The Ornament of the World : How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain (Paperback)

from kukulaj

This is a delightful romp through almost a thousand years of the Spanish history. It doesn't attempt to be comprehensive, but instead is a series of snapshots, with enough connections sketched in to keep the story coherent. The main theme is the notion of a first-class mind, from F. Scott Fitzger...

from deliriumslibrarian

Jewish poets writing in Arabic. Christians learning from great Islamic scholars. Muslims commissioning Christian artists. Maria Menocal's book explores the world of the "convivencia," the great experiment in living together that was created by the Umayyad amirate in Cordoba, after the model of Da...

from bezoar44

Maria Rosa Menocal's episodic history of medieval Spain is well organized, erudite, and romantic. The book starts with a long chapter that surveys the period, roughly 780 through 1360. Shorter chapters then provide vignettes lifted out of the larger history, focusing on scenes or people whose liv...

from brett_in_nyc

This book is another really great one. It is long and hard to read, and full of details of Kings and Moorish Knights wacking each other over centuries of Feudal life in Spain and Portugal. It does a wonderful wonderful job of painting a picture of how Spain blossomed after Rome fell apart, around...

from Dalya

A Yale scholar's in depth study of the Golden Age in Spain that began with the sole survivor of the Ummayids arrival on the Iberian peninsula. This read is delightful as the information feeds the author's insights and takes the reader along with her. The religious tollerance and sharing of cultur...