The Story of the Moors in Spain: A History of the Moorish Empire in Europe; their Conquest, Book of Laws and Code of Rites

by Stanley Lane-Poole

Paperback, 2018

Status

Available

Call number

973

Publication

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2018), 129 pages

Description

First published in 1886, this book has held its place as the classic work on the Moors in Spain: a scholarly, wonderfully readable and sweeping tale of splendor and tragedy.

User reviews

LibraryThing member doowatt34
A rarity in Academia...an academician who wrote a detailed story without bias on the take-over of Visigoth Spain by Moors, Africans, Bebers, and arabs and the scientific, literary, architectural, administrative expertise and religious freedoms brought to basically an uncivilized locale by these
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invaders...It is a fantastic piece of work with some good references and it is very detailed on how the subsequent invasion and expansion took place...and finally it explains what happened during the downfall of the civilization when the moors were expelled from Spain, Portugal and southern Gaul...too bad, the general locale never recovered and Spain was never able to recreate the technology brought forth and applied.
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LibraryThing member mattries37315
Though originally written and published over 125 years ago, The Story of the Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole is an quick, easy, and informative read. Although the book is not up to the scholarship standards of today, Lane-Poole uses the sources at his disposal along folklore, traditional
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Spanish ballads, and romantic history written by Washington Irving to produce a most engaging book. Lane-Poole always denoted in the text when he was going on either the folklore, ballads, or romantic history insertions for the reader as a way to bring history alive and when they were contrary to actual history he made note of it.

One of the biggest negatives of the book that one notices is that Lane-Poole engages in perpetuating the Black Legend that has tainted the perception of the Spanish since it's creation. At the beginning and ending of the text, Lane-Poole laments that the Spaniards decided to reject the civilization of the Islamic Moors for the backwardness of the Catholic (note I said Catholic not Christian) "crusaders" then points out certain incidents that prove his point. To be fair to Lane-Poole, one can not use today's standards to judge him and when a Christian showed "civilized" behavior and a Moor "uncivilized" he did point it out. However, there was always the perception that these incidents were few and far between.

Even with this negative to the text, The Story of the Moors in Spain is an excellent way to begin learning about the Islamic period on the Iberian peninsula. However this book should not be your last on the subject.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1886

Physical description

129 p.; 9 inches

ISBN

1987704738 / 9781987704730

UPC

001987704738
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