Charters and Documents Illustrating the History of the Cathedral, City and Diocese of Salisb... Book

I picked up (in a sense) the Kindle version of this book as I am contemplating a second trip to Spain, focusing on the south, in which the Moors play a vey important role. I wasn't sure what I was getting, but was not disappointed to find that this is a quick read, and so a good introduction, and that the book by the French M Florian was written in the early 19th century, and translated by as the publishers state "an American lady."

It is decided into four "Epochs" the first of which looks at the arrival of Moors in Spain and moves to the time of the famous Battle of Tours, when the spread of Islam outside of Spain was halted, and when its retreat from northern Spain began. the second epoch looks at Cordoba (Cordova here), for many years the capital of Moorish Spain. It describes the many various Caliphs, divisions within the Moors and moves to the end of the "Caliphate," or rule by one leader over all the Muslims in Spain. Epoch number three looks at the different kingdoms (including those of Toledo and Seville) created out of the disunity and discusses the Christian hero (at least he is so described here) known as The Cid. This mercenary did much to weaken Islam in the south of Spain. The epoch ends with the Siege of Cordoba and the taking of Valencia by Christian forces. The last epoch focuses on Granada (here Grenada), the last holdout of the Spanish Moors. A laundry list of rulers of that kingdom is offered, as well as the uniting of Aragon and Castile under Ferdinand and Isabella, which brings Granada to its knees in 1492.

While much of the book is devoted to the Spanish Muslims (or Musselmans as they are referred to here) at the end a substantial portion is devoted to a history of Islam (tis rise and "decline) in general. If you know little of Islam, or only of recent and often militant Islam this is interesting in that it is written in a period when the Moors were a good bit more peaceable than they are now - provides a very different perspective than the average Western conception of Muslims today, when Islam, particularly radical Islam, seems hardly in decline.

I was a bit surprised that so little notice of Jews was taken, but this book is very "Christian" - as in Christianity as the one TRUE religion. Although throughout much of the Moorish period Jews, along with Christians and Muslims lived in relative harmony in parts of the country, the account mentions Jews only on a very few occasions.

It is rather tediously written (or at least translated), but it does provide an outline of history, along with comments on the visual and written arts of the Spanish Moors. I found it worthwhile for that, though I am hoping to find a more recent and more comprehensive history before I travel.