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By Chris Lowney
Between the years 711 and 1492,
European
Christians and North African
Muslims vied
for control of the Iberian Peninsula,
while
Europe’s largest Jewish community
frequently
found itself caught in the middle.
In a fast-paced,
engaging narrative, the author
traces both
the positive and negative results
of this
lengthy experience.
On the negative side, many of the contemporary
antagonisms among members of the three great
monotheistic religions are traceable to misdeeds
in that period and place. The author describes
these in even-handed detail. On the positive
side, there were just as many hopeful precedents
for peaceful coexistence, cooperation, and
mutual development. Among the fascinating
vignettes are chapters entitled “The Pope
Who Learned Math from Muslim Spain” and “A
Jewish General in a Muslim Kingdom.” The
Christian warrior El Cid is shown to be a
rather more enlightened conqueror than his
popular image suggests.
Moses Maimonides, Jewish physician, theologian,
and confidant of Muslim rulers, was a “Renaissance
Man” before either the term or the era came
to exist, and he rightfully gets a chapter
to himself. Especially fascinating is the
author’s exposition of the common threads
among contemplative, peace-loving religious
movements that grew on Spanish soil. These
include Muslim Sufism and the Jewish Kabbalah
as well as the work of the great Spanish
Christian mystics Teresa of Avila and John
of the Cross.
The book also makes forays into
science,
architecture, agriculture, and
even the origins
of the “cowboy” culture that
now is most
associated with the Americas,
especially
the United States. Impressive
in scope and
sweep, this book nonetheless
is a tightly
focused, elegantly constructed,
and most
enjoyable voyage of discovery
to a far-off
time and place that bears many
valuable lessons
for us today. |
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