Kingdoms of Faith: A New History Islamic Spain

A magisterial, myth-dispelling history of Islamic Spain, from the founding of Islam to the final expulsion of Spain's Muslims in the seventeenth century. ‘A rich narrative account of al-Andalus . . . a reminder that Islam in Europe is set in stone — in marble and mortar — and it cannot be chiselled away.’ — Financial Times ‘A gripping, colourful and humane account of a period that ought to be better known.’ — History Today ‘Excellent . . . a fresh portrait of nearly a millennium of history.’ — TLS Prior accounts have portrayed Islamic Spain either as a paradise of enlightened tolerance, or as the site where civilisations clashed. Award-winning historian Brian A. Catlos taps a wide array of original sources to paint a more complex picture, showing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews together built a sophisticated civilisation that transformed the Western world, even as they waged relentless war against each other and amongst themselves. Religion was often the language of conflict, but seldom its cause--a lesson we would do well to learn in our own time. Kingdoms of Faith rewrites Spain's Islamic past from the ground up, evoking the cultural splendour of al-Andalus and the many forces that shaped it. A magisterial, myth-dispelling history of Islamic Spain, from the founding of Islam to the final expulsion of Spain’s Muslims in the 17thc. Professor Catlos's books have won the American Historical Association's Premio del Rey Award, the John E. Fagg Prize and the Medieval Academy of America’s Charles Homer Haskins Medal. Examines how religion was often the language of conflict but rarely the cause—a lesson for our own time