In the Light of Medieval Spain Islam, the West, and the Relevance of the Past [Hardcover]

This volume brings together a team of leading scholars in Spanish studies to interrogate the contemporary significance of the medieval past, offering a counterbalance to intellectual withdrawal from urgent public debates.The Currency of the Past; S. R. Doubleday Juan de Segovia and the Lessons of History; A. Marie Wolf Reading Don Quijote in a Time of War; L. Rouhi Memory and Mutilations: The Case of the Moriscos; M E. Perry Expulsion from Paradise: Exiled Intellectuals and Andalusian Tolerance; D. Filios Ghostly Returns: The Medieval 'Moor' and the Contemporary Moroccan Immigrant; D. Flesler Spain's New Muslims: A Historical Romance; L. Abend The Persistence of the Past in the Albaic?n: Granada's New Mosque and the Question of Historical Relevance; D.Coleman Postscript: Futures of Al-Andalus; G. Anidjar

The word light in the book's title hints at the intention of the editors and the contributors alike, the desire to shine a new light on the history of Spain, a reconception that acknowledges the continuity and pertinency of its medieval past...This collection offers much material for debate and reflection, and the essays are well written, well edited, and well integrated with each other. This is an exceptional read. - Sixteenth-Century Journal

The reviewer cannot begin to do justice (in the space allotted) to these thoughtful, boundary pushing and provocative essays, none of which would ever appear in Speculum. What binds them so as to warrant their publication together in a book? We can read them as a collection of case studies on the nexus of society and culture in medieval Iberia and modern Spain, the complex, slipppery relationship between past and present, and the textual and social agency of historical memory. The editors and authors are to be thanked for making medieval and early modern studies speak to a broader audience of humanists, not by facile analogy or drawing superficial parallels but rather by effectively employing critil£Q