Muslim Spain - A civilization of tolerance

Warthole wrote:
Muslim Spain - A civilization of tolerance

' Swedish library lends out gay Muslim gypsy '

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08...ibrary_scheme/


Every looked into such a job prospect, Warthole ?
You never know, unless you inquire ...

"Ed B." wrote:

Warhol wrote:

snip

And so a golden period in the history of Spain came to an end. The glow of
that golden era was still visible for a while under the rule of Ferdinand
and Isabella but it was soon exhausted and Spain went back to darkness.
Historian Stanley Lane Poole writes,

"The Moors were banished; for a while Christian Spain shone, like the moon,
with a borrowed light; then came the eclipse, and in that darkness Spain has
groveled ever since. The true memorial of the Moors is seen in desolate
tracts of utter barrenness, where once the Moors grew luxuriant vines and
olives and yellow ears of corn [...]"


Moorish Spain was indeed a very tolerant society.
The Moors allowed Jews and Christians to
practice their religions openly. And Spain did
enter a dark period when the Spanish (Ferdinand
and Isabella) defeated the Moors. However, there
is a gross factual error in the penultimate
paragraph. Ferdinand and Isabella came to power
before the discovery and subsequent invasion of
the Americas. Columbus first landed in America in
1492. The Moors were already gone from Spain or
on their way out. Since corn is native to the
Americas it would have been impossible for the
Moors to grow "yellow ears of corn".

IIRC Lane-Poole was British, and in the UK "corn" usually means
simply grain, not specifically maize or "Indian corn" as the word is
used in North America. So his "yellow ears of corn" would refer to
wheat or some such cereal. (In the field even ripe maize looks green,
anyway -- the husks conceal the yellow kernels.)

As to the timing, it was the final expulsion of the Moors in 1492
that freed Ferdinand & Isabella to finance Columbus's expeditions.

--
Odysseus