The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise

Scholars, journalists, and 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 features of this medieval culture 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 tolerance, Islamic Spain was marked by religious and therefore cultural repression in all areas of life, and by the marginalization of Christians and other groups—all this in the service of social control by autocratic rulers and a class of religious authorities. As professors, politicians, and pundits continue to celebrate Islamic Spain for its “multiculturalism” and “diversity,” Fernández-Morera sets the record straight—showing that a politically useful myth is a myth nonetheless.

"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 Dario Fernandez-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,' Fernandez-Morera sets the historical record straight--showing that a politically useful myth is a myth nonetheless"

Prior accounts have portrayed Islamic Spain either as a paradise of enlightened tolerance, or as the site where civilisations clashed. Award-winning historian Brian A. Catlos taps a wide array of original sources to paint a more complex picture, showing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews together built a sophisticated civilisation that transformed the Western world, even as they waged relentless war against each other and amongst themselves. Religion was often the language of conflict, but seldom its cause--a lesson we would do well to learn in our own time.Kingdoms of Faith rewrites Spain's Islamic past from the ground up, evoking the cultural splendour of al-Andalus and the many forces that shaped it.

The period of Muslim occupation in Spain represents the only significant contact Islam and Europe was ever to have on European soil. In this important as well as fascinating study, Watt traces Islam's influence upon Spain and European civilization--from the collapse of the Visigoths in the eighth century to the fall of Granada in the fifteenth, and considers Spain's importance as a part of the Islamic empire. Particular attention is given to the golden period of economic and political stability achieved under the Umayyads. Without losing themselves in detail and without sacrificing complexity, the authors discuss the political, social, and economic continuity in Islamic Spain, or al-Andalus, in light of its cultural and intellectual effects upon the rest of Europe. Medieval Christianity, Watt points out, found models of scholarship in the Islamic philosophers and adapted the idea of holy war to its own purposes while the final reunification of Spain under the aegis of the Reconquista played a significant role in bringing Europe out of the Middle Ages. A survey essential to anyone seeking a more complete knowledge of European or Islamic history, the volume also includes sections on literature and philology by Pierre Cachia. This series of "Islamic surveys" is designed to give the educated reader something more than can be found in the usual popular books. Each work undertakes to survey a special part of the field, and to show the present stage of scholarship here. Where there is a clear picture this will be given; but where there are gaps, obscurities and differences of opinion, these will also be indicated. Full and annotated bibliographies will afford guidance to those who want to pursue their studies further. There will also be some account of the nature and extent of the source material. The series is addressed in the first place to the educated reader, with little or no previous knowledge of the subject; its character is such that it should be of value also to university students and others whose interest is of a more professional kind.

A Washington Post Bestseller "Fascinating...A lively read...we are indebted to Ms. Menocal for opening up an important period of history." (Wall Street Journal) 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.

Our current image of the Christian population of al-Andalus after AD711 reflects the way history has been written. The Christians almost disappeared from the historical record as the historians of the conquering Muslims concentrated on the glories of the Ummayads.This book reconsiders, through their own words, the fate of the Christians of al-Andalus. The texts discusses two chronicles in Latin on the fate of Hispania, the problematic accounts of Christian martyrs in Cordoba, a Muslim historian's account of how his Christian ancestors survived the conquest and other texts reflecting the acculturation of Christians into Islamic society.

Looks at the golden age produced by the mingling of the three cultures in medieval Spain and shows examples of arts and crafts

From 711 when they arrived on the Iberian Peninsula until 1492 when scholars contribute a wide-ranging series of essays and catalogue entries which are fully companion to the 373 illustrations (324 in color) of the spectacular art and architecture of the nearly vanished culture. 91/2x121/2 they were expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella, the Muslims were a powerful force in al-Andalus, as they called the Iberian lands they controlled. This awe-inspiring volume, which accompanies a major exhibition presented at the Alhambra in Granada and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is devoted to the little-known artistic legacy of Islamic Spain, revealing the value of these arts as part of an autonomous culture and also as a presence with deep significance for both Europe and the Islamic world. Twenty-four international Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Originally published in 1913, this book contains the English translation of Reinhardt’s Dozy’s notable work, Histoire des Musalman’s d’Espagne. First published in 1861, this comprehensive work chronicles the extensive history of Islam in Spain. The introduction by the translator provides a useful overview of Reinhardt’s Dozy’s life and career. This comprehensive work will be of interest to those studying the history of Islam and Spain.

A sweeping history of the often-violent conflict between Islam and the West, shedding a revealing light on current hostilities The West and Islam -- the sword and scimitar -- have clashed since the mid-seventh century, when, according to Muslim tradition, the Roman emperor rejected Prophet Muhammad's order to abandon Christianity and convert to Islam, unleashing a centuries-long jihad on Christendom. Sword and Scimitar chronicles the decisive battles that arose from this ages-old Islamic jihad, beginning with the first major Islamic attack on Christian land in 636, through the Muslim occupation of nearly three-quarters of Christendom which prompted the Crusades, followed by renewed Muslim conquests by Turks and Tatars, to the European colonization of the Muslim world in the 1800s, when Islam largely went on the retreat -- until its reemergence in recent times. Using original sources in Arabic and Greek, preeminent historian Raymond Ibrahim describes each battle in vivid detail and explains how these wars and the larger historical currents of the age reflect the cultural fault lines between Islam and the West. The majority of these landmark battles -- including the battles of Yarmuk, Tours, Manzikert, the sieges at Constantinople and Vienna, and the crusades in Syria and Spain--are now forgotten or considered inconsequential. Yet today, as the West faces a resurgence of this enduring Islamic jihad, Sword and Scimitar provides the needed historical context to understand the current relationship between the West and the Islamic world -- and why the Islamic State is merely the latest chapter of an old history.

'Hard headed, well informed and intellectually coherent ... it turns conventional wisdom on its head. It deserves to promote a public debate on this subject which has been needed for more than 20 years' Peter Oborne Britain has often found groups within its borders whom it does not trust, whom it feels have a belief, culture, practice or agenda which runs contrary to those of the majority. From Catholics to Jews, miners to trade unionists , Marxists to liberals and even homosexuals, all have at times been viewed, described and treated as 'the enemy within'. Muslims are the latest in a long line of 'others' to be given this label. How did this state of affairs come to pass? What are the lessons and challenges for the future - and how will the tale of Muslim Britain develop? Sayeeda Warsi draws on her own unique position in British life, as the child of Pakistani immigrants, an outsider, who became an insider, the UK's first Muslim Cabinet minister, to explore questions of cultural difference, terrorism, surveillance, social justice, religious freedom, integration and the meaning of 'British values'. Uncompromising and outspoken, filled with arguments, real-life experience, necessary truths and possible ways forward for Muslims, politicians and the rest of us, this is a timely and urgent book. 'This thoughtful and passionate book offers hope amid the gloom' David Anderson QC, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation 'A vital book at a critical time' Helena Kennedy QC

Abd al-Rahman III (891 - 961) was the greatest of the Umayyad rulers of Spain and the first to take the title of Caliph. During his reign, Islamic Spain became wealthy and prosperous. He founded the great Caliphate of Madinat al-Zahra at Cordova and did much in his lifetime to pacify his realm and stabilise the borders with Christian Spain. He died at the apex of his power on Oct. 15, 961.

In 1609, Philip III signed an edict denouncing the Muslims of Spain as heretics & the entire population was given three days to leave, on threat of death. In the exodus, 300,000 Muslims were deported & by 1614 Spain had successfully implemented the largest act of ethnic cleansing in European history. The author chronicles this episode.

A collection of essays on Islamic culture seeks to explode the vision of tolerant Muslim societies by revealing a history of injustice and oppression against non-Muslim populations and examines the impact this cultural bias has in the modern world.

Conventional wisdom states that the Hebrew Scriptures only hint that there are persons of Yahveh. This book shows that Moses and other Bible writers wrote strikingly and often, both about the Trinity and the deity of the Messiah. The Old Testament is as explicit about the Trinity and the deity of the Messiah as is the New Testament. The reader of this book will come to know the Trinitarianism in the Hebrew Scriptures that Yahvists knew. The reader of this book will come to read the Bible the same way the inspired writers intended it to be read-as Trinitarian

In 1099, when the first crusaders arrived triumphant and bloody before the walls of Jerusalem, they carved out a Christian European presence in the Islamic world that remained for centuries, bolstered by subsequent waves of new crusades and pilgrimages. But how did medieval Muslims understand these events? What does an Islamic history of the Crusades look like? The answers may surprise you. In The Race for Paradise, we see medieval Muslims managing this new and long-lived Crusader threat not simply as victims or as victors, but as everything in-between, on all shores of the Muslim Mediterranean, from Spain to Syria. This is not just a straightforward tale of warriors and kings clashing in the Holy Land - of military confrontations and enigmatic heroes such as the great sultan Saladin. What emerges is a more complicated story of border-crossers and turncoats; of embassies and merchants; of scholars and spies, all of them seeking to manage this new threat from the barbarian fringes of their ordered world. When seen from the perspective of medieval Muslims, the Crusades emerge as something altogether different from the high-flying rhetoric of the European chronicles: as a diplomatic chess-game to be mastered, a commercial opportunity to be seized, a cultural encounter shaping Muslim experiences of Europeans until the close of the Middle Ages - and, as so often happened, a political challenge to be exploited by ambitious rulers making canny use of the language of jihad.

Discusses the life and work of French soldier and political thinker, Marquis de Lafayette, and his role in the American Revolution.

"[A] summer must read." — SEAN HANNITY, Fox News "[No Go Zones] should be required reading for conservatives, Republicans, liberals, teachers, students, reporters, editors, and activists all alike." —NIGEL FARAGE, Member of the European Parliament No Go Zones. That's what they're called. And while the politically correct try to deny their existence, the shocking reality of these "No Go Zones"—where Sharia law can prevail and local police stay away—can be attested to by its many victims. Now Raheem Kassam, a courageous reporter and editor at Breitbart, takes us where few journalists have dared to tread—inside the No Go Zones, revealing areas that Western governments, including the United States, don't want to admit exist within their own borders. With compelling reporting, Kassam takes you into Islamic areas you might not even know existed—communities, neighborhoods, and whole city districts from San Bernardino, California, (a No Go Zone of the mind) to Hamtramck, Michigan (essentially an Islamic colony in the Midwest); from Malmö, Sweden, to the heart of London, England—where infidels are unwelcome, Islamic law is king, and extremism grows. In No Go Zones, Kassam reveals: How in No Go Zones a blind eye is being turned to polygamy, female genital mutilation, sexual assault, segregation, and even honor killings Why Muslim ghettos in the West aren't the equivalent of Little Italy or Chinatown, but a serious cultural and political threat How the welfare state actually funds and supports a Muslim subculture of resentment How to identify extremist mosques A matter of numbers: how mass migration could transform Europe into a Muslim-dominated continent within our own lifetimes The alarming speed at which No Go Zones are coming to America Compelling in its reporting, shocking in its detail, Raheem Kassam's No Go Zones is one of the most frightening true stories you will read this year.

Drawing from both Christian and Islamic sources, Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain demonstrates that the clash of arms between Christians and Muslims in the Iberian peninsula that began in the early eighth century was transformed into a crusade by the papacy during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Successive popes accorded to Christian warriors willing to participate in the peninsular wars against Islam the same crusading benefits offered to those going to the Holy Land. Joseph F. O'Callaghan clearly demonstrates that any study of the history of the crusades must take a broader view of the Mediterranean to include medieval Spain. Following a chronological overview of crusading in the Iberian peninsula from the late eleventh to the middle of the thirteenth century, O'Callaghan proceeds to the study of warfare, military finance, and the liturgy of reconquest and crusading. He concludes his book with a consideration of the later stages of reconquest and crusade up to and including the fall of Granada in 1492, while noting that the spiritual benefits of crusading bulls were still offered to the Spanish until the Second Vatican Council of 1963. Although the conflict described in this book occurred more than eight hundred years ago, recent events remind the world that the intensity of belief, rhetoric, and action that gave birth to crusade, holy war, and jihad remains a powerful force in the twenty-first century.