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

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

by Maria Rosa Menocal, Harold Bloom (Foreword by)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 590 ratings · 105 reviews

Undoing the familiar notion of the Middle Ages as a period of religious persecution and intellectual stagnation, María Menocal now 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-Andal...more

Paperback, 352 pages

Published April 2nd 2003 by Back Bay Books (first published 2002)

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Jul 10, 2009 The Chaotic Reader rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: history, favorites

"The fact that Ferdinand and Isabella did not choose the path of tolerance is seen as an example of the intractability and inevitability of intolerance, especially in the premodern era. But their actions may be far better understood as the failure to make the more difficult decision, to have the courage to cultivate a society that can live with its own flagrant contradictions. They chose instead to go down the modern path, the one defined by an ethic of unity and harmony, and which is largely in...more

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Oct 01, 2008 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-continent, owned, inshallah

First, some words of warning: do not approach this particular book as a historical documentation of a period, lest you be very frustrated within a few chapters. The Decline and Fall: The Moorish Way this is not. While Menocal does provide an outline of the events, rulers, and major actors of the era in the first chapter, it is nothing more than a quick sketch, intended to explain the backdrop of what she really wishes to talk about. Elsewhere, the historical information is presented in a very sh...more First, some words of warning: do not approach this particular book as a historical documentation of a period, lest you be very frustrated within a few chapters. The Decline and Fall: The Moorish Way this is not. While Menocal does provide an outline of the events, rulers, and major actors of the era in the first chapter, it is nothing more than a quick sketch, intended to explain the backdrop of what she really wishes to talk about. Elsewhere, the historical information is presented in a very short, incoherent, incomplete, and confusing way- for example- she often chooses to get halfway through a story before she explains why it is significant, where it fits and the reasons behind it. She deals with tiny aspects of larger stories, which often makes it appear as if she is either a) withholding information that would be useful to us to judge her arguement or b) has forgotten that the majority of people reading this book do not have her extensive background in Moorish history. It does at times necessitate re-readings and references back to the opening chapter in order to provide something solid to hold on to.

The better way to approach this book, which I discovered about halfway through when futzing and slurring my way through a passage that seemed to be suspended in mid-air, is as a recounting of precious cultural gems from a fascinating period of history. It is Menocal's loving elegy for a dead empire, her passionate conjuring of the "memory palaces" (a term she is fond of using throughout) that helped to construct Western society in ways many of us were not aware of, her indignant correction of the idea that the Middle Ages were universally a time of darkness and intolerance. If it is evident that she is biased towards the enlightened, civilized Muslims and the Arabized Jews and Christians that lived within their empire, and inclined to romanticize the Umyyadd lineage's rule in Andalusia, it is often hard to blame her, given the comparison to the surrounding areas. (I will say that her writing style at times is ass-kissing and extreme enough that I wonder why exactly she is playing courtier to the ghosts of dead kings.) However, a number of points made are entirely valid and important to remember:

- We owe a good deal of our knowledge to this lost empire, and the Arabic translations of Greek philosophers, as well as technological advantages, mathematical works, and learned religious and philsophical commentaries. Some of the most important commentaries on Aristotle, for instance, were written in Arabic by Muslims. The vast libraries of Toledo could not have been translated without the work of Arabic speakers. We also owe a good deal to Muslim style architecture, which still survives in Spain today. Modern Western culture would have been entirely different were it not for the presence of this empire in Spain. I don't think that's an overestimation. And what's interesting is that the greater Muslim world apparently treats this era as nothing more than a failure for its eventual military defeat.

- Andalusian Muslims were, for their time, remarkably tolerant of other religions, and those who lived there at the time did often voluntarily convert to Islam. Arabic was the language of civilized people, and everyone spoke it. To the point that Christians used it in their services, and felt that they were protecting an older tradition when the Church tried to push the Roman Latin on them. The extremist Muslims who helped bring dowm the empire came from elsewhere, invited to stave off the advancing, often intolerant Christians. And by the by, the Andalusian Muslims eventually asked for help from Christians in driving out the extremist elements. Religion was really not always a primary concern in who you worked with on the Peninsula, at least until 1492.

- Many of the legends passed down got it completely wrong, in terms of all the battles being Muslim v. Christian, etc: For instance,
1)The Song of Roland records the retreat of Charlemagne's troops across the mountains after their defeated seige of Saragossa, a Muslim city. Supposedly, they were ambushed from the rear by Muslims during their retreat and slaughtered wholesale. A) Muslims invited Charlemagne to come in the first place, upset with the rule of the new Umyyadd rulers, and so Christians and Muslims worked together on that particular seige and B) the attackers were actually the Basques, who even back there were really touchy about uninvited outsiders in their terrirtory. Muslims had nothing to do with it.
2) The Cid, the famous Spanish hero, was not at all loyal to his Christian patron. "Cid," in fact, is an Arabic word meaning "lord." He fought with Alfonso constantly, the Christian monarch he had lead armies for for a time, and eventually left him to lead Muslim armies against both Christians (including Alfonso) and other Muslims. One of the cities he served in, by the by, was Saragossa.
3) There are countless instances of Christian and Muslim kings working together, and of culture being absorbed one way and the other. ie, the Normans invaded a Muslim city and ended up going native enough to speak Arabic and convert to Islam.

- There's a good long middle section that deals with a lot of linguistics, and the importance of a language that is both the everyday language and the holy language, and how Arabic helped advance Hebrew poets, how the use of the vernacular as a written language came about, and the real importance of the melding of languages that took place. Some of the commentary on poetry and translation can get a bit dull, but you do see the endless cultural exchange that was taking place very clearly. We see the many literary, kingly, courtly, and military heroes of this period who take advantage of the diverse culture available to become incredibly learned men and advance their religious subculture within the larger Andalusian society.

Right, so, anyway, I'll stop now. But do approach it as a cultural exploration, where you're likely to come away with a renewed appreciation for cultural diversity, some good facts to pull out at dorky cocktail parties, and some corrected misconceptions on the origin of modern culture. Its also a taste, that at least for me, made me that much more interested in learning the actual history of this "first rate place." All in all, then, it did its job.(less)

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Sep 06, 2007 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Since I was slow on the draw, I didn't read this until I was already in Andalucia, and didn't finish until I got back from the trip. Menocal's basic thesis, that we are pretty much totally used to considering that period from a Northern European perspective and are probably totally ignorant of the Andalucian renaissance, was completely correct for me, so it was pretty much mind=blown. Makes you nostalgic for that caliphate. I was psyched to return my copy to Brooklyn Public Library with my ticke...more

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Aug 18, 2007 Lorraine rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was truly awesome! A scholar's work of bringing Medieval Spain and its people, cultures, languages, literature and art, and historical events to life was a revelation of how multi-culturalism and interfaith relationships can enrich the world and the people touched by them. It didn't always work, but when it did, the results were glorious. In the end, political ambitions, cultural shifts and religious intolerance swept through Spain, but the flowering of that Golden Age deserves to be broadc...more

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Jan 30, 2009 Amani rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is scholarly. Not surprising given the fact that Menocal is Yale professor. If you are looking for an easy read, do not pick up this book. I found myself having to stop every few pages and look up words I didn't know--and I've been teaching English for 15 years! Menocal certainly shows us the extent of her vocabulary, routinely using words like "nabobs" and "consanguinous." She also constructs long, complex sentences--no doubt to convey the complex thinking that has gone into this book...more

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May 06, 2013 Emma rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: auckland-library, history, non-fiction

I just couldn't get in to the writing style of this author:

One has to wonder which among the many fantasies-come-to-life of the palatine city of Madinat al-Zahra would have most stupified the army troops that breached its walls one day in 1009.

I felt intensely on edge all the way to page 91, where I gave up.

I think Kelly's review really nailed my frustration:

. . . do not approach this particular book as a historical documentation of a period, lest you be very frustrated within a few chapters ....more

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Mar 20, 2011 Eli rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

I read this is March 2011. By Maria Rosa Menocal.
She tells the story of Andalusian Spain from the mid-eighth century until 1492. She is trying to show how all 3 religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity lived together in something like harmony, although there were persecutions and repression. She tells the story of Abd Al-Rahman, last survivor of the Umayyad dynasty, who fled to Spain from Damascus and took over Muslim Spain. Some of the prominent Jews who figure in the story Shmuel HaNagid, H...more I read this is March 2011. By Maria Rosa Menocal.
She tells the story of Andalusian Spain from the mid-eighth century until 1492. She is trying to show how all 3 religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity lived together in something like harmony, although there were persecutions and repression. She tells the story of Abd Al-Rahman, last survivor of the Umayyad dynasty, who fled to Spain from Damascus and took over Muslim Spain. Some of the prominent Jews who figure in the story Shmuel HaNagid, Hasdai ibn Shaprut, Maimonides and Judah HaLevi and Moses of Leon (who wrote the Zohar). In particular, she compares Halevi's rejection of the Andalusian world towards the end of his life when he wrote the Kuzari, with Maimonides embrace of his Andalusian cultural and intellectual idenity. She also claims that Maimonides family might have converted to Islam at some point before he was born or when he was young. She writes of Don Quioxte in ways that make me want to read it "It is the story of every individual, in every historical moment, to face, perhaps through and with the consolations of literature and the play of texts, the ugly realities with which he must live, and the story of what happens to ideals when they run into the brute force of disillusion." She ends her book talking about tolerance "Even when political and ideological circumstances are characterized by strife, artistic and intellectural life prospers and reinvents itself in spaces created by cultural tolerance. And once a cultural intertwining follows from that tolerance, who can say that there will not be a better way to find solutions for seemingly intractable ideological and political differences". She describes the story of the Sarajevo Haggadah, written in Toledo in the late 13th or early 14th century, and rescued from the Nazis by a Muslim curator in the Sarajevo library who also sheltered Jews at the same time. 50 years later, his daughter escaped from ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. She had a certificate written in a language that she couldn't read. She brought it to the local Jewish community, because her mother had been evacuated from Sarajevo in a convoy organized by Jews. The Hebrew certificate was the commendation her father had received from the Israeli government, who then flew her to Israel to start her life again. After 9/11, she added a postscript to the book, resisting the impulse to change the book but reminding everyone that within all great religions are strains of tolerance and intolerance, and that when we all read the stories she wrote we will find the meanings and morals shaped by our times and our own prejudices, but that they are reflected in our own times, if at times with painful irony. She writes beautifully if at times some of her arguments are a little forced.
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Dec 10, 2010 Colleen Clark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Very interesting book, well written, accessible to the general reader. Especially in the wake of 9/11/01 it's important to know about a different face of Islam. It was through the Muslims in Spain, for example, that much of the writings of the ancient Greeks came down to us.
It's also relevant for the history of the New World, which I think is where most GoodReads readers live. Southern Spain was the source of much of the migration to the New World, including likely a lot of Jews who had convert...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Ted rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history-civilization, history-europe

I started this in 2006, picked it up again later, then finally started reading it again in 2011. When I got to the last few chapters I flew through it, found it so interesting. Some of this material was about how the Arabic translations of Aristotle, and the monumental commentaries thereon by Averroes, (both translated into Latin) finally made their way into the European canon at the University of Paris in the mid 13th century.

The chapter Banned in Paris was particularly interesting. At the sta...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Gijs rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 21st-century, english, non-fiction, history, middle-ages

'The Ornament of the World' is the fascinating account of El-Andaluz, the Muslim part of Spain that existed between 750 and 1492, first a caliphate occupying almost the complete peninsula, later a bunch of city states occupying half Iberia, and finally, only Grenada and surroundings. Menocal tells us its story through some key players, either Muslim, Jewish or Christian. Her story is therefore a little patchy, but rich in examples, and wide in scope, ranging from politics, via philosophy and sci...more

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May 13, 2013 Mark Davis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, travel

For centuries, the world was given a homogenous version of Spanish that told the story of the good Christians conquering the Moors and ruling wisely.

After Franco's death, the Catholic Church was removed from the Spanish public educational system and historians rediscovered a wealth of archives that told a very different story -- one Muslims, Jews and Christians working together to create a society of culture and learning that was the envy of the world, a culture that helped preserve much of the...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Geri Hoekzema rated it 5 of 5 stars

How do cultures where the arts, sciences and philosophy flourish get started? What conditions encourage people of widely diverse backgrounds to live peacefully together and learn from each other? And why do these cultures vanish? Menocal explores this question in her thought-provoking book.

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Jun 26, 2012 John T. Hickey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: muslim-christian-dialog

The title is an excellent summary of the focus of this work of popularized scholarship, but Menocal works with a light touch, interweaving history, dynastic details, religion, architecture, literature and multiple cultural perspectives, showing how absolutely literally the Muslims recreated the Greek classical world (between and amongst their own conflicts between Muslim groups) and the Western world profited from their work without understanding the deep community of the human spirit revealed t...more

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Mar 08, 2010 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Extremely interesting book of historical interest that describes several hundred years in Spain following Muslim religious/political refugees from the Iraq/Syria area who ended up in Spain. There developed a very open society that was Islamic in nature but in which Christians and Jews thrived and were part of the fabric of the society. They spoke Arabic as well as other languages--Latin had still not developed into Spanish but this transition was in progress. This lasted until 1492 when the Isab...more

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Jul 16, 2007 Mari rated it 2 of 5 stars

Because some of the historical facts I already knew appeared in this book with a certain spin, I never felt quite sure when I was reading history and when I was reading Menocal's opinion. Still an interesting place and time in history.

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May 08, 2012 Owen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I would recommend reading Menocal along "The Clash of Civilizations" by Sam Huntington for comparison. They were published about 6 years apart (before and after 9/11) and describe completely different eras, but they represent completely different approaches toward cultural contact. Personally, I dislike Huntington's thesis for what it represents - it's associated with the Bush administration and War in Iraq/Afghanistan - but it is extremely influential in history and foreign policy.

I think that...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Carolyn Crocker rated it 3 of 5 stars

A work of history that's work to read, this depiction of eras of religious tolerance, devotion to learning, and the excitement of mingled cultures can give us hope for our pluralistic and riven world. The seeds of our literature, science, philosophy are held in this fascinating time. Work, but worthwhile work.

"...once a cultural intertwining follows from that tolerance, who can say that there will not be a better way to find solutions for seemingly intractable ideological and political differenc...more

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May 17, 2011 Don rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is definitely popular, not scholarly, history, but it was a lot of fun. I know very little about the history of Islam. Now I know a bit more. It's interesting that the intellectual and cultural center of European was Arabic speaking for several centuries and that the first return of Greek philosophy to Europe was via Arabic scholars.

My favorite part of the book was its focus on poetry. I knew some of the most famous Hebrew poets but did not know any of the poets who wrote in Arabic. I shoul...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Janice rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent book about the 700 or so years in southern Spain that our three Abrahamic monotheistic religions not only generally tolerated each other but together contributed to the world's knowledge and culture. I have to say it was quite mind opening for me. I found it a bit difficult to concentrate on at times, thus my four stars instead of five. Menocal had such a wealth of information that I needed to back up a little too often. It was worth it though and I came away with much great...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Marybeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It was very readable and focused on the cultural and artistic aspects of medieval Spain. I didn't really have any background on the time period covered outside of a handful of information about the music of Al-Andalus so learning about the historical aspect of it was really interesting, especially the aspects of cultural exchange between the three cultural groups. If you are at all interested in medieval history, especially cultural and artistic history, you should de...more

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May 14, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

Undoing the familiar notion of the Middle Ages as a period of religious persecution and intellectual stagnation, María Menocal now 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...more

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May 16, 2013 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read a few chapters of this when they were assigned for a class months ago, and I really wanted to read the whole thing so I set it aside. It was a pleasant little pop-historical read. This would really be great for anyone who knows in a general way that interesting stuff went down in Medieval Spain, but never learned the details. You probably heard that most of Iberia was controlled by Muslims for a few centuries, and then over another few centuries Christian kingdoms slowly took the peninsul...more I read a few chapters of this when they were assigned for a class months ago, and I really wanted to read the whole thing so I set it aside. It was a pleasant little pop-historical read. This would really be great for anyone who knows in a general way that interesting stuff went down in Medieval Spain, but never learned the details. You probably heard that most of Iberia was controlled by Muslims for a few centuries, and then over another few centuries Christian kingdoms slowly took the peninsula back, and there was a substantial Jewish community, and you may have heard that for a while there the mix of religions/languages/cultures resulted in a flowering of art and literature and scholarly-ness. Well, would you like to know more? Here you go.
Menocal structures this in a nice way for ease of reading, she doesn't take a strictly chronological, here is stuff that happened in order approach. She tells stories about individual people and moments in time, and she skips decades and generations along the way. This keeps the pages turning and there are lots of fascinating chapters, but it also means that she gets repetitive at times. She mentions the intolerance of one particular kingdom, and then in the next chapter she mentions it again, and then she hits the same point again, etc. It's like she expects the chapters to stand each on its own, which they don't really need to do. Also, the same names come up over and over which is confusing. At one point she has to use a footnote to explain how she is making sense of names because like four guys are named Peter, and there are also lots of Ferdinands and Samuels and Alfonsos. Not her fault though. Menocal is also very even-handed when it comes to her three religions - nobody was perfect here. There were intolerant moments for all three faiths, and there were other times when people found ways of getting along.
Anyway, I'd recommend it. Made me want to go back to Spain to explore other cities I neglected the first time.
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Feb 10, 2013 Colin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Really quite a wonderful read.

Like many, I was aware of a longstanding Muslim presence in Spain but unaware exactly of its origins or how richly it flourished during its run.

Menocal presents this borderline utopic society as existing, for so long, sandwiched between the relatively ignorant Latin North, and the more fervent, cut off, and fundamentalist Muslim North Africa. Within that sandwich culture, knowledge, tolerance and faith are given grounds to flourish that seem almost too good to be tr...more

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May 04, 2013 Yasmin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was almost amazing but for the postscript. I generally try and write an opinion piece on a book as soon as I finish it, because once I move onto another book I'm wrapped into that one and the impetus for a review for a past read book is gone. To continue...Unfortunately the late Professor Menocal didn't go to another edition explaining how a culture of tolerance in this period of times went straight into ever more time of intolerance. This may surprise a lot of people but religion was not com...more It was almost amazing but for the postscript. I generally try and write an opinion piece on a book as soon as I finish it, because once I move onto another book I'm wrapped into that one and the impetus for a review for a past read book is gone. To continue...Unfortunately the late Professor Menocal didn't go to another edition explaining how a culture of tolerance in this period of times went straight into ever more time of intolerance. This may surprise a lot of people but religion was not completely to blame. Now for those that is surprised take a deep breath and hold your immediate arguments for you to continue reading. What else I will say next is also surprising perhaps shocking and more than likely disagreeable. It has been apparent to me for many years, and Professor Menocal has backed up my thinking, that people through out history has used religion/faith and non-religion/faith for their own blind justifications. Here in this book and in Sea of Faith religion, science, philosophy and intellectuals have been recognised and celebrated altogether. Religion and science do not have to preclude the other. Science has been welcomed by men and women of the faith in God with absolutely no restrictions, and why should there be? Science isn't on the very foundation that a God cannot or will not exist because science says so. No science is to explore the very workings of our planet and the universe and what lies beyond and by people of faith it was allowed to stretch out as far as the technology of the time allowed not because they said you could or could not probe life. Simiarily in philosophy you could debate and discuss any topic under the sun, you could find arguments in the theories of theology and discuss them but that didn't turn you automatically into a heretic, by many theologians it was welcomed. Indeed as pointed out you could be a scientist, a philosopher, a believer, an intellectual all at the same time and not have to be completely in conflict with your way of life. But what really brought about the end of the times of tolerance? It mostly seemed to me to be kingdoms, empires-kings. There were men who were kings who would be patrons of literary men, scientists and philosophers, but then a son or a brother would kill that king and the replacement was far from being as generous and seemingly noble hearted. However, what all these people forgot while they were enjoying a peaceful period of tolerance was who made the country tick along. And who were they then? The same ones as now. They were farmers, slaves, street cleaners and those that worked a lot for very little in return (to ease our consciences they are given much nicer names now)and then eventually these people who were uneducated and not given the same chances rose up while the kings and queens sought more land and power and became destructive against the things they could not understand or conceive to understand. Yes there were as now people in society that are left in ignorance in order to keep the strength of power, now instead of kings and queens it is "democratically" elected governments that leave apart of society's people in willful ignorance but the people now that do the most destruction are the people that chose to be ignorant and arrogant and we have now no opportunities to be tolerant of each other. The majority believe that religion, science and philosophy have no basis together. The majority believe when a small minority acts violently in the name of God that everyone in that religion is criminal or suspect. The postscript to this book is November 2001. If at the time you or even now you were to ask any poor person or aboriginal person did they or do they feel their universe was destroyed when their country was attacked-what would they say? Most likely they would look at you as if you were mad and leave silently or they may tell you if they are bold that nothing before or after affected their lives from this attack. How would that make the questioner feel? What bubble of patriotism have those people made? That they cannot see how intolerant and ignorant their own little world is? But at one time we could have lived even now in a utopia (no not the impossible of dreams, they improbable perhaps, but not the impossible)where tolerance is possible for all religions and non religious persons of any background, yes it wouldn't be picture perfect, it wasn't then, but we had a time to find out more about ourselves and each other. I wouldn't call it a Golden Era because if it had been that there would have been more attempts at republics and the end of monarchy, an institution I solely hold responsible for all the wrongs throughout history. When literature, science, art and philosophy was at the forefront of human progress we didn't have such a thing as reducing wages for competition, there was hardly a thing called competition, and when it was said it was for amusements not to ruin lives and whole families like big corporations do now. But when royalty demanded more they demanded harder and faster for less always. Columbus sought to find the Great Khan in what is now North/South America to bring back trinkets for the whims of an arrogant king and queen and then came an early form of competition as to which country could rape and pillage an unknown land first and fastest. What followed was destruction and death, the end of another opportunity to learn, for enlightenment, tolerance and understanding. There is so much to be awed from in this book so much we could learn and understand about ourselves as a whole and seek to be tolerant again and to understand religion, science and philosophy do not have to be alien from each other. We still have a world of possibilities and it is not too late to be tolerant and explore the workings of the world and that everyone now should be given a chance. It has been easy to look back at history and to scoff at our ancestors and say they exaggerate and many achievements were impossible as evidence is lost or not written down, there is another form of intolerance. Human beings are capable of so much and indeed have created and formulated so many great and wondrous things. But some how we have always allowed ourselves to stump our own initiatives. It comes back to what Oscar Wilde said "We are afraid of ourselves". The question is why? From this book and others like it we can see what we were once capable of, the impossible now was possible then and they had so much less than we do.(less)

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May 31, 2009 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Ornament of the World," asserts that the history of modern life passed through medieval Andalusia and does a good job of making the case.

The subtitle to Maria Rosa Menocal's engaging volume is "How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain," but that doesn't say the half of it.

Which is fine, because the subtitle that can do justice to this alternately sweeping and efficient book probably doesn't exist.

In fact, the featured period of tri-partite harmony i...more

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Jun 30, 2008 Robert Bussell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Menocal makes this history of the Arab empire in the Iberian Peninsula pop by portraying history as series of personal stories. But even though her protagonists are all great in their own ways, this is not exactly a "Great Man Theory" historical treatment that attributes far more to the influence of powerful individuals acting in isolation than plausible (e.g. Reagan single handedly wacks the entire Soviet Union). Instead Menocal uses individual lives to add interest to a complex period of histo...more

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Jul 21, 2011 David R. rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an amazing and, today, mostly unknown history of how Muslims, Jews and Christians collaborated to produce a culture of tolerance on the Iberian peninsula from the mid 700's until 1492 when the Muslims and Jews were expelled from Spain. The members of the three religions not only tolerated each other they combined efforts to produce advances in science, technology and philosophy while the rest of Europe was mired in the Dark Ages. It's not an easy read but worth the effort.

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Aug 15, 2010 Cameron rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting vignettes of characters and events throughout the Andalusian region of Spain during the seventh and fourteenth century. The author identifies the major religious and intellectual currents of medieval European society in the Islamic empires, where Jews, Christians and Muslims coexisted and thrived. The sketches bounce haphazardly across seven centuries but they are nonetheless a very engaging read, particularly for someone with limited knowledge of the Muslim republics of the early mi...more

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May 27, 2012 Ava rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a lyrically written series of stories about real people in Moorish Spain, which highlights different times and aspects of the 700 years the Arabs ruled tolerantly in Southern Spain. This is a lovingly written homage to the deep connections and interplay of the Islamic, Christian and Jewish poets and scholars who kept Greek and Roman knowledge alive and shining while Christian Europe was plunged into the intolerant and illiterate dark ages. A good read indeed.

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Feb 03, 2013 Miroku Nemeth is currently reading it

"Our current multi-culturalism, the blight of our universities and our media, is a parody of the culture of Cordoba and Granada in their lost prime." From Harold Bloom's introduction to Maria Rosa Menocal "The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain"....I don't agree with multi-culturalism being a "blight", but find the nobility of the precedent he cites to beyond noteworthy.

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About Maria Rosa Menocal

María Rosa Menocal is a scholar of medieval culture and history. Menocal earned a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining the Yale University faculty in 1986, she taught Romance philology at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2002, Menocal wrote the book The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, wh...more

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Books by Maria Rosa Menocal

The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History: A Forgotten Heritage

Shards of Love: Exile and the Origins of the Lyric

Writing in Dante's Cult of Truth: From Borges to Bocaccio

Writing Without Footnotes: The Role of the Medievalist in Contemporary Intellectual Life: Bernardo Lecture Series, No.10

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

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