The Ornament of the World

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View books by Maria Rosa Menocal.

A thoroughly enjoyable read. - Rated
I have to say, negative reviews notwithstanding, that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I too had just returned from Andalusia and wanted to read more about the area and it's history. I did several searches on Amazon using various key-words and every time this book came up. I must admit I was a bit put off by the reviews but the table of contents looked intriguing (good move there Amazon!) and so I thought I'd take a chance. After all a book reveiew is only 1 person's opinion.

Well I'm glad I did now. Yes, sure the reviews have got a point. It is a bit wishy-washy in parts and the author does wear a huge pair of rose-tinted glasses but as long as you know that, this is still a thoroughly enjoyable read.

This book doesn't set out to be a straight forward history of al-Andalus but more of a cultural history. It was interesting to read about the Jewish input to the 'Andalusian Enlightenment' as much as the Christian or Moorish. Something I didn't know much about.

My advice would be to read this book, but not in isolation. Perhaps read it concurrently with a good history of Moorish Spain like the one by Richard Fletcher. Read the reviews on Amazon and bear them in mind though all reviews should be taken with a pinch of salt (except this one of course!). It has to be said that the reading list is a bit poor but it's easy enough to find related books on Amazon.

A nice idea, but.... - Rated
If you're looking for a history of culture and civilisation in Spain 711-1492, the period when Spain was partly or mostly under Islamic rule, this isn't it. Still less does it give an overall political framework. It's not meant to.
Professor Menocal has set herself the task of enlightening us about the cultural diversity, and artistic, architectural and intellectual excellence of the era, based as it was on a remarkable level of religious tolerance. Her regret at the loss of this religious toleration is the underlying point of the book. She writes as if expecting this picture of Islamic Spain to come as a revelation to her readers, which surely underestimates the historical awareness of the sort of person who is likely to pick up the book or click on it on this website.
She takes an episodic approach, analysing selected but mostly unlinked people and incidents which provide evidence either for her evocation of the period, or for her explanation of its decline in the face of rising religious intolerance. I was surprised that she did not make more of the effect of the Crusades in the latter context - stirring up religious militancy on all sides.
There's no doubt that she effectively expresses her passion for her theme, and her examples do initially make the point about this era in Spanish history. The problem is that the approach produces a degree of incoherence which makes the book increasingly woolly as it goes on and creates a need for her to keep repeating the basic message in order to remind us of it.
It's a nice idea - to get away from the traditional narrative of the history of the country and the standard recitation of the culture, but it ends up being rather unsatisfying. Because of the episodic nature and lack of background information, the general reader will struggle to set many of the people and incidents referred to into a known context. The expert in the period (which I'm not - just a retired history teacher) may find it all a bit shallow and obvious.

A Fairy Story - Rated
This is a misleading book, if you don't know anything about the historical background. It offers a romantic view of a period of history that it is obscure to the majority of people. This is a book about a tolerance that did not exist. To quote Joseph Perez : "We need to challenge the preconception of a Spain in which the three religions based on sacred books - Christian, Muslim and Jewish - existed tolerantly together throughout the first centuries of Muslim domination....Tolerance presupposes an absence of discrimination against minorities and respect for the points of view of others. In the Iberia of the eight century to the fifteen, such tolerance was nowhere to be found" (Introduction to the Spanish Inquisition).

The purpose of the books seems to be to show Muslim Spain as an example to follow today in the West. The author chooses to ignore history and to invent a world that did not exist. She does not seem to appreciate that we live now in the most tolerant society for the last 2000 years and medieval Spain is not an example to follow.

Monument to ideals on a flimsy foundation - Rated
Writing history raises an inevitable challenge: relate events as they were or portray selected elements to emphasize a theme. The former method is often ponderous, the latter often misleading. Menocal has opted for the second option. In her survey of Medieval Spain, she gives us an entertaining and informative look at expressions of the intellectual elite over seven centuries of Muslim rule.

Menocal's approach aims to restore Spanish Islam's blemished reputation. Muslim Spain has endured a scathing censure imposed by "victorious" Christian Europe. In the Christian view, the Reconquista of Spain freed a population from a Muslim yoke. The European invasion of the Western Hemisphere carried that myth across the Atlantic while strengthening the crusading attitude of the conquistadores. Menocal uses romantic poetry, the advancement of selected scholars to high posts under the caliphate, and the literacy of the Muslim and Jewish communities as evidence of high, positive interaction. Even the Christians, normally disdainful of literacy, science and philosophy, joined the chorus of common interests.

Weaving her tale around the Cordovan Umayyad caliphs founded by exiled prince Abn al-Rahmad, she traces the building programs, internal disputes among the Islamic schisms arising along the Mediterranean, and the challenges posed by intruders from the north. For Menocal, the binding force across Islamic Spain was language. Arabic became a lingua franca with the power to transcend religious dogma and jurisdictional disputes. Jews and Christians alike became fluent in this imposed language due to its expressive power. Arabic was also used in the Eastern Mediterranean to recover and spread lost texts of the Greek scholars. Thus, often unattributed, the Muslims kept medicine, astronomy, philosophy and other disciplines alive. Christians would later adapt them joyfully, but the Dark Ages aren't misnamed for the rest of Western Europe.

Menocal might have produced a book of sweeping vision, restoring the image of Muslim Spain as one of civilisation's most noteworthy achievements. Instead, she sinks into a swamp of romantic fervour, highlighting erotic poetry and grandiose architecture. The farmers and small traders who were taxed to support these elitist endeavours likely had a different view. That is, when they weren't in hiding from the nearly continuous wars waged among the Muslims or between the Islamic invaders from the south or the Christian ones from across the Pyrenees.

As she skips over the centuries, Menocal introduces the rising tide of Christian aggressive attitudes culminating in the Jewish/Muslim expulsion. The French monastics at Cluny had adopted the liberal view of philosophy espoused by their Iberian neighbours. Deeper in Europe, however, the Cistercians, ardent crusaders, urged expunging Christianity of any Arabic taint. Viewpoints hardened, as Menocal recounts, through exchanges of essays and books. Menocal doesn't investigate whether these expressions reached the general populace, but the Church hierarchy system ensured local parish priests acted as mouthpieces of the regional bishops. The events of 1492 verified who had the louder voice.

Although tentatively concluding with the background of Columbus' departure, Menocal cannot resist extending her recital to the early 17th Century. How can one write on Spain without folding the La Manchan epic into the story? Finding Arabic roots in Cervantes is neither new nor difficult, but Menocal provides a new twist. Menocal suggests Don Quixote's worldview is that of any thinker of the Muslim period. Identity of any aspect of the world is muddled by a spread of conflicting, if not hostile, attitudes. La Mancha thus becomes the last gasp of an integrated Spanish society that is considered insane by the rigid-minded world that succeeded it.

Given the span of time and involvement of numerous articulate historical figures, one turns to the "Other Readings" at the back with high expectation. Turn the pages carefully, otherwise you'll miss it. Instead of a bibliography rich in selection, there are a few translations by Menocal's lady friends and a few, little known scholars of the subject. If Menocal lacked the ambition, time or knowledge to produce a proper reading list, she might have cited one or two good ones. Instead, there's a paucity of further reading. Except for the few maps, which mostly duplicate each other, the illustrations follow the pattern. A pity. Such an immense topic standing on so feeble a base makes this book good reading, but uninformative. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

a thought provoking read - Rated
I'm not a scholar of this period of history, i just love Andalusia - so for me this book was a really informative introduction to the history of this region, written in a way that is easy enjoy as a non-academic.

I loved the characters - she really brings them to life, and the history of some of the great buildings (like the mosque of Cordoba & the Alhambra) was fascinating. Also the way in which this area of Spain was so influential in the re-discovery of ancient philosophy, maths, astronomy & more was a revelation to me.

I read this book whilst in Granada and it really brought the history of the place to life.