Medieval Spain

For many, the medieval world seems dark and foreign - a miraculous, brutal, and irrational time of superstition and strange relics. The pursuit of heretics, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the domination of the "Holy Land" come to mind.

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, describing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews together built a sophisticated civilization that transformed the Western world.

Widely hailed as a revelation of a "lost" golden age, this history brings to vivid life the rich and thriving culture of medieval Spain, where, for more than seven centuries, Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in an atmosphere of tolerance, and literature, science, and the arts flourished.

Drawing from both Christian and Islamic sources, Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain demonstrates that the clash of arms between Christians and Muslims in the Iberian peninsula that began in the early eighth century was transformed into a crusade by the papacy during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Successive popes accorded to Christian warriors willing to participate in the peninsular wars against Islam the same crusading benefits offered to those going to the Holy Land.

Scholars, journalists, and politicians uphold Muslim-ruled medieval Spain - "al-Andalus" - as a multicultural paradise, a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony. There is only one problem with this widely accepted account: It is a myth. In this groundbreaking book, Northwestern University scholar Darío Fernández-Morera tells the full story of Islamic Spain. As professors, politicians, and pundits continue to celebrate Islamic Spain for its "multiculturalism" and "diversity", Fernández-Morera sets the record straight.

“As long as the world will last, not one will speak in France about Catalonia without remembering terrible things...” 1285 AD: the kingdom of Aragon is under threat. Philip the Bold, king of France, is poised to invade with a massive army. The French have the blessing of the pope. They intend to conquer Aragon and place Philip's son, Prince Charles, on the vacant throne. Hopelessly outnumbered, King Peter of Aragon calls upon his Almogavars to defend the kingdom. These rough warriors, farmers and shepherds, are sent to guard the mountain passes against the invading host of crusaders. ...

This book is a history of early medieval Spain. The book begins with the early histories of Castile, Galicia, Leon, Navarre, Aragon, and Portugal. The history of both Spain and Portugal start in the early 800s. The ruling families' histories are interrelated through their marriages. There are also sections devoted to the early history of each of the major counties.

Jewish Life in Medieval Spain is a detailed exploration of the Jewish experience in medieval Spain from the dawn of Sephardic society in the ninth century to the expulsion of 1492. An important contribution of the book is the integration of the rise and fall of Jewish life in Muslim al-Andalus into the history of the Jews in medieval Christian Spain. It traces the collapse of Jewish life in Muslim Spain, the emigration of Andalusi Jewry to the lands of Christian Iberia, and the difficult confluence of these two distinct Jewish subcultures.

Toledo, Spain, AD 1094. When the Almoravids swept away the music, freedom, and religious harmony of Muslim-controlled al-Andalus during their conquest of southern Spain, Yasin Ibn Faraj lost the culture of his beloved home. Disowned after disobeying his family’s command to convert to Islam, he follows other Christian Mozarabs north to Toledo. There, Yasin clings to wine, women, music, and luxury that the Almoravids forbade. Though his tastes are expensive, his skill at leatherworking and thievery lets him indulge them. But, one misjudged theft sees him arrested and dismissed by his ...

Stanley Edward Lane-Poole (1854 - 1931) was a British orientalist and archaeologist. The Moors in Spain is a comprehensive history about the Moorish conquest and rule of the Iberian Peninsula, until the Spanish took back the land. It includes chapters on the last Visigothic kingdom, El Cid, and the fall of Granada.

The Moors in Spain is an overview of the Moorish conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Stanley Edward Lane-Poole (1854 - 1931), the author, was a noted British archaeologist.

Eighteen-year-old Zarela Zalvidar is a talented flamenco dancer and daughter of the most famous Dragonador in Hispalia. People come for miles to see him fight in their arena, which will one day be hers. But disaster strikes during one celebratory show, and in the carnage, Zarela’s life changes in an instant. With the Dragon Guild trying to wrest control of her inheritance from her, Zarela has no choice but to train to become a Dragonador.

Por primera vez un volumen reúne la historia de España escrita por Arturo Pérez-Reverte durante más de cuatro años en su columna «Patente de corso» del XL Semanal. Un relato ameno, personal, a ratos irónico, pero siempre único, de nuestra accidentada historia a través de los siglos. Una obra concebida por el autor para, en palabras suyas, «divertirme, releer y disfrutar; un pretexto para mirar atrás desde los tiempos remotos hasta el presente, reflexionar un poco sobre ello y contarlo por escrito de una manera poco ortodoxa.»

From the opulence of his glittering palace in Madrid, devout Catholic King Phillip II of Spain has begun God's work. He plans to build an Armada, to invade his hated enemy, Protestant England. King Phillip will fund his grand enterprise using riches torn from the dank and dripping mines of his New World colonies. Aboard the privateer, Sea Hawk, assisted by a cut-throat crew recruited from the dark, smoke-filled taverns of Plymouth harbour, Sir Richard and his servant Quinn prowl the lonely waters off the South American coastline. Their young Queen, Elizabeth, has secretly issued Richard ...

At last: The international best seller - which has already sold nearly 2 million copies worldwide - comes to America! Cathedral of the Sea follows the fortunes of the Estanyol family, from their peasant roots to a son, Arnau, who flees the land only to realize spectacular wealth and devastating problems.

Año 844, los vikingos atacan las costas de España. Después de haber sometido Irlanda y media Inglaterra, asolar Francia y sojuzgar nada menos que París y Nantes, los normandos desembarcan en la Torre de Hércules, en La Coruña. En esta nueva novela, José Javier Esparza aborda este episodio fascinante de nuestra historia con una prosa tan bella como épica y desde el mayor rigor histórico. Una auténtica recreación de la España altomedieval.

José Javier Esparza comienza la historia de este audio libro donde terminó La gran aventura del Reino de Asturias del que lleva vendidos más de 30,000 ejemplares. Han concluido los tiempos agónicos de la primera resistencia cristiana contra el invasor musulmán y entramos en una España de moros y cristianos donde no siempre es fácil separar historia y leyenda: una España de doncellas cautivas y reinas moras, de guerreros y trovadores, de monjes y comerciantes en un tiempo en el que la vida era una apuesta continua.

When Columbus triumphantly returned from America to Spain in 1493, his discoveries inflamed an already smoldering conflict between Spain's renowned monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, and Portugal's João II. Which nation was to control the world's oceans? To quell the argument, Pope Alexander VI issued a proclamation laying the foundation for the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, an edict that created an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean dividing the entire known (and unknown) world between Spain and Portugal.

In just over a hundred years - from the death of Muhammad in 632 to the beginning of the Abbasid Caliphate in 750 - the followers of the Prophet swept across the whole of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain. Their armies threatened states as far flung as the Franks in Western Europe and the Tang Empire in China. The conquered territory was larger than the Roman Empire at its greatest expansion, and it was claimed for the Arabs in roughly half the time.

At one point in time, this place had been decked out with a network of captivating castles, heavenly homes and gorgeous gardens, and a handsome military fortress envied by the city's neighboring kingdoms. This was none other than Alhambra, once so enchanting that a countless number of those who visited the place in its heyday praised it as a true paradise on earth. Today, this historic complex has become the setting and inspiration for a host of books, music, movies, and other works of art and literature.