| Description |
xviii, 315 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [284]-292) and index. |
| Summary |
Undoing the familiar notion of the Middle Ages as a period of religious persecution and intellectual stagnation, Menocal brings us a portrait of a medieval culture where literature, science, and tolerance flourished for 500 years. The story begins as a young prince in exile--the last heir to an Islamic dynasty--founds a new kingdom on the Iberian peninsula: al-Andalus. Combining the best of what Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures had to offer, al-Andalus and its successors influenced the rest of Europe in dramatic ways, from the death of liturgical Latin and the spread of secular poetry, to remarkable feats in architecture, science, and technology. The glory of the Andalusian kingdoms endured until the Renaissance, when Christian monarchs forcibly converted, executed, or expelled non-Catholics from Spain. |
| Contents |
Beginnings -- A brief history of a first-rate place -- The palaces of memory -- The mosque and the palm tree: Cordoba 786 -- Mother tongues: Cordoba, 855 -- A grand vizier, a grand city: Cordoba, 949 -- The gardens of memory: Madinat al-Zahra, south of Cordoba, 1009 -- Victorious in exile: The battlefield at Argona, between Cordoba and granada, 1041 -- Love and its songs: Niebla, just west of Seville, on the road to Huelva, August 1064; Barbastro, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, on the road to Saragossa, August 1064 -- The church at the top of the hill: Toledo, 1085 -- An Andalusian in London: Huesca, 1106 -- Sailing away, riding away: Alexandria, 1140 -- The abbot and the Quran: Cluny, 1142 -- Gifts: Sicily, 1236; Cordoba, 1236; Granada, 1236 -- Banned in Paris: Paris, 1277 -- Visions of other worlds: Avila, 1305 -- Foreign dignitaries at the courts of Castile: Seville, 1364; Toledo, 1364 -- In the Alhambra: Granada, 1492 -- Somewhere in La Mancha: 1605 -- Epilogue: Andalusian shards. |
| Subject |
Spain -- Civilization -- 711-1516.
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Spain -- Civilization -- Islamic influences.
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Spain -- Ethnic relations.
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Toleration -- Spain -- History.
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Muslims -- Spain -- History.
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Christians -- Spain -- History.
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Jews -- Spain -- History.
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Europe -- Civilization -- Arab influences.
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Europe -- Civilization -- Spanish influences.
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Europe -- Relations -- Spain.
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Spain -- Relations -- Europe.
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| ISBN |
0316566888 |
|
