Title: A history of Islamic Spain /
Authors: Watt, W. Montgomery; Cachia, Pierre.
Publisher: AldineTransaction,
Year: 2007
Subjects: Muslims Spain History; Spain History
Abstract: The period of Muslim occupation in Spain represents the only significant contact Islam and Europe was ever to have on European soil. In this important as well as fascinating study, Watt traces Islam's influence upon Spain and European civilization--from the collapse of the Visigoths in the eighth century to the fall of Granada in the fifteenth, and considers Spain's importance as a part of the Islamic empire. Particular attention is given to the golden period of economic and political stability achieved under the Umayyads. Without losing themselves in detail and without sacrificing complexity, the authors discuss the political, social, and economic continuity in Islamic Spain, or al-Andalus, in light of its cultural and intellectual effects upon the rest of Europe. Medieval Christianity, Watt points out, found models of scholarship in the Islamic philosophers and adapted the idea of holy war to its own purposes while the final reunification of Spain under the aegis of the Reconquista played a significant role in bringing Europe out of the Middle Ages. A survey essential to anyone seeking a more complete knowledge of European or Islamic history, the volume also includes sections on literature and philology by Pierre Cachia. -- Back cover.
Contents: Introduction - The Interest of Islamic Spain ---- 1 - The Muslim Conquest --- 2 - The Province of the Damascus Caliphate --- 3 - The Independent Umayyad Emirate --- 4 - The Grandeur of the Umayyad Caliphate --- 5 - Cultural Achievements under the Umayyads --- 6 - The Collapse of Arab Rule --- 7 - The Berber Empires, the Almoravids --- 8 - The Berber Empires, the Almohads --- 9 - Cultural Greatness in Political Decline --- 10 - The Last of Islamic Spain --- 11- the Significance of Islamic Spain.