Little, Brown The Ornament Of The World

Very well written summarised and balanced

Leitura deliciosa. Muito conhecimento transmitido pela autora, importantes fatos sobre um lugar e uma época de ouro na história da Europa.

This is one of the explorations of Medieval Spain everyone should read. Brilliant analysis by Menocal that describes how Moslems, Jews and Christians not only lived together but also shared Arabic as a courtly language.

If you have any interest at all in the many interactions between Christianity, Islam and Judaism, you owe it to yourself to read this book. I approached it as a relatively uninformed layman with an interest in Islamic art, music of the middle ages and the romance languages, who had found himself more moved than he had expected by visits to Andalusia. I came away from it with a much greater understanding of the history of Al Andalus and the extraordinary ways in which the faiths had interacted during this crucial stage in the development of our world. I won't attempt to summarise it - simply to say that it is beautifully written, by a writer with the deepest insights into her subject, and that is has changed quite significantly how I view a whole range of issues of faith, culture, art, music and language. The only possible criticism, in my view, is a degree of repetition as she views the subject through the prism of different individuals: it's still worth sticking with it to the very last page.

His is book is exactly what I wanted and arrived in perfect condition.

I read The Ornament of the World during a recent journey through al-Andalus and Morocco and it became an inspiring guidebook, whose stories manage to tie together so many threads of the region's cultural past. It is also a welcome challenge to the prevailing prejudices of the Christian version of history which we in the west are so familiar with.