“Tales of Al-Andalus” is a show in which stories from ages past are told in the form of a tale that takes us on a journey back to the world evoked by The Arabian Nights. 

From the amazing gift given by a sultan to a musician for a beautiful song and the daring of a woman sultan in the royal harem. From the hustle and bustle of a bookshop in Cordoba to a play on the chess board which saved the city of Seville. From the nostalgia of one of the court favorites in the lovely citadel of Madinat al-Zahra to the curiosity of Caliph Harun. The voice of Jesús Greus and Arabic oud of Luis Delgado will lead us deep into these tales filled with beauty, imagination and historical accuracy.

Born in Madrid, Jesús Greus is a writer with a university degree in the English language from London’s Institute of Linguists. He has been a contributor to the newspapers ABC, Diario 16 in the Balearic Islands, El Día del Mundo and Libération du Maroc and currently contributes to various digital literary journals. He has also worked as a translator for publishing firms in Madrid. As a conference speaker, eh has been a guest of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Sorbonne University, the Le Monde autour du Livre foundation in Bordeaux, the Center for Luso-Arab Studies in Silves, Portugal, the Fundación Arte y Cultura in Madrid, several different local branches of the Cervantes Institute, cultural foundations in Morocco, etc. He was recently invited to take part in the prestigious Ted Talks organization. He is a musician and has formed part of various groups in the past, performing works of musical fusion, as well as medieval and Renaissance music. He has been a cultural manager for the Cervantes Institute in Marrakesh and is a member of cultural foundations in that city, where he has resided for fifteen years. The author of various film screenplays, he also contributes literary tales to several online journals and has had numerous essays, novels, plays and stories published on this subject.

A performer and author dedicated to ancient music since 1970, Mr. Delgado has worked in several music groups: Orquesta Gaspar Sanz, the group “Atrium Musicae,” the “Cálamus” ensemble, “Música Antigua” by Eduardo Paniagua, Ibn Baya Spanish-Moroccan Group and the Occitan trio “Le Tre Fontane.” As an author, he has composed soundtracks for television, ballets and various theatrical production, having received the Max Award for his achievements. He has gone on tours throughout the world and regularly composes for the Planetarium in Madrid. He has also worked for those in New York, A Coruña, Cuenca and Pamplona. He has had more than thirty albums published as a solo artist and has taken part in more than fifty recordings as a musician and producer.

A fabulous gift for a song | The daring of a woman sultan and the royal harem | The popularity of books in Cordoba | The poet and chess | Zahra the favorite’s nostalgia in Madinat al-Zahra | Caliph Harun Rashid’s curiousness

Theatrical adaptation of the work “Don Quixote” in classical Arabic. After a brief theatrical warm-up with the children, it is some of the young audience members themselves who will be playing the different characters, always with the help of Marco Magoa and no need for any prior rehearsal. The viewers/actors won’t be familiar with the script, but because of the scenes’ simplicity, it is they who will create the theatrical performance as the play moves along. 

Marco Magoa is an actor and theatrical director with a great deal of experience (Teatro Margen, La Fura dels Baus, Spain’s National Classical Theater Company, Royal Theater of Madrid, etc). With his dance company “teatro4m,” he has directed and produced twelve productions and has worked in Arab countries for ten years. His trilogy about the drama of the refugees is his most recent work, and his latest production “Mare Nostrum finis somnia vestra” premiered in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2016.

Language: The performance will be held in Spanish with some words in Arabic 

Ages: For children from 8-12 years old

Duration: 50 minutes

Issawa Belkhayat is a group which was formed by Mohamed Belkhayat in Madrid in 2001. Belkhayat is a performer with a lengthy career behind him in his country of origin, Morocco, where he worked with the greats in the Issawa and Hmadcha musical styles. Since it was created, Issawa Belkhayat has appeared at both domestic and foreign festivals. 

Issawa songs are famous in the Arab world for their spiritual music characterized by the sounds of bagpipes (mizmar, zurna), and the singing of spiritual hymn groups accompanied by an orchestra of percussion instruments with differently shaped drums, the tbal, taarija, bendir and tara. 

The Issawia community’s musical sources come from the Sufi tradition. The characteristics which define the songs, rhythms and dances of the Issawa tradition are different from other musical styles in Morocco and are mainly inspired by texts which were, in turn, written or inspired by its founder, Sheikh Al-Kamil.

This conference will deal with the social and cultural aspects of Ramadan, as well as the basic facets of fasting, one of the five basic pillars of Islam and a regular religious practice in Muslim societies which strengthens the bonds of solidarity and a feeling of belonging to one same community. A period of spiritual awareness, and at the same time a month when the people hold a very special, active place in public space, Ramadan creates a change of pace in the everyday life of believers and the community. On an increasingly widespread basis, many places are also viewing Ramadan as a festival time in which different celebrations during the month and at its end highlight the moral values and spirit of community amongst Muslims while recreating local folk traditions.  

Araceli González Vázquez has a PhD in History from the University of Cantabria (2010) and a university degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Deusto (2004). As of July 1, she will be working as a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher at the CSIC’s Institute of Mediterranean and Middle Easter Languages and Cultures. She has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale of the Collège de France (2011-2012) and in the Arab and Islamic Studies Area at the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV-EHU) (2013). From 2014 to 2016, she has been an affiliated member (membre affilié) of the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale of the Collège de France and has led a research project within the Study of Studies on Ceuta area titled “The Muslim Saints of Ceuta: Religious anthropology of Ceuta’s contemporary Islam.” She is a specialist in gender anthropology and Islam in Morocco, and in her works she deals with topics involving rituals and the body. She is the author of the book Mujeres, Islam y alteridades en el norte de Marruecos (Women, Islam and Othernesses in Northern Morocco, Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra, 2015).