The Andalusian Muslim martyr Salima bint Jaafar, may God have mercy on her
After the fall of Andalusia in 1492, when the Kingdom of Leon and Castile united with the Kingdom of Aragon to seize the Muslim strongholds and the fall of
Cities followed one another until Granada, the last Muslim base in Andalusia, fell after the Muslims had ruled Andalusia for nearly eight centuries, starting from the year 95 AH to the year 897 AH.
Then the years of blood began in Andalusia. Injustice began to spread. No one was spared from it. It affected Muslims and Jews. Every trace that remained after the Muslims began to be obliterated, and scientific and religious books, including the Holy Qur’an, were burned.
Orders were issued to expel them or convert them to Christianity, and those who refused were subjected to the most severe forms of torture. Not everyone complied with the orders, so the search began for a solution to subjugate everyone.
From here emerged the bloody idea that claimed the lives of millions of innocent people, namely the Inquisition, those Catholic courts that committed atrocities with their actions and decisions, from which no one was safe.
Some people were even forced to pretend to be Christians during the day, but at night they secretly practiced the teachings of their religion.
The Inquisition did not need evidence to prove the accused guilty. Anyone could slander another person by accusing him of not being a Christian, and the Inquisition would begin its work of torture and killing.
These courts excelled in torture methods, and the process was carried out very slowly until the guilty person received his punishment and did not escape the clutches of death.
One of the most famous figures immortalized by history is the Andalusian martyr Salima bint Jaafar, who is the granddaughter of Abu Jaafar al-Warraq al-Garnati, who was fond of books and loved collecting and selling them.
“From here he took his nickname Abu Jaafar al-Warraq.” “Salima” was a child when the Castilians, along with the Inquisition, took over Granada.
Salima loved books like her grandfather Abu Jaafar, who raised her after the Inquisition killed her father, and she witnessed - in her childhood - the burning of Arabic and Islamic books in Bab al-Ramla Square in Granada.
Her grandfather had hidden the most valuable books from the Catholic Inquisition. Salima spent her days and nights memorizing Arabic medical books, which the world continued to rely on until the late eighteenth century.
Salima turned her bedroom into a medicine laboratory and became known as the “Wise Woman of Granada.”
The Inquisition and the Catholic Holy Terror took notice of her.. and Salima was accused of witchcraft, and was taken to the Inquisition..
The court was headed by a theological judge and two investigators who believed in torturing and burning witches. The court issued a decision that is still preserved in the “El Escorbal” Library (Madrid):
“In the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-seven of the birth of Christ, on the fifteenth day of May, and in our presence:
Antonio Agabida, Judge of the Investigation Bureau, Alfonso Madera, Investigator, and Miguel Aguilar, Investigator of the General Court,
An investigation has begun into what has been circulated and what has come to our attention that “Gloria Alvarez”, whose old name is “Salima bint Jaafar”, practices black magic.
She had in her house what aroused suspicion of seeds, plants and satanic compounds, which she used to harm people. We, the investigators, prove - after swearing on the four Gospels - that Salima bint Jaafar became a Christian.
She changed her mother's name from "Umm Hassan" to "Maria Blanca" and her husband Saad Al-Maliki was baptized "Carlos Manuel" and her daughter "Aisha"
So, "Berranza" was raided and Salma's house was raided, and her books and laboratory were seized.
Salma was asked: Do you believe in the devil? She replied: “I do not believe that the devil exists, and everything that happens to people is due to illness of the body or mind.”
The Catholic judge commented, “The charge of denying the devil alone is enough to burn her after torturing her to heal her soul.”
Then the judge asked her again: “Do you travel at night across distances on the back of an animal?” Her answer was: “I have not heard of anyone who has had that happen to him except Muhammad, the Prophet of the Muslims.”
The judge asked her: “Did that really happen?” She said: “I was baptized and became a Christian.”
The judge said, addressing the audience, “She did it deliberately, but she did not abandon her religion of Muhammad.” Then the judge pronounced the verdict:
“The venerable council of theologians and spokesmen for the Catholic Church met,
After discussions and deliberations, we concluded that you are the so-called “Gloria Alvarez”. We concluded that you are an infidel, and we sentenced you to torture for purification and then burning.
Salma was stripped naked and her breasts were exposed. “Exposing” is the area where the breasts rest on the chest (in men and women).
"Bahadla" came to mean hanging the accused by his legs, then cutting off his breasts (whether a man or a woman), then lighting a fire beneath him, so he dies drowning in his own blood, burned by the fire.
The Egyptian colloquial uses the word in a general sense - she was hung by her feet, her blood was flowing, and the wood and firewood were set on fire beneath her and she was burned.
She was burned in the place where her grandfather’s books had been burned when she was a little girl in Andalusia, and on the way to the pyre, she advanced with pride and steadfastness so that her enemies would not find shelter in her.. May God have mercy on her.
Source: websites