Darío Fernández-Morera is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University. A former member of the National Council on the Humanities, he holds a BA from Stanford University, an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from Harvard University. He has authored several books and many articles on cultural, literary, historical, and methodological issues in Spain, Latin America, and the United States.
"Shows in meticulous detail . . . that intolerance, segregation,
formal inequality, and brutality were the order of the day [in
Islamic Spain]." —The New Criterion"[Fernández-Morera] must be
commended for daring to wade into this hazardous arena. He has come
well-armed: his The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise has 95 pages of
notes, and the lionisers of political correctness will not find it
easy to penetrate chinks in his bibliographical armour of primary
and secondary sources, many not published in English. In an
exhilarating and unput-downable read, Fernández-Morera debunks the
fashionable myth that Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together
(convivencia) under 'tolerant' Muslim rule. . . . World-class
academics—hailing from Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Princeton, London,
Oxford—look like fools in their apologetics for
jihad."—Standpoint"Numerous books propagandize for Islam by calling
Muslim rule in Spain during the Middle Ages a golden age of
tolerance. Darío Fernández-Morera's The Myth of the Andalusian
Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews Under Islamic Rule in
Medieval Spain (ISI Books) cuts against PR for Islam by giving
specific examples of rulers cutting off heads or applying burning
candles to the faces of sexual slaves." —World magazine, naming The
Myth of the Andalusian Paradise a finalist for Book of the
Year"Often a work of historical revisionism is a dubious exercise
in discovering trendy, hidden agendas with little bearing on the
actual record of the past. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise is
decidedly not such a study and is instead a bracing remedy to a
good deal of the academic pabulum that passes for scholarship on
Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations." —Middle East Quarterly"A
first-rate work of scholarship that demolishes the fabrication of
the multiethnic, multiconfessional convivencia in Spain under
Muslim rule. The book is also an exposé of the endemic problems of
contemporary Western academe. . . . Space does not allow us to list
all of the fables—some bizarre, others laughable, most of them
infuriating—that Fernández-Morera dispatches with unassailable
logic and ruthless efficiency." —Chronicles"I am in awe of The Myth
of the Andalusian Paradise. . . . This book is an intellectual
boxing match. The author shreds not just one opponent, but a series
of intellectual bigots, prostitutes, and manipulators of the common
man. . . . He uses research and objective facts to make his case.
Nothing could be more transgressive in academia today." —FrontPage
Magazine"The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise prompts readers to
rethink their traditional notion of Islamic Spain. Fernández-Morera
shows that it was not a harmonious locus of tolerance. Paying
special attention to primary sources, he documents how Islamic
Spain was in fact dominated by cultural repression and
marginalization. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise is essential
reading. It will soon find its place on the shelves of premier
academic institutions and in the syllabi of pioneering scholars."
—Antonio Carreño, W. Duncan McMillan Family Professor in the
Humanities, Emeritus, Brown University "I could not put this book
down. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise constitutes a watershed
in scholarship. Throughan unbiased and open-minded reading of the
primary sources, Fernández-Morera brilliantly debunks the myths
that for so long have dominated Islamic historiography and
conventional wisdom. We were waiting for this great breakthrough to
come to light, and Fernández-Morera has done it. Bravo!" —Raphael
Israeli, Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Chinese
History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem"Fernández-Morera examines
the underside of Islamic Spain, a civilization usually considered a
model of dynamism and vigor. Through the study of primary sources,
he questions the historiographic and intellectual view of the
superiority of that civilization. This is an intelligent
reinterpretation of a supposed paradise of convivencia." —Julia
Pavón Benito, Professor of Medieval Spanish History, University of
Navarra"Desperately, desperately needed as a counter to the
mythology that pervades academia on this subject. This book sheds
much-needed light on current debates about the relationship between
the West and Islam. It displays rare good sense and a willingness
to face truth that is all too often absent in discussions of this
era." —Paul F. Crawford, Professor of Ancient and Medieval History,
California University of Pennsylvania"A splendid book. This sober
and hard-hitting reassessment demolishes the myths of religious
tolerance and multiculturalism that have hopelessly romanticized
the precarious coexistence and harsh realities of medieval Spain
under Muslim rule. Well documented and persuasively argued, this
book is must-reading as a window into the lessons of the past."
—Noël Valis, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Yale
University"Fernández-Morera takes on the long-overdue topic of
assessing medieval Muslim Spain's reputation for ethnic pluralism,
religious tolerance, and cultural secularism. Finding this view
based on a 'culture of forgetting,' he documents the reign of
strict sharia in Andalusia, with its attendant discrimination
against non-Muslims and subjugation of women. So much for the
charming fantasy of open-mindedness and mutual respect." —Daniel
Pipes, historian of Islam and publisher of the Middle East
Quarterly"Brilliant . . . A thorough and entertaining study, as
masterful as it is pointed." —Catholic Culture"Reveals the awesome
and awful truth camouflaged by many in the West who have written
apologies for Muslim-ruled Andalusia . . . More than 90 pages of
footnotes to contemporary sources in their original languages make
his thesis unassailable." —New English Review
"Shows in meticulous detail . . . that intolerance, segregation,
formal inequality, and brutality were the order of the day [in
Islamic Spain]." —The New Criterion"[Fernández-Morera] must be
commended for daring to wade into this hazardous arena. He has come
well-armed: his The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise has 95 pages of
notes, and the lionisers of political correctness will not find it
easy to penetrate chinks in his bibliographical armour of primary
and secondary sources, many not published in English. In an
exhilarating and unput-downable read, Fernández-Morera debunks the
fashionable myth that Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together
(convivencia) under 'tolerant' Muslim rule. . . . World-class
academics—hailing from Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Princeton, London,
Oxford—look like fools in their apologetics for
jihad."—Standpoint"Numerous books propagandize for Islam by calling
Muslim rule in Spain during the Middle Ages a golden age of
tolerance. Darío Fernández-Morera's The Myth of the Andalusian
Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews Under Islamic Rule in
Medieval Spain (ISI Books) cuts against PR for Islam by giving
specific examples of rulers cutting off heads or applying burning
candles to the faces of sexual slaves." —World magazine, naming The
Myth of the Andalusian Paradise a finalist for Book of the
Year"Often a work of historical revisionism is a dubious exercise
in discovering trendy, hidden agendas with little bearing on the
actual record of the past. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise is
decidedly not such a study and is instead a bracing remedy to a
good deal of the academic pabulum that passes for scholarship on
Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations." —Middle East Quarterly"A
first-rate work of scholarship that demolishes the fabrication of
the multiethnic, multiconfessional convivencia in Spain under
Muslim rule. The book is also an exposé of the endemic problems of
contemporary Western academe. . . . Space does not allow us to list
all of the fables—some bizarre, others laughable, most of them
infuriating—that Fernández-Morera dispatches with unassailable
logic and ruthless efficiency." —Chronicles"I am in awe of The Myth
of the Andalusian Paradise. . . . This book is an intellectual
boxing match. The author shreds not just one opponent, but a series
of intellectual bigots, prostitutes, and manipulators of the common
man. . . . He uses research and objective facts to make his case.
Nothing could be more transgressive in academia today." —FrontPage
Magazine"The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise prompts readers to
rethink their traditional notion of Islamic Spain. Fernández-Morera
shows that it was not a harmonious locus of tolerance. Paying
special attention to primary sources, he documents how Islamic
Spain was in fact dominated by cultural repression and
marginalization. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise is essential
reading. It will soon find its place on the shelves of premier
academic institutions and in the syllabi of pioneering scholars."
—Antonio Carreño, W. Duncan McMillan Family Professor in the
Humanities, Emeritus, Brown University "I could not put this book
down. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise constitutes a watershed
in scholarship. Throughan unbiased and open-minded reading of the
primary sources, Fernández-Morera brilliantly debunks the myths
that for so long have dominated Islamic historiography and
conventional wisdom. We were waiting for this great breakthrough to
come to light, and Fernández-Morera has done it. Bravo!" —Raphael
Israeli, Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Chinese
History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem"Fernández-Morera examines
the underside of Islamic Spain, a civilization usually considered a
model of dynamism and vigor. Through the study of primary sources,
he questions the historiographic and intellectual view of the
superiority of that civilization. This is an intelligent
reinterpretation of a supposed paradise of convivencia." —Julia
Pavón Benito, Professor of Medieval Spanish History, University of
Navarra"Desperately, desperately needed as a counter to the
mythology that pervades academia on this subject. This book sheds
much-needed light on current debates about the relationship between
the West and Islam. It displays rare good sense and a willingness
to face truth that is all too often absent in discussions of this
era." —Paul F. Crawford, Professor of Ancient and Medieval History,
California University of Pennsylvania"A splendid book. This sober
and hard-hitting reassessment demolishes the myths of religious
tolerance and multiculturalism that have hopelessly romanticized
the precarious coexistence and harsh realities of medieval Spain
under Muslim rule. Well documented and persuasively argued, this
book is must-reading as a window into the lessons of the past."
—Noël Valis, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Yale
University"Fernández-Morera takes on the long-overdue topic of
assessing medieval Muslim Spain's reputation for ethnic pluralism,
religious tolerance, and cultural secularism. Finding this view
based on a 'culture of forgetting,' he documents the reign of
strict sharia in Andalusia, with its attendant discrimination
against non-Muslims and subjugation of women. So much for the
charming fantasy of open-mindedness and mutual respect." —Daniel
Pipes, historian of Islam and publisher of the Middle East
Quarterly"Brilliant . . . A thorough and entertaining study, as
masterful as it is pointed." —Catholic Culture"Reveals the awesome
and awful truth camouflaged by many in the West who have written
apologies for Muslim-ruled Andalusia . . . More than 90 pages of
footnotes to contemporary sources in their original languages make
his thesis unassailable." —New English Review
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