Elisenda de Sant Climent (1220–1275), was a Catalan woman who was captured as a slave.[1][2]
She was born to Guillem Ramon de Sant Climent and married a Catalan farmer on Mallorca; they belonged to the Catalan colonists on Mallorca after the island was conquered by Aragon in 1229.[2] They had a daughter, Guillemona.[1][3]
In 1238, during the conquest of Valencia, Elisenda and her family was captured by Islamic slave traders on a raid on Mallorca. She and her daughter were taken to a harem of the emir of the Hafsid dynasty in Tunis, Muhammad I al-Mustansir. Her daughter was made Muslim and took the name Rocaia, and became the influential favorite of the son of the emir, Miromomeli, which gave also her mother privileges.[2]
Elisenda made contact with the Catalan merchant Arnau Solsona who lived in Tunis, and eventually married him.[3][2] She acquired items sent to her by her daughter, from the palace of the emir. Among them was a relic, sent to Elisenda by her daughter for the purpose of transferring it into Christian ownership.[4] The relic consisted of a piece of the cloth which she described as a bit of the bandage the Virgin Mary used when tending to the wounds of Jesus.[1][3] This relic was placed in the Old Cathedral of Lleida, where it was long preserved, and the story of Elisenda told.
In 1297, Arnau Solsona related this story as a witnessed declaration on his deathbed.[5]
References
edit- ^ a b c Rumbau, Montserrat (1996). Com érem fa 700 anys: una crònica de la vida quotidiana a la Corona catalanoaragonesa del segle XIII (in Catalan). Tibidabo Edicions. ISBN 978-84-8033-069-5.
- ^ a b c d Mallol, M. Teresa Ferrer i; Històrico-Arqueològica, Secció (2013-02-21). Jaume I : commemoració del VIII centenari del naixement de Jaume I: Volum: 2 : L'economia rural. L'articulació urbana. Les institucions eclesiàstiques. L'expansió territorial. El comerç (in Catalan). Institut d'Estudis Catalans. ISBN 978-84-9965-158-3.
- ^ a b c Lladonosa, Josep (1967). Arnau de Solsana, un mercader lleidatà a Tunis, 1218-1297 (in Catalan). R. Dalmau.
- ^ Diccionari biogràfic (in Catalan). Alberti. 1970.
- ^ Rumbau, Montserrat (2015-02-25). Com èrem fa 700 anys (in Spanish). Tibidabo Ediciones S.A. ISBN 978-84-16204-80-9.
- «Diccionari Biogràfic de Dones: Elisenda de Sant Climent Archived 2016-08-07 at the Wayback Machine»
- Lladonosa, Josep (1967). Arnau Solsona, un mercader lleidatà a Tunis (1218-12979). Barcelona: Rafael Dalmau (Episodis de la Història, 97).