The Ornament of the World

The Ornament of the World

Author: Maria Rosa Menocal

Publisher: Back Bay Books

Published: 2009-11-29

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0316092797

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This classic bestseller — the inspiration for the PBS series — is an "illuminating and even inspiring" portrait of medieval Spain that explores the golden age when Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in an atmosphere of tolerance (Los Angeles Times). This enthralling history, widely hailed as a revelation of a "lost" golden age, brings to vivid life the rich and thriving culture of medieval Spain, where for more than seven centuries Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in an atmosphere of tolerance, and where literature, science, and the arts flourished. "It is no exaggeration to say that what we presumptuously call 'Western' culture is owed in large measure to the Andalusian enlightenment...This book partly restores a world we have lost." —Christopher Hitchens, The Nation


The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise

The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise

Author: Dario Fernandez-Morera

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2023-07-11

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 1684516293

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A finalist for World Magazine's Book of the Year! Scholars, journalists, and even politicians uphold Muslim-ruled medieval Spain—"al-Andalus"—as a multicultural paradise, a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony. There is only one problem with this widely accepted account: it is a myth. In this groundbreaking book, Northwestern University scholar Darío Fernández-Morera tells the full story of Islamic Spain. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise shines light on hidden history by drawing on an abundance of primary sources that scholars have ignored, as well as archaeological evidence only recently unearthed. This supposed beacon of peaceful coexistence began, of course, with the Islamic Caliphate's conquest of Spain. Far from a land of religious tolerance, Islamic Spain was marked by religious and therefore cultural repression in all areas of life and the marginalization of Christians and other groups—all this in the service of social control by autocratic rulers and a class of religious authorities. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise provides a desperately needed reassessment of medieval Spain. As professors, politicians, and pundits continue to celebrate Islamic Spain for its "multiculturalism" and "diversity," Fernández-Morera sets the historical record straight—showing that a politically useful myth is a myth nonetheless.


Muslim Spain and Portugal

Muslim Spain and Portugal

Author: Hugh Kennedy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-06-11

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1317870409

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This is the first study in English of the political history of Muslim Spain and Portugal, based on Arab sources. It provides comprehensive coverage of events across the whole of the region from 711 to the fall of Granada in 1492. Up till now the history of this region has been badly neglected in comparison with studies of other states in medieval Europe. When considered at all, it has been largely written from Christian sources and seen in terms of the Christian Reconquest. Hugh Kennedy raises the profile of this important area, bringing the subject alive with vivid translations from Arab sources. This will be fascinating reading for historians of medieval Europe and for historians of the middle east drawing out the similarities and contrasts with other areas of the Muslim world.


Arab-Jewish Literature

Arab-Jewish Literature

Author: Reuven Snir

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-01-07

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 9004390685

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In Arab-Jewish Literature: The Birth and Demise of the Arabic Short Story, Reuven Snir offers an account of the emergence of the art of the Arabic short story among the Arabized Jews during the 1920s, especially in Iraq and Egypt, its development in the next two decades, until the emigration to Israel after 1948, and the efforts to continue the literary writing in Israeli society, the shift to Hebrew, and its current demise. The stories discussed in the book reflect the various stages of the development of Arab-Jewish identity during the twentieth century and are studied in the relevant updated theoretical and literary contexts. An anthology of sixteen translated stories is also included as an appendix to the book. "Highly recommended for academic libraries collecting in the areas of Arab-Jewish cultural history, diaspora and exile studies, and literary identity formations." - Dr. Yaffa Weisman, Los Angeles, in: Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews 1.2 (2019)


The Literature of Al-Andalus

The Literature of Al-Andalus

Author: María Rosa Menocal

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-11-02

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 0521030234

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The Literature of Al-Andalus is an exploration of the culture of Iberia, present-day Spain and Portugal, during the period when it was an Islamic, mostly Arabic-speaking territory, from the eighth to the thirteenth century, and in the centuries following the Christian conquest when Arabic continued to be widely used. The volume embraces many other related spheres of Arabic culture including philosophy, art, architecture and music. It also extends the subject to other literatures - especially Hebrew and Romance literatures - that burgeoned alongside Arabic and created the distinctive hybrid culture of medieval Iberia. Edited by an Arabist, an Hebraist and a Romance scholar, with individual chapters compiled by a team of the world's leading experts of Islamic Iberia, Sicily and related cultures, this is a truly interdisciplinary and comparative work which offers a interesting approach to the field.


Jews of Spain

Jews of Spain

Author: Jane S. Gerber

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 1994-01-31

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 0029115744

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The history of the Jews of Spain is a remarkable story that begins in the remote past and continues today. For more than a thousand years, Sepharad (the Hebrew word for Spain) was home to a large Jewish community noted for its richness and virtuosity. Summarily expelled in 1492 and forced into exile, their tragedy of expulsion marked the end of one critical phase of their history and the beginning of another. Indeed, in defiance of all logic and expectation, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain became an occasion for renewed creativity. Nor have five hundred years of wandering extinguished the identity of the Sephardic Jews, or diminished the proud memory of the dazzling civilization, which they created on Spanish soil. This book is intended to serve as an introduction and scholarly guide to that history.


Muslim Societies

Muslim Societies

Author: Sato Tsugitaka

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-08-02

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 1134320221

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This volume examines Muslim societies across Europe, North Africa, Central Asia and South Asia from the eighteenth century to the present, providing fresh insight through comparison. Movements and populations covered include the nineteenth century North African Sansusi movement and its relationships to Sufis and Arabs of the region, Soviet and Chinese Central Asia, Muslim-Hindu relationships in South Asia, Muslims in Syria and Muslim immigrants in Europe.


Handbook of Medieval Culture. Volume 2

Handbook of Medieval Culture. Volume 2

Author: Albrecht Classen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2015-08-31

Total Pages: 824

ISBN-13: 3110377632

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A follow-up publication to the Handbook of Medieval Studies, this new reference work turns to a different focus: medieval culture. Medieval research has grown tremendously in depth and breadth over the last decades. Particularly our understanding of medieval culture, of the basic living conditions, and the specific value system prevalent at that time has considerably expanded, to a point where we are in danger of no longer seeing the proverbial forest for the trees. The present, innovative handbook offers compact articles on essential topics, ideals, specific knowledge, and concepts defining the medieval world as comprehensively as possible. The topics covered in this new handbook pertain to issues such as love and marriage, belief in God, hell, and the devil, education, lordship and servitude, Christianity versus Judaism and Islam, health, medicine, the rural world, the rise of the urban class, travel, roads and bridges, entertainment, games, and sport activities, numbers, measuring, the education system, the papacy, saints, the senses, death, and money.


Looking Back at Al-Andalus

Looking Back at Al-Andalus

Author: Alexander E. Elinson

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 9004166807

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"Looking Back at al-Andalus" focuses on Arabic and Hebrew Literature that expresses the loss of al-Andalus from multiple vantage points. In doing so, this book examines the definition of al-Andalusa (TM) literary borders, the reconstruction of which navigates between traditional generic formulations and actual political, military and cultural challenges. By looking at a variety of genres, the book shows that literature aiming to recall and define al-Andalus expresses a series of symbolic literary objects more than a geographic and political entity fixed in a single time and place. "Looking Back at al-Andalus" offers a unique examination into the role of memory, language, and subjectivity in presenting a series of interpretations of what al-Andalus represented to different writers at different historical-cultural moments.