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Title: The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain
ISBN: 0316168718
Author:
Maria Rosa Menocal
Publicate Date: 2003-04
Publish: 2003-04
List Price: $14.99
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $5.88
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $4.16
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1: too much anecdote for a very big claim
My oh my, reading some of the extremely negative reviews of this book and seeing the obvious bias of some of the reviewers makes me wish that I could come out swinging in Menocal's defense.
Unfortunately, I cannot. While Menocal clearly has deep affinity and love for the subject matter she fails to support her thesis as she only could have done by reaching farther than culture and poetry for reference. She makes some interesting suggestions through anecdotal evidence, but I found it extremely frustrating that she made no effort to more fully flesh out a claim that would have been very interesting, if true. Furthermore, I do not find that the book was contextualized as simply being a piece of the puzzle of Medieval Spain. I find that it made grander claims for itself. This could well be the fault of the publisher, who recognized a timely topic when he/she saw one (the book was published in 2002). But still, it hurt the overall credibility of the work not to strongly delimit in the beginning both what it is and what it is not.
I have heard much said about Menocal's writing style, both positive and negative. I will grant her a smooth hand with prose. Sadly, she does not exhibit anywhere near the same skill with structure. I found the text did not cohere well and tended to be jumpy and difficult to follow.
She clearly loves her poetry from the time, and I am looking forward to reading some of the writers that I discovered through the book. I found the "Other Readings" chapter particularly valuable. She gets an extra star for all the wonderful poetry that I'm anxious to read.
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2: An Introduction... to the say the least
I enjoyed this book. From my limited understanding of the time period and my inability to read history (facts after facts never interest me... the human element, devoid of many historical accounts, does...).
I have read the positive reviews and the negatives. I can understand either. I will say this book is a great introduction. It is romantic, an account of a world seen with Rosy-Tinted Scholarly eyes. Perhaps it is not going to be the greatest book for the nitpicking historians - and hey, I can see their point - but it is a good place to start, to know the names, the dates, and some of the scenery.
I wish more history books were like this. What is 'history' - a story... the word is there within the greater word most scholars will defend, arguing our need to be objective and search for the facts ('just the facts, 'mam'). But isn't that life, "stories" interweaving, facts important sidenotes to the human element. I respect this work because it has introduced me to a world I have heard about before. It will be my choice to move on further and read other works.
Those who have written their one-star reviews have their point. There is a lot missing here. I don't doubt it. But if a work of history introduces and inspires curiosity, is that a bad thing? Ideals are ideals and ideally, this isn't meant for the historian but for the layman. I am a layman, I enjoyed it. If you're looking for an introduction to a fascinating time in Spanish/Western history, this is a fine place to start. I don't know enough to squabble over details or put the author down for 'misreading' history. I'll simply say, Menocal has written a story about a time and place. Her writing is infused with melancholy and wonder, looking back to the golden aspects of a time believed to be harmonious.
If history was written from the perspective of the people, not so much the events and politics, I would read more history. But then again, I'm not a historian and this book suits me fine. I'll read further but I am thankful I had this book to open my eyes to an interesting time in human civilization.
The final word: historians, you know enough, so don't read this because you'll probably just write more negative reviews and negativity is really tiring at times. (If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it all all... I've written the odd negative review, so I'm guilty...) Layman and Laywoman, if you have a passion for a literary interpretation of history, enjoy this book. It is like wine for me. I savoured it, I took it in, I will remember and go on to the next. But I value the beginnings of what I have learned. And that's the facts, 'mam.
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3: Fascinating forgotten history
This book I could recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about the early history of modern Europe. Usely it is said that the classical age ended with the Romans, and then after a thousand turbiulent years suddenly appeared renewed culture in Europe with the renaissance. Like there was a big gap in civilization. But there wasn't. There was the great arabic empire that stretched from Marocco to Pakistan, with it's poetry and philosofy and a culture where religion and science went hand in hand. Furthermore there is this remarkable story about a prince who flees from his mothercountry to build his new kingdom, which soon becomes the heart of culture in Europe, where jews, muslims and christians lived and worked side by side. A culture as big that it easely fills the gap the Romans left. A remarkable story that eventually will trigger the renaissance. The forgotten story of Al-Andalus.
Allthough objective this story is written from the point of view of Al-Andalus itselve, which gives a perfect contrapoint to the somewhat common historyclass seen from the christian (castillian) point of view. This put the "Moors" as they denegratedly are called in a totally new perspective.
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4: Fascinating but frustrating.
This is a beautifully written book with some great strengths, but it is almost as frustrating as it is enjoyable. Menocal delineates the big picture well, tracing the evolution of medieval Iberia from Abbasid province to Ummayad caliphate, through political breakdown to a bevy of competing Muslim and Christian taifas(city-states), which then slowly came under the sway of Castile. Ummayad Al-Andalus treated the dhimmi -- "Peoples of the Book" well: the Jewish community, in particular, prospered and played an active role in the economy, state, and Arabic-speaking culture of the peninsula. This intersection of peoples within a "culture of tolerance" was richly fruitful: for example, in Toledo Jews translated Arabic into early Castilian, which Christians then translated into Latin, thus making ancient Greek texts that had been preserved in Arabic available to Christian Europe. Menocal is at her best tracing the manifold influence of Iberian culture on both its component peoples and on northern Europe. Jews such as Samuel the Nagid revitalized Hebrew under the influence of Arabic poetry. Petrus Alfonsi, a Jewish convert to Christianity, brought knowledge of Islam and Judaism, some scientific knowledge, and new literary forms to England. Peter the Venerable of Cluny visited Toledo in search of translators of the Quran. Sparks flew in every direction. Menocal succeeds in re-contextualizing familiar works. Maimonides and Averroes appear as products of Al-Andalus, born into its culture of tolerance, accepting that faith and reason were compatible - but out of tune with the growing power of the repressive Almohad Muslim regime of their day. The elusive line between truth and fiction in Don Quixote echos a post-1492 Spain filled with Moriscos and Marranos who might be Christians or highly practiced pretenders.
Despite the rich, evocative portrayal of Al-Andalus and its influence, Ornament of the World has some frustrating gaps. The boundaries of the "culture of tolerance" are never clearly defined: however willing Muslims and Jews were to borrow one another's poetic forms, did they also live in the same quarters of the city, intermarry, do business together? Admittedly, this may be substituting my own interests for those of the author. But the author also does not explain convincingly why a culture of tolerance arose on the Iberian peninsula in this period, or why it eventually fell. The fall of the culture of tolerance is discussed in the epilogue, but this reader, at least, came away unsatisfied.
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5: GREAT BOOK, MUST READ
The culture of tolerance was created by MUSLIMS who were rulling Spain, the writer failed to point out that it was the muslims who granted and who created this tolerance of others.
I am stunned at some reviews here who talked about the tolerance of Muslims at that time with the terms of the 21th century ! this is absurd, you cant look at that era in the eyes of this 21th century.
The tolerance muslims gave to christians and jews was unmatched anywhere else in the world and the jewish massacre in 1066 has political and religious grounds, it did not happen out of nothing or because the victims just happend to be jews, in fact, at the very same time in 1066, Granada has JEWISH wazir or in modern terms prime minister !
It is stil great book to read.
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