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The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise
- Muslims, Christians, and Jews Under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 28-06-16
- Language: English
- Publisher: Tantor Audio
- Whispersync for Voice-ready
Regular price: £22.99
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Summary
Scholars, journalists, and politicians uphold Muslim-ruled medieval Spain - "al-Andalus" - as a multicultural paradise, a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony.
There is only one problem with this widely accepted account: It is a myth.
In this groundbreaking book, Northwestern University scholar Darío Fernández-Morera tells the full story of Islamic Spain. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise shines light on hidden features of this medieval culture by drawing on an abundance of primary sources that scholars have ignored, as well as archaeological evidence only recently unearthed.
As professors, politicians, and pundits continue to celebrate Islamic Spain for its "multiculturalism" and "diversity", Fernández-Morera sets the record straight - showing that a politically useful myth is a myth nonetheless.
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- Mark
- United Kingdom
- 30-09-16
An inconvenient truth
Full of information and enjoyable narrative. A must for those who have hunger for truth over fairy tales.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alex
- 10-07-17
A harrowing account of Islamic Spain
Andalus is often cited as an example of Islamic tolerance and enlightenment. The politically correct academics who make such statements tend to overlook Berber dynasties, if they are aware of these groups at all. This book provides a reconsideration of the earlier, relatively milder period as well. The possibility of being branded a racist for presenting inconvenient facts about a religion, or of loss of funding for Middle Eastern Studies departments (much of which comes from repressive Middle Eastern regimes), have often prevented a truly honest and balanced look at Islamic Spain.
Each chapter provides a thematic examination of a different subject, from Jihad to women's rights and the treatment of religious minorities. The parade of horrors is not for the faint of heart. We hear of the widespread use of infidel women as sex slaves, some girls as young as 11 years. Based on strong primary source evidence, the author argues that there is at least the strong possibility that female genital mutilation was practiced among the Muslims of Spain. Religious minorities were humiliated and taxed at higher rates, but at least they were allowed to exist initially.
Because the book argues against conventional wisdom, it can't make claims like "Islamic Spain was a beacon of tolerance" without backing them up. So for each claim, a lot of evidence and different examples are cited. This may be tiresome for some people. While an honest look at the evidence in this book would lead to most of the author's claims being accepted, it is most likely that the politically correct establishment will simply ignore it, because it goes against their narrative.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anthony M
- U.K.
- 25-12-16
An important book with relevance for now
Referencing a vast collection of Muslim, Christian and Jewish sources past and present the author clarifies Islam as an ideology of conquest whose ultimate expression in armed Jihad and goal quite literally world domination expressed explicitly in the Quran and numerous Hadith. Contrary to fashionable whimsical contemporary academic analysis the Muslim conquest of Spain.and its subsequent rule was brutal and uncompromising designed foremost to uphold the supremacy of Arab Muslims over its conquered subjects, prevent them "contaminating" Islam and extort from them protection money in the form of special taxes - all practices mandated by the Quran and upheld by Islam to this day.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ariel
- United Kingdom
- 10-04-17
Extremely informative
Excellent book
You cannot help but feeling that all the price lavished upon tolerant “Al-Andaluz” is ideologically motivated and something doesn’t seem right. Fernandez Morera’s book proves this point very clearly. It not only provides common sense arguments such as “If Gothic Spain ‘deserved’ to be conquered by a more modern and enlightened people, with didn’t Meso-America or India deserved to be conquered too?” or “If Christians had to be happy with their second class citizenship why blacks in Southern US didn’t have to be happy too?”; The book also provides actual evidence from primary sources showing that “Al-Andaluz” wasn’t either tolerant o enlightened.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andrea Zuvich
- England, United Kingdom
- 08-01-17
Brilliant
Brilliant, engaging, and meticulously researched, this book ought to be required reading in high schools and for any adult who wishes to be more knowledgeable about the true Islamic impact on Spain.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jose F Miranda
- 02-01-17
Great history. Eye opening.
Excellent book by anyone interested in Spanish, European and medieval history. Reading a tad mechanical but clear. The history as it should be told, based on evidence.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lrapsody
- 13-08-18
Exceptional scholarship utilises primary sources
Turns out the popularly held Andalusian tolerance is significantly exaggerated. Jews were mistreated, and Christians were castigated. Both were impoverished by the high jizzya tax, and at the bottom rings of society, with persecution becoming more or less severe depending upon the whims of whoever was leader of the caliphates at the time, Umayyad or such.
Just a glimpse of what may happen to western Europe soon.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Hector Chub
- Sydney, Australia
- 19-11-16
Boring boring boring
A scholarly work, tedious in the execution and read very badly. Makes use of 20 examples when a couple would do. Rigorous scholarship. Yawn
1 of 10 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 20-11-16
Courageous book
The reader was superlative. And I've heard a lot if audio books. And the book is an act of intellectual courage.
11 of 13 people found this review helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- LadyLindi
- 29-05-17
Too Little Content and a Bit Polemic
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
Not really. It's not that the book didn't have some useful content - it's just that it could have been said in 25-50 pages. The books was also too polemic for my comfort - I do actually agree with his view of Andalusia (for the same reasons, most of which I already knew) but I am distrustful of books out to prove a premise, even if the premise is correct. I understand he was writing to show why current academia is wrong on this, but I still prefer a truth seeking book, not an "I'm going to prove you wrong" presentation. Although I wouldn't call this an anti-Muslim book, it will be interpreted as such because of the way it is written, since we are in a time and culture where consigning everything Islamic to hell on earth is common.
9 of 11 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nicholas
- 14-11-16
Authoritative
Absolutely dripping with concrete, reliable and unapologetic facts that shed needed attention to Islamic Spain. Dario gives no quarters as he unveils the numerous a-historic "scholar's" views and statements around the topic going from the 8-15th century that either mislead or deliberately lie on behalf of the Muslim rulers or shame the Christian victims.
So refreshing to not be force feed lies! Recommend highly!
14 of 18 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- David
- 31-07-16
I should have known better all along.
I have been a casual student of Greek, Roman and Islamic history for a long time and nothing documented here was a surprise to me. What was surprising is I never bothered to deliberately connect the obvious dots for the relevant picture of Spain! For example, I was aware Spain at the time of the conquest was ruled by Visigothic aristocracy of several centuries duration. I also knew Arab and Berber forces displaced them.
What I failed to appreciate was the Arabs and Berbers were several orders of magnitude lower on the barbarian scrotum pole then the aristocracy they replaced. If not for the reconquest Spain today would be culturally North African. Think Algeria.
PS: I seldom buy a book rated below 4.4 and in this case consulted Goodreads because so few ratings have been made so far. Goodreads generally runs about one half point lower then Audible and this book had 4.4 That is one of the highest ratings I have ever seen there.
29 of 39 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dre Gonsales
- 03-08-17
Fantastic read!
This book is an extremely well written, well cited, and informative look at an often misrepresented chapter of history.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Z
- 25-09-16
Great book!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
It tells the truth of the myth that was Córdoba. The author uses actual sources from Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars and eyewitness accounts.
8 of 11 people found this review helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Sunshine Reader
- 02-01-18
Repetitive
This reads more like a text book. The subject is well researched, but the other repeats the same points throughout the book.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- B. Altwal
- 23-09-17
more like a text book, hard to follow,
this book better read in paper format than audible, too much information , hard too follow while driving and listening
3 of 4 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Steve
- 13-01-17
Superb
Since the aftermath of the 9/11/2001 attacks, it's been a struggle finding honest scholars and authors on the religion and the history of Islam. But for these few courageous authors, how are we to understand the history and ideology that has led to contemporary events in Israel, the greater Middle East and North Africa; in Europe and America? Professor Dario Fernandez Morera's book is a scholarly and at times technical but easy enough reading. There is best-selling and popular author Robert Spencer whose books are read by a wide audience, available here at Audible. I highly recommend both authors.
9 of 14 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 10-06-17
Excellent book of the true story of Spain under The Muslims.
This book turned out to be excellent and I became more excited about it as it went on. At first the scholarly nature, and somewhat flat narration, of the book made it initially troublesome to follow. However, after persevering through the first chapter, I came to appreciate the author's depth of research and the tremendous amount of original sources, both Christian and Muslim, which the author referenced to prove the author's arguments. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been suspicious of the "history" portrayed as conventional wisdom in mainstream liberal, frequently anti-Christian, writings, which are read without question by most and accepted, from the time of elementary school on, as "the truth".
2 of 3 people found this review helpful