchs in 1487.
Muhammad XIII "El Zagal"
Tony Shalhoub
show facts: The current sultan of Granada, he wants nothing more than to give the throne to his nephew and get back to kicking Christian ass on the front. Trouble is, even if his nephew were back in town, dude is clearly incapable of ruling. El Zagal is not happy with this arrangement, and as such is particularly susceptible to Bayezid's proposal-- if the Ottomans back Granada, they get to keep it.
history facts: El Zagal makes me super sad.
Aisha
Salma Hayek
show facts: The sultana Aisha is surrounded by incompetents. Luckily, she's held her own against court intrigue since before most of them were born, and she knows from difficult decisions. She knows how to keep El Zagal leading the country and their troops, and she knows exactly how much to keep bribing Castile and Aragon to keep her son in prison so he can't come back and ruin everything. In the meantime, she has a country to run.
history facts: Aisha La Honesta is mostly famous for telling her son, "Now you cry like a woman over what you could not defend like a man."
THE CATHOLIC MONARCHS
Isabel y Fernando
Penelope Cruz and Alfred Molina
show facts: The newly married king and queen of Castile and Aragon, they are determined to do three things: take over Spain, take over the world, and crush anyone who isn't a Catholic Spaniard like a bug. What goes for Isabel goes for Fernando, and, you know, theoretically the other way around, too.
history facts: The Catholic Monarchs are mostly famous for 1492, during which they conquered Granada, expelled the Jews from Spain and forcibly converted the Muslims, and funded Columbus. This whole show is just a giant excuse for me to make sure they can't do any of those.
OTHER CHARACTERS
Luis de Torres. The rulers of Fez. The king of Portugal. Pope Innocent VIII and Rodrigo Borgia. Leonardo da Vinci. BARBAROSSA.
Uh, Becca? Hope you like massive ensemble shows.
The year is 1485, and Valencia is buzzing with unrest. The union of Castile and Aragon and the fervent Catholicism of the new king and queen make it very, very dangerous to be a Jew, a Muslim, or even a good converso. Granada, the last outpost of Moorish Spain (al-Andalus), can't hold up much longer. If Fez makes a treaty with Castile and Aragon -- if the Ottoman Sultan doesn't come west to help out -- if the young hotheaded sultan of Granada sells his country for his freedom -- Granada will fall, and al-Andalus will be gone forever.
Clearly, it is time for revolution.
Opening credits: The Decemberists - O, Valencia!
BACKGROUND
(WARNING: I have now spent so much time on Wikipedia working this up that I don't remember what is common knowledge or not. This may be nonsensical.) Okay, so you gots your Iberian Peninsula, which is Spain and Portugal. Spain used to be made up of small Catholic countries and a big Muslim region called Al-Andalus, made up of individual kingdoms. Two hundred years before this, Catholic Spain started "reconquering" Al-Andalus, until there were basically two major Catholic countries, a bunch of tiny Andalusian outposts, and things that Morocco sometimes owned. When Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand of Aragon, we get unified Spain (still called Castile and Aragon), and unified Spain thinks those Andalusian outposts look mighty tasty. Muslims living in Catholic Spain are called mudejares, Jews are called ... Jews, converts are generally called conversos and specifically (insultingly) called moriscos if they were Muslim and marranos if they were Jewish. All of those titles are pretty much a guarantee that your life will suck under Ferdinand and Isabella.
France and England are busy licking their wounds after the Hundred Years' War, so the major people to worry about are Fez (in Morocco), Venice, Rome, Portugal, and THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, who are halfway through their enormous expansion. Everyone is scared shitless of the Ottoman Empire because, unlike anyone in Europe, their army actually works.
CHARACTERS
THE VALENCIANS
Ibrahim ibn Umayya
F. Murray Abraham
show facts: Ibn Umayya is the magnetic underground leader of the revolutionaries, in that half the time he's incredibly compelling and the other half he's repelling his closest allies. He thinks Castile is weak, Aragon is tired, Granada senile, Fez infantile, and the Ottoman Empire parasitic. He doesn't like the Jews and he doesn't like conversos. But this whole thing was his idea, and he's the one who's going to lead it. Oh, and that isn't his real name. It's a call to arms. The Umayyads are coming back.
history facts: The imaginary grandfather of the very real Aben Humeya.
Ana bat Naftali Nasi
Cote de Pablo
show facts: Ana didn't have any brothers, which was inconvenient, because the Nasis are the best bankers in Valencia. Her husband died a couple of years ago and Doña Ana now controls the purse strings, the children, the family's secret prayer services, and more importantly, the use of one of their vaults for the revolutionary meetings. If Ibn Umayya doesn't like that what they're using as a meeting place is also a de facto synagogue, Ana privately thinks, Ibn Umayya can suck it. Without her funding and contacts, this revolution isn't going anywhere.
history facts: The imaginary mother of the very real Gracia "Balls of Steel" Mendes Nasi. (omg I love you Gracia Mendes marry me)
Faraj ibn Musa
Khalid Abdalla
show facts: Faraj ibn Musa is a dyer. He's also an illegitimate member of the Granadan royal line, a soldier par excellence, a husband, and a father. He's never converted, he's paid the taxes, he's kept his head down, he's been pissed on, and he's done. Who has two thumbs and is going to command the moriscos? This guy! Unless the Inquisition catches him, in which case, not so much with the thumbs thing.
history facts: The imaginary and relocated father of Farax aben Farax. Oh, Farax aben Farax. He's cruel! He's sacred! He's a dyer! He's a bandit! He's an illegitimate prince! He's a jackass! Basically he is exactly like Robin Hood, in that his existence is historical but everything else about him is totally imaginary.
Maria de Cartagena
Sitara Hewitt
show facts: Maria de Cartagena is the epitome of a good converso Catholic housewife. She has five children, she dresses modestly, she goes to church every Sunday, and she houses and feeds bandits regularly in her inn. Oh wait! Yeah, see, Maria loves Jesus, but she really loves her bandit family, which at last count features a son, two nephews, her brother, and three cousins. And it's kind of like a tradition to the Cartagenas to hate the crown of Aragon. So when the revolutionaries of Valencia need transit out of there fast, she's got the halfway house, and she knows the people who have the guns.
history facts: Sadly, none.
Gracia Zacuto
Melanie Laurent
show facts: Gracia believes strongly in Truth and Goodness and Protection and the Revolution and Not Being Killed When Her Father Refuses To Convert. If her father mostly believes in mathematics and astrology, that is okay, she will take care of him! And maybe that means she will take care of him by getting them involved in a revolution! It happens.
history facts: Gracia is imaginary but her father is real. See below.
Abraham Zacuto
Hank Azaria
show facts: Rev Zacuto thought he was just on his way from Zaragoza to Cartagena. They were just going to say in Valencia until after the winter rains, they weren't going to get caught up in all this nonsense, but now that they are, he's willing to help, as long as it doesn't get him discharged from the university. And as soon as he figures out where he put his commentaries on Herotodus.
history facts: The imaginary adventures of a real guy. A historian and astronomer.
THE OTTOMANS:
Elkanah bar David Capsali
Shaun Toub
show facts: Elkanah speaks five languages, and he knows how to say "Do you have the documents?" in all of them. Sure, he looks like an itinerant rabbi, but under that hat he is Bayezid II's constable and spy. He's here in Castile and Aragon to talk to the Catholic Monarchs, but he's gotten somewhat hijacked by the Valencian rebels. He and ibn Umayyah do not trust each other one bit. That is probably why they get along so well.
history facts: The imaginary adventures of a totally real dude! The Capsalis were a power family of Grecian Jews, and Elkanah really was an law-enforcement official of the Ottomans who spent a lot of time taking care of marranos. Obviously I have fudged the details.
Bayezid II
Mehmet Kurtuluş
show facts: Bayezid II is just coming into his own when he gets an unexpected offer from Spain. They don't just want his support against the inevitable encroachments from the Castilians, they're offering him the whole peninsula if he can take it. But Morea is a much handier target and domestic issues loom large. Can he trust the reports? Can he back a revolution, on principle? Can he afford to extend the empire this far?
history facts: This guy.
Kemal Reis
Farhad Mamudov
show facts: Ahmed Kemaleddin ("reis" means admiral) is a pirate, and the Iberian peninsula is just one ripe delicious target. He knows his sultan has many hard decisions to make, he knows there are good reasons not to torch the whole coast -- not least because there's no guarantee they'd win -- but he really, really protests the way they're letting Fez walk all over the waters. This could be the making of his career. Besides, his nephew Piri is getting antsy, and it's tough being a Serious Pirate Admiral when your ten year old ward keeps trying to slip off the boat to "get a better look at the coastline."
history facts: This guy, who actually did fight Spain, sacked Malaga, and brought refugees back to the Empire after the expulsions. It's just that all of those things happened a little late in the timeline. He is also the For Reals uncle of Piri Reis the famous cartographer, who was For Reals there at the time.
THE GRANADANS
Muhammad XII
Mika
show facts: Muhammad has it so hard. His dad died this year, which is really super sad, and then he's been in prison in Lucena, which also sucks! Sure, there was that little coup he pulled off which ensured the ruin of Granada, but he really just wants a little sympathy here. Is that so much to ask? He'd give anything for an understanding ear and his kingdom back. Including his kingdom.
history facts: Okay, so Boabdil might not actually have been like that, but I am sticking to my guns here. In the actual timeline, Muhammad gave his country to the Catholic Monarchs in 1487.
Muhammad XIII "El Zagal"
Tony Shalhoub
show facts: The current sultan of Granada, he wants nothing more than to give the throne to his nephew and get back to kicking Christian ass on the front. Trouble is, even if his nephew were back in town, dude is clearly incapable of ruling. El Zagal is not happy with this arrangement, and as such is particularly susceptible to Bayezid's proposal-- if the Ottomans back Granada, they get to keep it.
history facts: El Zagal makes me super sad.
Aisha
Salma Hayek
show facts: The sultana Aisha is surrounded by incompetents. Luckily, she's held her own against court intrigue since before most of them were born, and she knows from difficult decisions. She knows how to keep El Zagal leading the country and their troops, and she knows exactly how much to keep bribing Castile and Aragon to keep her son in prison so he can't come back and ruin everything. In the meantime, she has a country to run.
history facts: Aisha La Honesta is mostly famous for telling her son, "Now you cry like a woman over what you could not defend like a man."
THE CATHOLIC MONARCHS
Isabel y Fernando
Penelope Cruz and Alfred Molina
show facts: The newly married king and queen of Castile and Aragon, they are determined to do three things: take over Spain, take over the world, and crush anyone who isn't a Catholic Spaniard like a bug. What goes for Isabel goes for Fernando, and, you know, theoretically the other way around, too.
history facts: The Catholic Monarchs are mostly famous for 1492, during which they conquered Granada, expelled the Jews from Spain and forcibly converted the Muslims, and funded Columbus. This whole show is just a giant excuse for me to make sure they can't do any of those.
OTHER CHARACTERS
Luis de Torres. The rulers of Fez. The king of Portugal. Pope Innocent VIII and Rodrigo Borgia. Leonardo da Vinci. BARBAROSSA.