"The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews Under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain" is a book by scholar Darío Fernández-Morera that challenges the mainstream historical narrative of Al-Andalus.

 

"The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews Under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain" is a book by scholar Darío Fernández-Morera that challenges the mainstream historical narrative of Al-Andalus.

Core Arguments and Methodology

Published by Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the book uses primary historical sources and archaeological evidence to argue against the popular portrayal of medieval Islamic Spain as a harmonious, multicultural, and tolerant society.

• Deconstruction of Tolerance: Fernández-Morera contends that the celebrated religious "tolerance" of Al-Andalus was highly paternalistic and did not mean equal rights. Christians and Jews were classified as dhimmis (protected second-class citizens), subject to heavy taxes (jizya), restricted from repairing religious institutions, and excluded from military service.
• Systemic Repression: The author documents accounts of political despotism, religious persecution, the forced wearing of identifying markers (yellow badges) by Jewish populations, and significant violence, such as the 1066 Granada massacre.
• Critique of Modern Academia: The text serves as a sharp polemic targeting modern politicians, critics, and academics. The author claims they have intentionally scrubbed historical complexities to present a romanticized model of diversity and multiculturalism.

 

WIKIPEDIA

The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise is a non-fiction book written by Dario Fernández-Morera and published by ISI Books in 2016. In it, the author argues against La Convivencia, the hypothesis that the Spanish Islamic realms (Al-Andalus) were religiously tolerant.

Background and contents

Fernández-Morera is a Cuban-born associate professor at Northwestern University in the United States, specialising in the literature of Miguel Cervantes.^[1] ICI Books is the publishing arm of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, an American conservative think tank.^[2]

The author believes that left-wing academics, journalists and politicians misrepresent the tolerance in Al-Andalus to promote their own agendas in modern times.^[3] He argues that the Umayyad conquest of Hispania destroyed Visigothic Spain when it was flourishing culturally.^[4] He mentions the important role of slavery in the economy of Al-Andalus, as well as the jizya tax taken from Christians and Jews as part of their dhimmi minority status that was higher than the equivalent zakat tax for Muslims.^[4] He details the persecution of religious minorities under the later Almohad and Almoravid dynasties (Almohad doctrine), such as the Almohad emir Abu Yusuf who is said to have boasted that he had destroyed every church and synagogue in his realm.^[4]

Reception

Maribel Fierro finds that Fernández-Morera often "lacks first-hand knowledge of his subject matter and has misinterpreted his readings" and his book "will not lead to a better understanding of al-Andalus" but is "useful in understanding how al-Andalus is employed to fight the battles of the present".^[5]

David F. Forte, a professor of law at Cleveland State University, wrote that the level of research for the book was "prodigious", but its organisation was poor and it "veers between genuine scholarship, pedantry, and advocacy". He noted some double standards in Fernández-Morera's argument: the Visigoths were praised for borrowing from their Roman predecessors, while the Muslims are chastised for doing the same; the book similarly mentions the Muslims' roles in the slave trade in Iberia and Africa, but not how the Christian Spaniards were involved in the same practices. Forte writes that the best research in the book is on how Iberian Christians and Jews dealt with internal rifts in the same era; the Jews against the Karaite sect and the Christians against Arianism.^[4]

S. J. Pearce, an associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese at New York University and specialist on medieval Spain, wrote a scathing review of the book. She wrote that "the historian behind The Myth is promoting propaganda traditionally associated with the Spanish far-right", and "The Myth's myth is a myth", accusing Fernández-Morera of constructing a straw man argument of medieval Islamic tolerance that is not the modern academic consensus, as well as saying, "It would be a book-length corrective that would address and properly contextualize and source all of the errors that occur at every level in The Myth".^[1] She repeated her criticism in a 44-page chapter in The Extreme Right and the Revision of History.^[6]

Alberto Ferreiro gave the work a positive review, expressing a desire for a Spanish translation.^[7]

References

General

• Fernández-Morera, Darío (Fall 2006). "The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise". The Intercollegiate Review: 23–31.
• Pearce, S. J. (2020). "The Myth of the Myth of the Andalusian Paradise". In Valencia-García, Louie (ed.). The Extreme Right and the Revision of History (PDF). Routledge.

Specific

1. Pearce, S. J. (17 March 2017). "Paradise Lost". Retrieved 4 September 2020.
2. Pearce 2020, p. 9
3. Pearce 2020, p. 2
4. Forte, David F. (3 August 2016). "Paradise Lost?". Law & Liberty. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
5. Review in al-Qantara 39.1 (2018): 248–253.
6. Pearce 2020, pp. 5–6
7. Review in Anuario de Historia de la Iglesia 26 (2017): 574–576.