false 292846 4 María Rosa Menocal's wafting, ineffably sad <I>The Ornament of the World</I> tells of a time and place--from 786 to 1492, in Andalucía, Spain--that is largely and unjustly overshadowed in most historical chronicles. It was a time when three cultures--Judaic, Islamic, and Christian--forged a relatively stable (though occasionally contentious) coexistence. Such was this period that there remains in Toledo a church with an "homage to Arabic writing on its walls [and] a sumptuous 14th-century synagogue built to look like Granada's Alhambra." Long gone, however, is the Córdoba library--a thousand times larger than any other in Christian Europe. Menocal's history is one of palatine cities, of philosophers, of poets whose work inspired Chaucer and Boccaccio, of weeping fountains, breezy courtyards, and a long-running tolerance "profoundly rooted in the cultivation of the complexities, charms and challenges of contradictions," which ended with the repression of Judaism and Islam the same year Columbus sailed to the New World. <I>--H. O'Billovich</I> 483817 2002 The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain total:175|5:51|4:69|3:32|2:18|1:5| 175 668 359 45 3 3 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 15 10:50:56 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 01 07:13:04 -0700 2008 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...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Sep 19 08:38:12 -0700 2008 Sun Jan 04 17:44:57 -0800 2009
Its a series of vignet...more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 18:01:51 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 18:07:58 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 18 08:46:47 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 18 08:55:56 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jan 30 14:02:33 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 14:40:32 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Jul 16 08:04:37 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 16 08:05:30 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Mon Oct 05 13:31:40 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 14:04:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 11:58:25 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 18:41:59 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Sep 14 23:47:41 -0700 2008 Sun May 31 22:52:04 -0700 2009 "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 Me...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 30 17:13:11 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 30 17:39:20 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Dec 22 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed May 28 04:49:55 -0700 2008 Mon Dec 22 20:54:02 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Fri Oct 23 22:25:23 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 22:25:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat May 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 30 02:43:50 -0700 2008 Sat May 16 21:20:35 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Jul 08 09:44:43 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 00:04:25 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri May 08 23:44:59 -0700 2009 Fri May 08 23:45:15 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 11 19:51:38 -0800 2007 Sun Nov 11 19:58:01 -0800 2007
The scholarship of that fusion of religions was amazing.

I knew algebra came into Europe via the Moors in Spain, but so did the Greek Classics which had been translated into ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jun 12 05:14:26 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 06:13:17 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 05:14:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Mar 26 06:07:07 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 06:08:00 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Feb 13 11:00:39 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 11:01:33 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Fri Dec 19 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Mar 20 11:46:28 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 20 11:50:09 -0700 2009