Newburyport Public Library

Kingdoms of faith, a new history of Islamic Spain, Brian A. Catlos

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

mapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

Kingdoms of faith

bibliography

1003304619

Brian A. Catlos

a new history of Islamic Spain

"A magisterial, myth-dispelling history of Islamic Spain spanning the millennium between the founding of Islam in the seventh century and the final expulsion of Spain's Muslims in the seventeenth. In Kingdoms of Faith, award-winning historian Brian A. Catlos rewrites the history of Islamic Spain from the ground up, evoking the cultural splendor of al-Andalus, while offering an authoritative new interpretation of the forces that shaped it. Prior accounts have portrayed Islamic Spain as a paradise of enlightened tolerance or the site where civilizations clashed. Catlos taps a wide array of primary sources to paint a more complex portrait, showing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews together built a sophisticated civilization that helped transform the Western world, even as they waged relentless war against each other and their coreligionists. Religion was often the language of conflict, but seldom its cause--a lesson we would do well to learn in our own time"--, Provided by publisher

Prelude: The beginning of Islam and the end of antiquity -- Part I: Conquest, 700-820 -- An opening -- Trouble in paradise -- The falcon of the Quraysh -- A new emirate -- Part II: Transformation, 820-929 -- The emirate on the edge -- The invention of al-Andalus -- Saints and sinners -- Kingdoms of faith -- Part III: Triumph, 929-1030 -- A sun rising in the west -- The resplendent city -- All the Caliph's men -- "An ornament bright" -- The general, the caliph, his wife, and her lover -- The chamberlain, victorious -- The fall of the House of Umayya -- Part IV: Disarray, 1030-1220 -- The remembrance of things past -- The return of the king -- A soldier of fortune in the kingdom of philosophy -- A terrible, swift sword -- Faith and power -- An African caliphate -- Golden ages -- Part V: Romance, 1220-1482 -- The great game -- Crescent under cross -- The pearl in the necklace -- Prosperous by God -- Tales of the Alhambra -- Part VI: Shards, 1482-1614 -- A last sigh -- The virgin and the veil -- On the road with Ricote -- Epilogue: Al-Andalus unmoored