The Ornament of the World, by Maria Rosa Menocal
The subtitle of this book (too long to add to this post's header) is, "How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain." Yup, another Spain book! Centered around some of the areas I'll be visiting, this approachable scholarly work covers the time period a few centuries before Alfonso X. Alfonso took advantage of a Muslim world in great political turmoil; this book focuses on the golden age and then the troubles that lead up to that point.
Menocal's basic argument is to refute the inevitability of history. There is no point, she claims, at which the collapse of religious tolerance in Spain was a foregone conclusion. Similarly, there is no reason why we cannot enjoy cultural tolerance again. Menocal grounds her history in certain personages of importance in early medieval Spain, whether they be Muslim, Jewish, or Christian. Indeed, the lines between these groups quickly became blurred, as the cultural backwater was suddenly opened to the incredible intellectual and translating output of the Muslim empire. Awed by the beauty of Arabic poetry, architecture, and aesthetics, Spaniards of all religions quickly took up Muslim culture as their own, while for the most part retaining their religious affiliations. Such mixing is readily visible in churches all over Spain that are either reconsecrated mosques or had been built originally as Catholic churches upon Arabic architectural tropes. The rise of the vernacular Castilian points to a pride in the unique cultural blend that was native to all in the area, not simply to one religion or another.
Readers interested in the development of poetry and fiction will especially enjoy this book, as Menocal traces the growth of then-revolutionary, now-commonplace poetic forms. These developments were immediately admired and traveled far beyond the Iberian peninsula to the north within a matter of years. And the works that suddenly became available thanks to translations by mostly Jewish scholars ignited the philosophical and scientific communities of medieval Europe. This is an interesting, readable work of scholarship that will certainly deepen my appreciation for Spain as I travel through it!
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Menocal's basic argument is to refute the inevitability of history. There is no point, she claims, at which the collapse of religious tolerance in Spain was a foregone conclusion. Similarly, there is no reason why we cannot enjoy cultural tolerance again. Menocal grounds her history in certain personages of importance in early medieval Spain, whether they be Muslim, Jewish, or Christian. Indeed, the lines between these groups quickly became blurred, as the cultural backwater was suddenly opened to the incredible intellectual and translating output of the Muslim empire. Awed by the beauty of Arabic poetry, architecture, and aesthetics, Spaniards of all religions quickly took up Muslim culture as their own, while for the most part retaining their religious affiliations. Such mixing is readily visible in churches all over Spain that are either reconsecrated mosques or had been built originally as Catholic churches upon Arabic architectural tropes. The rise of the vernacular Castilian points to a pride in the unique cultural blend that was native to all in the area, not simply to one religion or another.
Readers interested in the development of poetry and fiction will especially enjoy this book, as Menocal traces the growth of then-revolutionary, now-commonplace poetic forms. These developments were immediately admired and traveled far beyond the Iberian peninsula to the north within a matter of years. And the works that suddenly became available thanks to translations by mostly Jewish scholars ignited the philosophical and scientific communities of medieval Europe. This is an interesting, readable work of scholarship that will certainly deepen my appreciation for Spain as I travel through it!
Shop local!
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