Boucquey Thierry (General Editor). Encyclopedia Of World Writers. 3 volumes

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Ibn al-Khat¯ıb (Abu ‘Abdallah

Muhammad, Lisan al-Din, Abenaljatib,

Ben al-Hatib, al-Jatib)

(1313–1375)

historian, poet

Abu ‘Abdallah Muhammad Ibn al-Khat¯ıb was

born at Loja, some 30 miles outside Granada,

Spain. During his lifetime, Ibn al-Khat¯ıb was the

preeminent literary figure in Spain. He wrote

more than 60 volumes of history, poetry, and

medical and religious texts. Among these is his

Círculo, a collection of biographical works about

the men who were associated with Granada’s his-

tory, religion, and politics. Ibn al-Khat¯ıb also

compiled a volume of Andalusian Arabic poetry,

as well as a history of Granada and works on Su-

fism and philosophy.

Ibn al-Khat¯ıb served at the royal court in

Granada for many years and became a highly in-

fluential figure. However, political intrigues and

his feud with another scholar and minister in

Granada, Ibn Zamraq (1333–92), who had once

been his pupil, forced al-Khat¯ıb to flee Spain for

North Africa in the late 1360s. Ibn al-Khat¯ıb was

eventually imprisoned in Fez, where he was put to

death. Afterward, he was given the name Lisan al-

Din, which means “Tongue of the Religion” and

was bestowed in honor of his poetry.

An English Version of a Work by

Ibn al-Khat¯ıb

The Jaysh al-tawshih of Lisan al-Din Ibn al-Khatib.

Edited by Alan Jones. Cambridge, U.K.: Trustees

of the “E.J.W. Gibb Memorial,” 1997.

A Work about Ibn al-Khat¯ıb

Irwin, Robert. Night and Horses and the Desert: An

Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature. New York:

Anchor Books, 1999.

Ibn Khald¯un (Abu Zayd ’Abd al-Rahman

ibn Muhammad)

(1332–1406) historian,

philosopher

Ibn Khald¯un was born in Tunis to an aristocratic

Spanish Arab from Andalusia. After an intensive

religious and literary education, he began a career

of government service. He eventually filled top

posts in many of the major Arab capitals of North

Africa, Egypt, and Spain, but a tendency to make

enemies kept him on the run.

In 1375 he took his family to seclusion in a cas-

tle in Algeria, where for the next four years he

wrote his famous Muqaddimah. Muqaddimah is

translated as The Prolegomena, which literally

means “initial discussions” or “introductory es-

says.” Ibn Khald¯un thus wrote this work as an in-

troduction to history. He also used it as an intro-

duction to a later work, titled Kitab al-’Ibar, a

historical chronicle. In Muqaddimah, he takes a

historical and philosophical approach to the

progress of events in the past. He examines the

methods needed to separate fact from fiction and

develops what he calls a “science of culture,” a the-

ory that would explain the social transformations

that take place across time.

Exploring the principles for understanding pol-

itics, economics, urban life, and education, he de-

veloped a concept of ’asabbiyah, or social

cohesion, the force that binds together tribes and

clans. According to Ibn Khald¯un, this force, com-

bined with a sense of religious mission, can impel

new groups to seize power in a society. Various po-

litical and psychological factors then begin to eat

away at the new power group. Thus, he explains

the cyclical nature of history: One group conquers,

becomes civilized and complacent, gains wealth

and stature, and then becomes vulnerable to attack

from a new group.

In other parts of Muqaddimah, Ibn Khald¯un

discusses the arts and sciences. The information he

provides specifically on the art of writing has been

particularly useful to historians in tracking the de-

velopment of Andalusian and North African liter-

ary developments. In Night & Horses & The Desert,

Robert Irwin states that Ibn Khald¯un “hated the

fancy flourishes which had become fashionable

among the chancery officials of his day.” Irwin sup-

ports this claim with a quote from Franz Rosen-

thal’s translation from Muqaddimah in which Ibn

Khald¯un states:

Recent authors employ the methods and ways

of poetry in writing prose. [Their writing] con-

tains a great deal of rhymed prose and obliga-

tory rhymes as well as the use of the nasih

before the authors say what they want to say.

When one examines such prose, [one gets the

impression that] it has actually become a kind

of poetry. It differs from poetry only through

the absence of metre. In recent times, secre-

taries took this up and employed it in govern-

ment correspondence. They restricted all prose

writing to this type, which they liked. They

mixed up [all the different] methods in it. They

avoided straight prose and affected to forget it,

especially the people of the East.

Regarding poets themselves, Ibn Khald¯un

praises

IBN AL-KHATIB as one of the greatest Arabic

poets in the history of Spain, stating in the Muqad-

dimah that “[Ibn al-Khatib] possessed an un-

equalled linguistic habit. His pupils followed in

his footsteps” (Irwin).

In addition, Ibn Khald¯un comments on differ-

ent forms of poetry, such as the muwashshah, a

form of poetry that included five rhymed stanzas

and appeared in classical Arabic literature during

the ninth or 10th century. These poems were in-

tended to be sung and were often accompanied by

performance. Ibn Khald¯un tells us:

The muwashshah consists of branches and

strings in great number and different metres. A

certain number [of branches and strings] is

called a single verse [stanza]. There must be the

same number of rhymes in the branches [of

each stanza] and the same metre [for the

branches of the whole poem] throughout the

whole poem. The largest number of stanzas

employed is seven. Each stanza contains as

many branches as is consistent with purpose

and method. Like the qasida, the muwashshah

is used for erotic and laudatory poetry (Irwin).

According to Irwin, Ibn Khald¯un also commented

on such poems being “popular both with the court

and with the populace at large because they were

easy to understand.”

For the rest of his life, Ibn Khald¯un worked on

his massive universal history, the Kitab al-’Ibar

(The Book of Examples), in which he discusses the

Persians, Israelites, Arabs, and Romans, among

others. In a clear, concise, and thoughtful narrative

118 Ibn Khald¯un

style, he provides invaluable information on the

history of North Africa and Spain, which he in-

tended to be instructional. It was his belief that

those in the present and the future could learn

from events and people in the past.

From age 50, he spent most of his life in Cairo,

lecturing under the patronage of the Mamluk sul-

tan, serving as a notoriously incorruptible judge,

and continuing his writing. His fame was such

that, when he was trapped in Damascus under a

Mongol siege in 1400, the fierce chieftain

Tamurlane (Timur) had him brought from the

city. For seven weeks, Ibn Khald¯un enjoyed the

conqueror’s hospitality, lecturing and writing sur-

veys on request. Such was his relationship with

Timur that the two often engaged in friendly de-

bates concerning political and social issues. Ibn

Khald¯un used these debates as the basis of his work

Ta’rif, a brief autobiography.

Ibn Khald¯un died in Cairo. His teachings and

historical works stimulated a resurgence of histor-

ical writing in Egypt and Turkey during the 15th

and 16th centuries. Since then, translations of his

works into Spanish, English, French, and other lan-

guages have given him a worldwide reputation as

one of the most original philosophers of Arabic

history.

English Versions of Works by Ibn Khald¯un

An Arab Philosophy of History: Selections from the Pro-

legomena of Ibn Khaldun of Tunis (1332–1406).

Translated by Charles Philip Issawi. Princeton,

N.J.: Darwin Press, 1987.

The Muqaddemah: An Introduction to History. Trans-

lated by Franz Rosenthal. Princeton, N.J.: Prince-

ton University Press, 1969.

Works about Ibn Khald¯un

Al-Azmeh, Aziz. Ibn Khaldun: An Essay in Reinterpre-

tation. New York and Budapest: Central European

University Press, 2003.

Baali, Fuad. Social Institutions: Ibn Khaldun’s Social

Thought. Lanham, Md.: University Press of Amer-

ica, 1992.

Brett, Michael. Ibn Khaldun and the Medieval

Maghrib. Brookfield,Vt.: Ashgate Variorum, 1999.

Irwin, Robert. Night and Horses and The Desert: An

Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature. New York:

Anchor Books, 1999.

Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) saint,

religious writer

Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises is one of the

most influential and widely used texts in Christian

spiritual discipline. Born Inigo de Loyola in the

Basque province of Guipuzcoa in northern Spain,

the young Ignatius was bred for a life in RENAIS-

SANCE Spain’s aristocratic circles. He entered the

military and in 1521 was seriously wounded dur-

ing the siege of Pamplona. Loyola was taken pris-

oner by the French, but they were so impressed by

his bravery that they treated him more as a

wounded guest than a prisoner. Loyola’s leg was so

severely damaged by a cannonball that it had to be

broken and reset twice; it never healed successfully,

and he limped the rest of his life.

During his convalescence, Loyola underwent

a spiritual transformation and embraced Christ

as his model and savior. He recovered and went

on a pilgrimage in 1522. After his return, he de-

cided to study for the priesthood and attended

the Universities of Alcalá, Salamanca, and Paris.

During this period, he formulated what became

the Spiritual Exercises and taught them to fellow

students.

In 1538 Loyola and some of his companions

went to Rome and offered their services to the

pope, who set them to teaching scripture and

preaching. In 1540 Pope Paul III formally approved

Ignatius’s group, the Society of Jesus, which dedi-

cated itself to serving wherever the pope sent its

members. Loyola was elected the first superior gen-

eral of the order; within 20 years, new members

and new missions of the society, also known as the

Jesuits, appeared as far away as India. The Jesuits

would become one of the most influential and con-

troversial religious orders of the Roman Catholic

Ignatius of Loyola 119

Church. Loyola died in 1556 and was granted

sainthood in 1622.

The Spiritual Exercises is a four-week program

that leads its disciples to contemplation of their

sinfulness, God’s greatness and love, and greater

perfection in their soul in order to discern God’s

will for them. Loyola recommends visualization

and emotional identification with Jesus’ joy and

suffering so that participants can truly understand

God’s love. The Spiritual Exercises has been trans-

lated in several major languages, and its systematic,

emotionally engaging approach to prayer has in-

fluenced the spiritual lives of millions.

English Versions of a Work by

Ignatius of Loyola

Ganss, George E. Ignatius of Loyola: Spiritual Exercises

and Selected Works. Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press,

1991.

Mullan, Father Elder, S.J., trans. The Spiritual Exer-

cises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. New York: P.J.

Kennedy and Sons, 1914.

A Work about Ignatius of Loyola

Idigoras, J. Ignacio Tellechea. Ignatius of Loyola: The

Pilgrim Saint. Translated by Cornelius Michael

Buckley. Chicago: Loyola Press, 1994.

Izmailov, Aleksandr (1779–1831) fable

writer, poet, novelist, journalist

Aleksandr Izmailov was born in Vladimir, Russia,

to a bankrupt nobleman. He was educated at a mil-

itary school and worked almost his entire life in the

Ministry of Finance in St. Petersburg. Toward the

end of his life, he was appointed the vice-governor

of Tver, near Moscow. However, he lost this presti-

gious position because of his bitter criticism of the

customs and social system of the province.

Izmailov edited and published a number of lit-

erary journals and anthologies, and was a member

of the Letters, Science, and Arts Lovers Free Society,

established to advance the cause of Russian litera-

ture. Izmailov’s admiration for the prose style of

KARAMZIN shows in his novel Eugene, or Fatal Con-

sequences of a Poor Upbringing (1799–1801). In ef-

fect, this novel created the genre of the conte moral

or moral fable in Russian literature. Written in the

same vein of moral education, handmade copies of

Izmailov’s poem “Instructions for My Wife, the

Vice-Governor’s First Lady” circulated throughout

the Russian empire. Izmailov’s gift for satire, how-

ever, is best seen in his numerous fables.

Based on daily scenes from the life of petty bu-

reaucrats and merchants, Izmailov’s fables are full

of both good-natured humor and biting sarcasm.

His tendency for unabridged realism and rough

language account for Izmailov’s fame as a “writer

not for ladies.” Some of his most famous fables are

“Goldfinch-Astronomer,” “Drunkard,” and “Pas-

sion for Poem-Making.” Critic Belinsky notes that

Izmailov’s fables “insult esthetic taste by their triv-

iality, but some of them stand out due to their gen-

uine giftedness and peasant-like originality.”

An English Version of Works by

Aleksandr Izmailov

Anthology of Russian Literature: From the Tenth Cen-

tury to the Close of the Eighteenth Century. Edited

by Leo Weiner. Honolulu: University Press of the

Pacific, 2001.

A Work about Aleksandr Izmailov

Schonle, Andreas. Authenticity and Fiction in the

Russian Literary Journey, 1790–1840. Cambridge,

Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000.

120 Izmailov, Aleksandr

121

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Jefferson, Thomas (1743–1826) political

writer

Thomas Jefferson was born in Albermarle County,

Virginia, to Jane and Peter Jefferson, a Virginia of-

ficial, surveyor, and owner of vast tracts of land.

The education of the country’s future third presi-

dent proceeded in a series of stages: At age five, he

was sent to a local school to learn reading and writ-

ing; At nine, he boarded with a clergyman who

guided him in a study of Latin, Greek, and French;

and at 14, he received tutoring by a classical scholar

to prepare for college.When he entered the College

of William and Mary, he came into contact with

intellectuals who introduced him to philosophy,

law, and legal philosophy. During his lifetime, Jef-

ferson also studied architecture, the arts, math, nat-

ural and applied sciences, politics, and religion. His

personal library contained nearly 10,000 books and

pamphlets and was purchased by Congress when it

was establishing its own library. Later, in 1797, he

was elected president of the American Philosophi-

cal Society, a position he held for 18 years.

As a writer, he composed eight works, as well as

60 volumes of other works that comprise his many

treatises, letters, state papers, an autobiography

(published posthumously), presidential addresses,

and journal entries. In his works, which reflect his

personal, philosophical, political, and social views,

he was influenced, among others, by Benjamin

FRANKLIN, Harrington, MILTON,Locke,MON-

TESQUIEU, Helvetius, and VOLTAIRE.

Yet Jefferson was not simply an intellectual.

With his childhood friends, he roamed the coun-

tryside, rode horses, and passed many hours hunt-

ing and fishing. When his father died, he inherited,

at age 14, thousands of acres of land, which he

strove to cultivate with the assistance of some 150

slaves. He corresponded with horticulturists and

often asked for new seeds and plantings for his es-

tates. For a number of decades, he kept diaries in

which he recorded observations about the natural

world and the type of work being done on his

plantations. He also devoted a large portion of his

time to putting to use his ever-increasing knowl-

edge of architecture. When he was 26, he began

building Monticello, an estate that he was con-

stantly expanding and remodeling.

Not long after starting work on Monticello, Jef-

ferson fell in love with Martha Wayles Skelton.

They wed in 1772 and had six children, only two of

whom survived to adulthood. Martha died after

only 10 years of marriage, and Jefferson never re-

married.

The year 1768 was a turning point for Jeffer-

son; it was the year he was elected to the House of

Burgesses, and it marks his formal entrance into

the political sphere. Drawing on his knowledge of

John Locke’s theories regarding man’s natural right

to liberty, he composed A Summary View of the

Rights of British America (1774), a series of resolu-

tions that challenged Great Britain’s authority over

the colonies. A year later, he began serving as a del-

egate to the Continental Congress and drafted the

Declaration of Independence in 1776.

In 1779 he was elected governor of Virginia. In

1785 he assumed a post as minister to France. That

same year Notes on the State of Virginia, his only

book, was published. He wrote it in response to

questions that had been posed by the marquis de

Barbé-Marbois, secretary of the French legation at

Philadelphia. The work has been divided into 23

sections, each covering a different topic. The topics

range from slavery to civil rights, education, reli-

gious freedom, natural resources, geography, and

more. Jefferson’s comments on slavery reveal that

he is aware of the wrongness of slavery, and they are

prophetic of the war that would later ensue:

I tremble for my country when I reflect that

God is just; that His justice cannot sleep for-

ever; that ...a revolution ofthe wheel of for-

tune, an exchange of situation, is among

possible events; that it may become proba-

ble....The spirit of the master [slaveholder] is

abating, that of the slave rising from the dust,

his condition mollifying, the way, I hope,

preparing, under the auspices of heaven, for a

total emancipation.

In 1789 Jefferson was named the first secretary

of state. In 1797 he became vice president. In 1800

Jefferson was elected president of the United States.

In his first inaugural address, he states, “though

the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that

will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the mi-

nority possess their equal rights, which equal laws

must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

Jefferson was reelected president in 1804, and

after his second term retired to his beloved

Monticello. He died on July 4, 1826—the 50th

anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Critical Analysis

Without a doubt, the most important document

that Jefferson composed was the Declaration of In-

dependence. In 1776, shortly after Richard Henry

Lee proposed that the colonies should be free and in-

dependent, Congress elected Jefferson and four oth-

ers to draft a more formal and detailed declaration

that would legitimate—both morally and legally—

the colonists’ desire to become autonomous. Al-

though all the members of the committee offered

ideas, Jefferson was the document’s principal author.

John Adams explained that when Jefferson entered

Congress, he “brought with him” a “happy talent for

composition”; his writings were “remarkable” for

their “felicity of expression.” Jefferson channeled his

talents into creating a document that would, in

Thomas Gustafson’s words, “ring the alarm bell for

the fight for independence in all thirteen colonies at

the same time” and “unify in sentiment colonists

who shared markedly different ...ideas.”

To achieve these ends, Jefferson infused the lan-

guage of the Declaration with

ENLIGHTENMENT

principles. Two passages from the opening para-

graphs are especially important to examine in this

regard. The Declaration begins with the following

statement:“When, in the Course of human Events,

it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the

Political Bands which have connected them with

another, and to assume among the Powers of the

Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the

Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a

decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind re-

quires that they should declare the causes which

impel them to the Separation.” Jefferson followed

this finely phrased announcement with one that

has come to embody the fundamental tenets of the

American nation: “We hold these Truths to be self

evident, that all Men are created equal, that they

are endowed by their Creator with certain unalien-

able Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and

the Pursuit of Happiness.” These words reveal Jef-

ferson’s reliance on the ideas that John Locke ex-

pressed in Treatises of Civil Government, especially

those related to natural rights to “life, liberty, and

property.” Jefferson, influenced by Francis Hutch-

122 Jefferson, Thomas

eson, a Scottish philosopher, opted to substitute

people’s right to property with his right to pursue

happiness. The natural rights philosophy espoused

by Locke and Hutcheson was vague enough to ap-

peal to the colonists, despite their many underlying

differences, and it set up a framework for under-

standing the magnitude of crimes the British com-

mitted against the inhabitants of the colonies.

After establishing this framework of rights, Jef-

ferson devotes the main portion of the Declaration

to cataloging the “long Train of Abuses and

Usurpations” perpetuated against the colonists by

George III, the king of Great Britain. Some of the

charges against the king include his having “refused

his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and nec-

essary for the public Good,” “refused to pass other

Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of

People, unless those People would relinquish the

Right of Representation in the Legislature,” “called

together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, un-

comfortable, and distant,” “has dissolved Repre-

sentative Houses ...for opposing with manly

Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People,”

and “endeavored to bring on the Inhabitants of our

Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages.” In effect,

Jefferson was demonstrating that the colonists were

not absolving their “Allegiance to the British

Crown” for “light” or “transient Causes,” but were,

instead, exercising their right to “alter or ...abol-

ish” a tyrannical government that consistently ig-

nored or deliberately violated their basic rights.

Absent from the final draft of the Declaration

are Jefferson’s statements regarding slavery. In his

draft, he described slavery as a “cruel war against

human nature itself,” one that desecrated the “sa-

cred rights of life and liberty.” Even though Jeffer-

son argued that it was the British king who was

“determined to keep open a market where MEN

should be bought and sold,” slaveholding delegates

in the northern and southern colonies took offense

at these remarks. To ensure that they would sign the

Declaration, the passages on slavery were removed.

It should be noted that Jefferson’s stance on

race-related issues was a complicated one. Earlier,

in Notes on the State of Virginia, he argued that

blacks were “inferior to the whites in body and

mind.” In addition, it was not until he was on his

deathbed that Jefferson freed a handful of his

most loyal slaves. Jefferson’s attitudes on African

Americans and the institution of slavery were, like

many of his contemporaries, equivocal and prone

to change. It was not until 1863, nearly 40 years

after Jefferson’s death, that the country, under the

guidance of President Abraham Lincoln, made the

official decision to put an end to slavery.

The Declaration of Independence did not

achieve its goals through its originality. As Jeffer-

son himself remarked in 1825, he had not aimed to

“find out new principles, or new arguments never

before thought of.” Rather, he desired to “place be-

fore mankind the common sense of the subject, in

terms so plain and firm as to command their as-

sent,” and he used his powerful mastery of lan-

guage to craft a document that would be regarded

as an “expression of the American mind.”

Works by Thomas Jefferson

Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happi-

ness. Edited by Eric Petersen. New York: Random

House, 2004.

State of the Union Addresses of Thomas Jefferson. Indy-

Publish.com, 2004.

The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson.

Edited by Adrienne Koch and William Peden. New

York: Random House, 2004.

Works about Thomas Jefferson

Gustafson, Thomas. Representative Words: Politics,

Literature, and the American Language, 1776–1865.

New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Pflueger, Lynda. Thomas Jefferson: Creating a Nation.

Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, 2004.

Ramazani, Rouhollah K. Future of Liberal Democracy:

Thomas Jefferson and the Contemporary World.

New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Jesuit Relations (1632–1791)

The Jesuit Relations are a series of reports sent from

French Jesuit missionaries in North America to

Jesuit Relations 123

their superiors in Europe, which give a fascinating

account of the missionaries’ lives with the natives.

Written largely in French and Latin, and intended

to garner support for the missions at home in Eu-

rope, Jesuit Relations appeared annually in France

between 1632 and 1673. The first English edition,

by Reuben Gold Thwaites, originally published be-

tween 1896 and 1901, also included reports written

by Jesuits after 1673 and up to 1791. One such re-

port was written by Father Jacques Marquette and

tells of his 1674 journey to the mouth of the Mis-

sissippi River.

In 1625 the first Jesuit missionaries went to the

areas of Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers, which

were occupied by French settlers and traders. The

missionaries lived with the Huron and Algonquin,

who were often threatened by the Iroquois. One of

the most famous sections of Jesuit Relations tells

how Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brebeuf, and other mis-

sionaries were captured and killed by the Iroquois

and became known as martyrs for the faith.

The Jesuits, founded by IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA in

1634, were known for their learning. The Jesuits’

reports combined scientific observations of Na-

tive American life with religious reflections and de-

scriptions of native cultures and religious beliefs.

In addition, Jean de Brébeuf wrote a detailed de-

scription of the Huron language.

The Jesuits were accurate observers, though

their reports reflected an outsiders’ view of na-

tive cultures. For instance, in Jesuit Relations they

describe the gods and spirits of the natives as

“demons” and their shamans or religious healers

as “sorcerers.” At the same time, they celebrate the

natives’ natural virtues, including patient en-

durance and lack of greed. Father Paul LeJeune

wrote: “Those little fops that are seen elsewhere

are only painted images of men, compared with

our Indians.” Later accounts of the natives by Eu-

ropeans elevated this into the notion of the

“noble savage.”

Today, the reports known as Jesuit Relations are

an important source for historians of French colo-

nization in North America, as well as for ethnogra-

phers and anthropologists studying Native Ameri-

cans of the 17th century.

English Versions of Jesuit Relations

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and

Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in North

America (1610–1791). With an Introduction by

Reuben Gold Thwaites. Selected and edited by

Edna Kenton. Toronto: McLelland and Stewart,

1998.

Women in New France: Extracts from the Jesuit Rela-

tions. Edited by Claudio R. Salvucci. Bristol, Pa.:

Arx Publishing, 2004.

Works about Jesuit Relations

Blackburn, Carole. Harvest of Souls: The Jesuit Mis-

sions and Colonialism in North America, 1632–

1650. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press,

2004.

Greer, Allan, ed. The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Mis-

sionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America.

Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000.

Jiménez de Quesada, Gonzalo

(ca. 1495–1579) conquistador

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada led a successful mil-

itary campaign in South America that resulted in

the conquest of the region now known as Colom-

bia. His account of his adventures, known as The

Conquest of New Granada, survives only in ex-

cerpts copied by others from the original.

Trained as a lawyer in his native Granada,

Jiménez de Quesada was assigned as magistrate to

the South American colony of Santa Marta in

1535. In the following year, he was commissioned

to search for El Dorado. After eight months in the

tropical forests where he and his party endured in-

credible hardships, Jiménez de Quesada reached

the central plain of Colombia inhabited by the

Chibcha tribe. In the wake of his arrival, Zipa the

Chibcha ruler fled. Jiménez de Quesada then es-

tablished Santa Fé de Bogotá as the capital of New

Granada. He found wealth there, and a dispute

124 Jiménez de Quesada, Gonzalo

with two rivals over the conquest soon followed.

He returned to Spain to obtain official recognition

of his claim but succeeded in gaining only an hon-

orary title.

After a period in which he was ignored by the

Spanish Crown and imprisoned by the governor of

New Granada, he was released and appointed mar-

shal of Granada (1550) and councilor of Bogotá

for life. But Jiménez de Quesada’s craving for

riches eventually returned. In 1569 he resumed his

pursuit of El Dorado, leading an expedition of 500

men up the Orinoco River. It proved a disaster, and

he returned after three years with only 25 of the

original company.

As an administrator, Jiménez de Quesada is

credited with protecting the rights of the ordinary

colonists against powerful landholders and offi-

cials. However, his treatment of the natives was in-

consistent, varying from humane to brutal as it

suited his purpose. This led to a native insurrection

late in his career, which he quickly quelled.

Afflicted by leprosy, Jiménez de Quesada retired

to his country house to write an account of his var-

ious campaigns and died without fulfilling his am-

bition of discovering El Dorado. His relentless

thirst for riches and his failed quest for El Dorado,

the mythical city of gold, excited the imaginations

of other Spanish writers, including, critics have

speculated, Miguel de

CERVANTES.

A Work about Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada

Arciniegas, German. Knight of El Dorado: The Tale of

Don Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and His Con-

quest of New Granada. Translated by Mildred

Adams. Oxford, U.K.: Greenwood, 1968.

Jin Ping Mei (Chin P’ing Mei) (late 1500s)

novel

Jin Ping Mei (Chin P’ing Mei; known in English as

The Plum in the Golden Vase and Golden Lotus) is

one of the first and most sophisticated Chinese

novels of the modern age. It is one of the four

greatest Chinese novels, along with San Guo Zhi

Tong Su Yan Yi (San-kuo chih t’ung-su yen-I; Ro-

mance of the Three Kingdoms, 1321–23; pub. 1522),

by Luo Guanzhong (Lo Kuan-chung); Shui Hu

Zhuan (Shui-hu chuan; Outlaws of the Marsh, ca.

1368) by

SHI NAIAN (Shih Nai-an) and Luo

Guanzhong (Lo Kuan-chung); and Xiyouji (Hsi Yu

Chi; The Journey to the West, 1592) by WU CHENG-

EN (Wu Cheng-en). However, though Jin Ping Mei

is often grouped with and compared to these other

works, it is considered by many to surpass them in

terms of symbolic and structural complexity.

The novel comprises 100 chapters totaling

2,923 pages in the original wood-block printing of

1618. The plot details the rise and fall of a middle-

class provincial household led by Ximen Qing

(Hsi-men Ch’ing) between 1112 and 1127 during

the Song (Sung) dynasty. While the story takes

place in the provincial town of Qingho (Ch’ing-

ho) and concerns a middle-class family, the set-

ting is meant to reflect the anonymous author’s

critique of Peking and the later Ming dynasty. Crit-

ics have read the novel as a neo-Confucian critique

of the immorality of the Ming ruling class and its

inability to establish and maintain order according

to Confucian precepts.

The novel achieved fame not only for its scathing

critique of Ming rulers, but also for its graphic de-

piction of sex. Jin Ping Mei describes in detail the im-

morality of Ximen Qing and his wives and servants,

who catered to his basest desires. Ximen Qing’s grue-

some death is brought about directly by his libido as

he dies after taking too much of an aphrodisiac

brought to him by a mysterious Indian monk.

Jin Ping Mei’s important place in world literary

history is well deserved. It was the first Chinese novel

with a unitary plot structure. Critics have argued

that only The Tale of Genji and Don Quixote equaled

the novel’s complexity at the time of its publication.

English Versions of Jin Ping Mei

The Golden Lotus, 4 vols. Translated by Clement

Egerton. London: Routledge, 1939, 1972, 1995.

The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P’ing Mei; Vol -

ume One: The Gathering; Volume Two: The Rivals.

Jin Ping Mei 125

Translated by David Tod Roy. Princeton, N.J.:

Princeton University Press, 1993.

A Work about Jin Ping Mei

Carlitz, Katherine. Rhetoric of Chin P’ing Mei. Bloom-

ington: Indiana University Press, 1986.

Jippensha Ikku (1765–1831) novelist

Tradition has it that Jippensha Ikku was born into

a family of minor samurai, or warrior class. As a

boy he served in a samurai household but left to

spend his youth in Osaka’s chonin society. At age

30, he traveled to Edo (in 1868 renamed Tokyo),

the old capital of Japan, and lived by his writing

while lodging at a bookshop.

In 1802 Jippensha began writing the work for

which he is best known today—Tokai dochu hiza-

kurige (Shank’s Pony along the Tokaido; also known

as Shank’s Mare)—an extremely popular comic

novel about Japan’s chonin, or townsfolk. It is a

picaresque novel, consisting of loose episodes that

do not contribute to an overall plot. The only uni-

fying device is the presence of the main characters

in each episode. This serialized structure perfectly

reflects the Japanese world view with its emphasis

on the present and its appreciation of individual

details. Ikku continued writing episodes for

Shank’s Pony until 1822.

Set along the main highways of Japan, Shank’s

Pony is a sharply realistic depiction of the behav-

ior and speech of the Edo chonin. The episodes

typically take place in brothels, inns, or teahouses,

where the heroes Yajiro and Kitahachi encounter a

colorful array of townspeople and travelers.

Noticeably absent from the novel, however, are

upper-class samurai and peasants. True to chonin

life in the smallest detail, Jippensha describes only

the kinds of people with whom lower-class chonin

would interact in daily life. Consequently, the novel

conveys chonin disinterest in the lives of peasants.

The novel is also notable for its resemblance to

KYOGEN, a form of Japanese comic theater, and for

its inclusion of kyoka, short satirical verses, which

Jippensha uses to deflate Japanese superstitions.

For example, the heroes meet a ghost that turns

out to be an undershirt hung out to dry, while a

monster is revealed to be smoke from a distant fire.

It is not known how Jippensha died, but his

characteristic wit is memorialized by one popular

tale. It tells how Jippensha requested fireworks to

be placed in his coffin so that when he was cre-

mated the spectacular display would both startle

and amuse the funeral party.

An English Version of a Work by

Jippensha Ikku

Shank’s Mare or Hizakurige: Japan’s Great Comic

Novel. Translated by Thomas Satchell. Rutland,

Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1990.

John of the Cross, St. (Juan de Yepes)

(1542–1591) poet, mystic

Juan de Yepes was born to Gonzalo de Yepes and

Catalina Álvarez in the village of Fontiberos. He

studied at the University of Salamanca, took vows

as a Carmelite brother, and became known as John

of the Cross.

In 1567 John joined

TERESA OF AVILA in her

cause of church reform, helping to found monas-

teries of the Barefoot Carmelites. In 1577 John’s

reform activities landed him in prison in Toledo,

and there he began composing the short verses

called the “Stanzas of the Soul.” These light, mys-

tical verses outline his views on the soul’s progress

toward what he considered the highest state of

being, the union with God, which could be

achieved only through rigid self-denial, the sur-

render of will, and a series of spiritual tests he

called “nights.” He describes the soul’s final union

with the divine in the rapturous terms of a lover

encountering a beloved.

After his escape from prison, John developed and

recorded his teachings in two treatises, Ascent of

Mount Carmel and Dark Night of the Soul. The Spir-

itual Canticle, written down in 1584, evolved from

the visionary “Stanzas,” and describes in detail the

upward flight of the soul and the 10 rungs on the

“ladder of love”that reach to God. In 1586 he wrote

126 Jippensha Ikku