| Spain
in the Middle Ages
When we study
Europe’s Middle Ages, we seldom include Spain (at least not until
after the “reconquest”). Our libraries abound with books on the
Middle Ages, but try to find in any of them a single word about
daily life and customs in Spain. It is as if later historians, in
order to justify a uniquely “European history”, ignored the fact
that a vibrant and brilliant civilization created by “Others”
– by Arabs, by Muslims, by Jews – by brown and black people –
not only existed in Europe, but without those contributions the
region could not have become what it did. When we talk about
Europe’s Renaissance, we never think of its beginnings in Spain
several centuries before it reached Italy. It’s as if we lopped
off a good 1,000 years of history – or at least amputated it from
Europe. Nothing could be further from the truth. - From the
introduction to A Medieval Banquet in the Alhambra Palace |
