[Sca-cooks] pork side note- was:Hello

[Raphaella DiContini]

An amusing side note to this was how Venice managed to smuggle it's saint. In 828 two venetian merchants smuggled relics believed to be the remains of St. Mark out of Alexandria by hiding them in a barrel of pork so they would not be inspected or disturbed by Muslim officials. 

So according to this much repeated and depicted tale they were allowed to transport pork in a Muslim area, but an observant Muslim would not even touch it, or so the saint smugglers apparently trusted in. 

In joyous service, 
Raffaella 

> I think what was under discussion was the period of Muslim
> control.
> 
> From what i've read, i would expect that pork was not
> available for sale in cities under Muslim control, in which
> Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived. However, in isolated
> Christian villages life could have been different, and pigs
> in evidence and on the table.
> 
> Conversely, even after the end of the Reconquista in 1492,
> there continued to be isolated Muslim villages for around a
> century or a bit more. Naturally, as the villages were
> discovered, the Muslim inhabitants were forced either to
> convert to Christianity or to flee.
> -- Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
> the persona formerly known as Anahita