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A good introductory picture of the Islamic presence in Spain, from the year 711 until the modern era.
This volume is intended as a commemoration of the career of Richard Fletcher and his remarkable contribution to our understanding of the medieval world. The seventeen papers included here, written by some of the leading scholars of this period, reflect the three main areas of Fletcher’s scholarly endeavours: Church and society in medieval Spain; Christian-Muslim relations, both in the Iberian peninsula and further afield; and the history of the post-Roman world, with particular reference to the conversion of Europe. Contributors are James Campbell, Roger Collins, Judith McClure, Edward James, Roger Wright, Ann Christys, Bernard F. Reilly, Christopher Tyerman, Simon Barton, John Williams, James D'Emilio, Emma Falque, Peter Linehan, Peter Biller, Ian Michael, Esther Pascua, John Edwards, and Ian Wood.
The story of how Europe was converted to Christianity from 300AD until the barbarian Lithuanians finally capitulated at the astonishingly late date of 1386. It is an epic tale from one of the most gifted historians of today.
The Cross and the Crescent is a brilliant account of the relations between Islam and Christianity from the time of Muhammad to the Reformation, by Englands leading mediaeval historian.
Rodrigo Díaz, the legendary warrior-knight of eleventh-century Castile known as El Cid, is still honored in Spain as a national hero for liberating the fatherland from the occupying Moors. Yet, as this book reveals, there are many contradictions between eleventh-century reality and the mythology that developed later. By placing El Cid in a fresh, historical context, Fletcher shows us an adventurous soldier of fortune who was of a type, one of a number of "cids," or "bosses," who flourished in eleventh-century Spain. But the El Cid of legend--the national hero -- was unique in stature even in his lifetime. Before his death El Cid was already celebrated in a poem; posthumously he was immortal...
Written in the same tradition as John Julius Norwich's engrossing accounts of Venice and Byzantium, Richard Fletcher's Moorish Spain entertains even as it enlightens. He tells the story of a vital period in Spanish history which transformed the culture and society, not only of Spain, but of the rest of Europe as well. Moorish influence transformed the architecture, art, literature and learning, and Fletcher combines this analysis with a crisp account of the wars, politics and sociological changes of the time.
"An investigation of the process by which large parts of Europe accepted the Christian faith between the fourth and the fourteenth centuries and of some of the cultural consequences that flowed therefrom." In a work of splendid scholarship that reflects both a firm mastery of difficult sources and a keen intuition, one of Britain's foremost medievalists tells the story of the Christianization of Europe. It is a very large story, for conversion encompassed much more than religious belief. With it came enormous cultural change: Latin literacy and books, Roman notions of law and property, and the concept of town life, as well as new tastes in food, drink, and dress. Whether from faith or by force, from self-interest or by revelation, conversion had an immense impact that is with us even today.
Fathers are told that they should be 'involved' with their baby but not how to go about building the connection. In this stimulating book, Richard Fletcher, a pioneer researcher on fathers' role with young children, provides the hard evidence and practical guidance for fathering that builds children's brains and capabilities.