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Book Song of the Eight Winds

Download or read book Song of the Eight Winds written by Peter Kerr and published by Oasis-Werp. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This novel is set during the 13th century Christian 'Reconquest' of Mallorca from the island's Muslim rulers. An action-packed saga of conflict, intrigue and forbidden romance - with a subtle peppering of humour.

Book Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain

Download or read book Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain written by Joseph F. O'Callaghan and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. Joseph F. O'Callaghan clearly demonstrates that any study of the history of the crusades must take a broader view of the Mediterranean to include medieval Spain. Following a chronological overview of crusading in the Iberian peninsula from the late eleventh to the middle of the thirteenth century, O'Callaghan proceeds to the study of warfare, military finance, and the liturgy of reconquest and crusading. He concludes his book with a consideration of the later stages of reconquest and crusade up to and including the fall of Granada in 1492, while noting that the spiritual benefits of crusading bulls were still offered to the Spanish until the Second Vatican Council of 1963. Although the conflict described in this book occurred more than eight hundred years ago, recent events remind the world that the intensity of belief, rhetoric, and action that gave birth to crusade, holy war, and jihad remains a powerful force in the twenty-first century.

Book The Power of Cities

Download or read book The Power of Cities written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-09-16 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Power of Cities focuses on Iberian cities during the lengthy transition from the late Roman to the early modern period, with a particular interest in the change from early Christianity to the Islamic period, and on to the restoration of Christianity. Drawing on case studies from cities such as Toledo, Cordoba, and Seville, it collects for the first time recent research in urban studies using both archaeological and historical sources. Against the common portrayal of these cities characterized by discontinuities due to decadence, decline and invasions, it is instead continuity – that is, a gradual transformation – which emerges as the defining characteristic. The volume argues for a fresh interpretation of Iberian cities across this period, seen as a continuum of structural changes across time, and proposes a new history of the Iberian Peninsula, written from the perspective of the cities. Contributors are Javier Arce, María Asenjo González, Antonio Irigoyen López, Alberto León Muñoz, Matthias Maser, Sabine Panzram, Gisela Ripoll, Torsten dos Santos Arnold, Isabel Toral-Niehoff, Fernando Valdés Fernández, and Klaus Weber.

Book Kingdoms of Faith

    Book Details:
  • Author : Brian A. Catlos
  • Publisher : Basic Books
  • Release : 2018-05-01
  • ISBN : 0465093167
  • Pages : 536 pages

Download or read book Kingdoms of Faith written by Brian A. Catlos and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 transformed 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.

Book The Romance of Spanish History

Download or read book The Romance of Spanish History written by John Stevens Cabot Abbott and published by . This book was released on 1869 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Sephardic Frontier

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jonathan Ray
  • Publisher : Cornell University Press
  • Release : 2008
  • ISBN : 9780801474514
  • Pages : 228 pages

Download or read book The Sephardic Frontier written by Jonathan Ray and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals a fluid, often volatile society that transcended religious boundaries and attracted Jewish colonists from throughout the peninsula and beyond.

Book Crusading in the Fifteenth Century

Download or read book Crusading in the Fifteenth Century written by N. Housley and published by Springer. This book was released on 2004-11-14 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays by European and American scholars addresses the changing nature and appeal of crusading during the period which extended from the battle of Nicopolis in 1396 to the battle of Mohács in 1526. Contributors focus on two key aspects of the subject. One is developments in the crusading message and the language in which it was framed. These were brought about partly by the appearance of new enemies, above all the Ottoman Turks, and partly by shifting religious values and innovative currents of thought within Catholic Europe. The other aspect is the wide range of responses which the papacy's repeated calls to holy war encountered in a Christian community which was increasingly heterogeneous in character. This collection represents a substantial contribution to the study of the Later Crusades and of Renaissance Europe.

Book El Cid and the Reconquista 1050   1492

Download or read book El Cid and the Reconquista 1050 1492 written by David Nicolle and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 1988-07-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The very name El Cid sums up much of the special character of medieval Spanish warfare. It comes from the Arabic al sayyid, master or chieftain, and seems to have been given to Rodrigo de Vivar by his Muslim foes. But was it given in recognition of El Cid's victories against Islam in the 'Reconquista' – or because this Castilian nobleman was as content to serve beside the Muslims as to fight them? The story of the Christian conquest of the Iberian peninsula which gave rise to the legend of El Cid, is here examined by David Nicolle, who outlines the history, tactics, arms and armour of the period.

Book The Golden Key

    Book Details:
  • Author : Melanie Rawn
  • Publisher : Astra Publishing House
  • Release : 2011-06-07
  • ISBN : 1101515813
  • Pages : 1158 pages

Download or read book The Golden Key written by Melanie Rawn and published by Astra Publishing House. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 1158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Tira Virte, art is prized for its beauty and as a binding legal record of everything from marriages to treaties. Yet not even the Grand Duke knows how extraordinary the Grijalva family's art is, for certain Grijalva males are born with the ability to alter events and influence people in the real world through that they paint. Always, their power has been used for Tira Virte. But now Sario Grijalva has learned to use his Gift in a whole new way. And when he begins to work his magic both the Grijalvas and Tira Virte may pay the price.

Book The Saracen Storm  A Novel of the Moorish Invasion of Spain

Download or read book The Saracen Storm A Novel of the Moorish Invasion of Spain written by J. M. Nunez and published by ISBN Canada. This book was released on 2019-12-26 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on historical figures and events, The Saracen Storm is the sweeping saga of one of Spain's best-loved heroes and the role he played in the nation's darkest period: the Moorish invasion of its lands in 711 AD. "An intense, action-packed story that will have you hooked from the moment you start reading it." Readers' Favorite When nineteen-year-old Pelayo, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Asturias, is asked to lead a cohort of soldiers to hunt down a party of Saracen raiders, he seizes on the chance to escape the city and the scandals that have swirled around him for years. Trained in combat since he was a youth, and taught the dark arts of war by a brilliant ex-monk, he is determined to prove wrong those who say he is unfit for command. As he follows the trail of devastation left by the raiders, he discovers that Valentina, his half-brother's betrothed, has been taken captive. The mission that he has viewed merely as an adventure now turns into a personal quest to save the headstrong daughter of his father's closest ally from the slave markets of Arabia. In the capital of Toledo, the sudden death of the monarch unravels old alliances, sparking a fierce competition for the throne. As the country descends into civil war, Musa ibn Nosseyr, Caliph al-Walid's ambitious governor in Carthage, sees the Iberian nation's troubles as an opportunity to expand the reach of the caliphate into Europe. Critical Reviews "The writing is excellent, the prose delectable...It makes for an enjoyable read. Pelayo is a sophisticated character and his character arc defines his development in this beautifully written conflict. The action is strong, and the plot ingeniously done to excite the curiosity of the reader. For those who love adventure and a narrative filled with intrigue and surprises, The Saracen Storm will make for a delightful read." - Christian Sia, critic for Readers Favorite. 5 Star Review "The book got me from its opening pages. The author does an impeccable job of exploring the political climate of the times. The characters are grounded in history, each written with enough background to augment the sophistication. It takes a skillful author to meld elements of fiction with history and Jose Nunez has that gift. The Saracen Storm is written in beautiful prose and has very strong plot points. This is a historical novel that transports the reader back in time and that brings history alive in ones's imagination. A balanced, deftly narrated and engaging read." - Tomual Dzemo, critic for Readers' Favorite. 5 Star Review "This is an intense, action-packed story. The narrative is perfect, the flow simple and powerful. The Saracen Storm will have you hooked from the moment you start reading it." - Rabia Tanveer, critic for Readers' Favorite. 5 Stars Review.

Book Shards of Love

    Book Details:
  • Author : María Rosa Menocal
  • Publisher : Duke University Press
  • Release : 1994
  • ISBN : 9780822314196
  • Pages : 318 pages

Download or read book Shards of Love written by María Rosa Menocal and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the Spanish conquest of Islamic Granada and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the year 1492 marks the exile from Europe of crucial strands of medieval culture. It also becomes a symbolic marker for the expulsion of a diversity in language and grammar that was disturbing to the Renaissance sensibility of purity and stability. In rewriting Columbus's narrative of his voyage of that year, Renaissance historians rewrote history, as was often their practice, to purge it of an offending vulgarity. The cultural fragments left behind following this exile form the core of Shards of Love, as María Rosa Menocal confronts the difficulty of writing their history. It is in exile that Menocal locates the founding conditions for philology--as a discipline that loves origins--and for the genre of love songs that philology reveres. She crosses the boundaries, both temporal and geographical, of 1492 to recover the "original" medieval culture, with its Mediterranean mix of European, Arabic, and Hebrew poetics. The result is a form of literary history more lyrical than narrative and, Menocal persuasively demonstrates, more appropriate to the Middle Ages than to the revisionary legacy of the Renaissance. In discussions ranging from Eric Clapton's adaption of Nizami's Layla and Majnun, to the uncanny ties between Jim Morrison and Petrarch, Shards of Love deepens our sense of how the Middle Ages is tied to our own age as it expands the history and meaning of what we call Romance philology.

Book The Bird King

    Book Details:
  • Author : G. Willow Wilson
  • Publisher : Grove Press
  • Release : 2019-03-12
  • ISBN : 0802146848
  • Pages : 340 pages

Download or read book The Bird King written by G. Willow Wilson and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of NPR’s 50 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the Decade: A fifteenth-century palace mapmaker must hide his powers in the time of the Inquisition . . . Award-winning author G. Willow Wilson’s debut novel Alif the Unseen was an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year and established her as a vital American Muslim literary voice. Now she delivers The Bird King, an epic journey set during the reign of the last sultan in the Iberian peninsula at the height of the Spanish Inquisition. Fatima is a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain. Her dearest friend, Hassan, the palace mapmaker and the one man who doesn’t leer at her with desire, has a secret—he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan’s surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan’s gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls? As the two traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety, The Bird King asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate. “Wilson has a deft hand with myth and with magic, and the kind of smart, honest writing mind that knits together and bridges cultures and people.” —Neil Gaiman, author of Norse Mythology “A triumph . . . one of the best fantasy writers working today.” —BookPage “A treasure-house of a novel, thrilling, tender, funny, and achingly gorgeous. I loved it.” —Lev Grossman, author of the Magicians trilogy

Book Iberia

    Book Details:
  • Author : James A. Michener
  • Publisher : Dial Press Trade Paperback
  • Release : 2015-03-10
  • ISBN : 0812969804
  • Pages : 978 pages

Download or read book Iberia written by James A. Michener and published by Dial Press Trade Paperback. This book was released on 2015-03-10 with total page 978 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Massive, beautiful . . . unquestionably some of the best writing on Spain [and] the best that Mr. Michener has ever done on any subject.”—The Wall Street Journal Spain is an immemorial land like no other, one that James A. Michener, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author and celebrated citizen of the world, came to love as his own. Iberia is Michener’s enduring nonfiction tribute to his cherished second home. In the fresh and vivid prose that is his trademark, he not only reveals the celebrated history of bullfighters and warrior kings, painters and processions, cathedrals and olive orchards, he also shares the intimate, often hidden country he came to know, where the congeniality of living souls is thrust against the dark weight of history. Wild, contradictory, passionately beautiful, this is Spain as experienced by a master writer.

Book Rereading the Black Legend

Download or read book Rereading the Black Legend written by Margaret R. Greer and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The phrase “The Black Legend” was coined in 1912 by a Spanish journalist in protest of the characterization of Spain by other Europeans as a backward country defined by ignorance, superstition, and religious fanaticism, whose history could never recover from the black mark of its violent conquest of the Americas. Challenging this stereotype, Rereading the Black Legend contextualizes Spain’s uniquely tarnished reputation by exposing the colonial efforts of other nations whose interests were served by propagating the “Black Legend.” A distinguished group of contributors here examine early modern imperialisms including the Ottomans in Eastern Europe, the Portuguese in East India, and the cases of Mughal India and China, to historicize the charge of unique Spanish brutality in encounters with indigenous peoples during the Age of Exploration. The geographic reach and linguistic breadth of this ambitious collection will make it a valuable resource for any discussion of race, national identity, and religious belief in the European Renaissance.

Book The City and the Realm  Burgos and Castile  1080 1492

Download or read book The City and the Realm Burgos and Castile 1080 1492 written by Teofilo F. Ruiz and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-10-28 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The articles in the first part of this volume, two being a revised English version of an article originally in Spanish, examine the place of the city in the historical development of Castile. The focus is the social and economic history of Burgos, and the work is founded on detailed research in the archives of the area. Professor Ruiz also calls into question the long held belief in the democratic character of medieval Castilian municipal life. In the second section he opens the field of enquiry to deal with the controversial question of what impact the conquest of Seville and the subsequent settlement of al-Andalus had on the realm of Castile, looking in particular at demographic factors and the emergence of the latifundia. The following articles analyse the symbolism and ceremonial of royal power, arguing that the claims for a sacred monarchy so usual in the medieval West were absent during this period of Spanish history, and that the kings used popular secular ceremonies, not anointments or coronations, to legitimise their rule. The book then closes with a study of the origins of the Spanish Inquisition. Les travaux contenus dans la première partie de cet ouvrage examinent la place de la Cité dans le développement historique de la Castille. L’intérêt central porte sur l’histoire sociale et économique de Burgos et l’analyse est fondée sur une recherche détaillée dans les archives de cette région. Le professeur Ruiz remet aussi en question la croyance que l’on avait depuis longtemps quant au caractère démocratique de la vie municipale dans la Castille médiévale. Dans la seconde partie, l’auteur élargit le champs de l’enquête afin de traiter de la question controversée au sujet de l’impact de la conquête de Séville et l’occupation consécutive d’al-Andalus sur le royaume de Castille, s’intéressant en particulier aux facteurs démographiques et à l’émergence de latifundia. Les études suivantes analysent le symbol

Book Beyond the Reconquista  New Directions in the History of Medieval Iberia  711 1085

Download or read book Beyond the Reconquista New Directions in the History of Medieval Iberia 711 1085 written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond the Reconquista: New Directions in the History of Medieval Iberia (711-1085) offers an exciting series of essays by leading scholars in Hispanic Studies from across North America and Europe. At its heart is the Reconquista, without doubt the most important and enduring theme of Iberian historiography of the Middle Ages. The innovative studies collected herein, which treat a diverse array of subjects via forensic analyses of charters, chronicles and coins, shed new light on crucial aspects of medieval Iberian socio-economic, political and cultural history. The result is a collection of essays which marks a decisive and bold turning of the page in Iberian medieval studies, as the reality and ideal of Reconquest come under hitherto unparalleled scrutiny. Contributors are Graham Barrett, Jeffrey Bowman, Alberto Canto, Nicola Clarke, Wendy Davies, Julio Escalona, Jonathan Jarrett, Eduardo Manzano Moreno, Iñaki Martín Viso and Lucy K. Pick. See inside the book.

Book Spain

    Book Details:
  • Author : Stanley G. Payne
  • Publisher : Univ of Wisconsin Press
  • Release : 2011-01-11
  • ISBN : 0299249336
  • Pages : 634 pages

Download or read book Spain written by Stanley G. Payne and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2011-01-11 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From bloodthirsty conquest to exotic romance, stereotypes of Spain abound. This new volume by distinguished historian Stanley G. Payne draws on his half-century of experience to offer a balanced, broadly chronological survey of Spanish history from the Visigoths to the present. Who were the first “Spaniards”? Is Spain a fully Western country? Was Spanish liberalism a failure? Examining Spain’s unique role in the larger history of Western Europe, Payne reinterprets key aspects of the country’s history. Topics include Muslim culture in the peninsula, the Spanish monarchy, the empire, and the relationship between Spain and Portugal. Turning to the twentieth century, Payne discusses the Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War. The book’s final chapters focus on the Franco regime, the nature of Spanish fascism, and the special role of the military. Analyzing the figure of Franco himself, Payne seeks to explain why some Spaniards still regard him with respect, while many others view the late dictator with profound loathing. Framed by reflections on the author’s own formation as a Hispanist and his evaluation of the controversy about “historical memory” in contemporary Spain, this volume offers deeply informed insights into both the history and the historiography of a unique country. A Choice Outstanding Academic Book Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Association