The ornament of the world: how Muslims, Jews, and Christians created a culture of tolerance in medieval Spain

Beginnings

A brief history of a first-rate place

The palaces of memory

The mosque and the palm tree: Cordoba 786

Mother tongues: Cordoba, 855

A grand vizier, a grand city: Cordoba, 949

The gardens of memory: Madinat al-Zahra, south of Cordoba, 1009

Victorious in exile: The battlefield at Argona, between Cordoba and granada, 1041

Love and its songs: Niebla, just west of Seville, on the road to Huelva, August 1064; Barbastro, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, on the road to Saragossa, August 1064

The church at the top of the hill: Toledo, 1085

An Andalusian in London: Huesca, 1106

Sailing away, riding away: Alexandria, 1140

The abbot and the Quran: Cluny, 1142

Gifts: Sicily, 1236; Cordoba, 1236; Granada, 1236

Banned in Paris: Paris, 1277

Visions of other worlds: Avila, 1305

Foreign dignitaries at the courts of Castile: Seville, 1364; Toledo, 1364

In the Alhambra: Granada, 1492

Somewhere in La Mancha: 1605

Epilogue: Andalusian shards.

Beginnings

a brief history of a first-rate place

The palaces of memory

The mosque and the palm tree; Cordoba 786

Mother tongues: Cordoba, 855

A grand vizier, a grand city: Cordoba, 949

The gardens of memory: Madinat al-Zahra, Cordoba and Granada, 1041

Love and its songs: Neibla, just west of Seville, on the road to Huelva, August 1064; Barbastro, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, on the road to Saragossa, August 1064

The church at the top of the hill: Toledo, 1085

An Andalusian in London: Huesca, 1106

Sailing away, riding away: Alexandria, 1140

The abbot and the Quran: Cluny, 1142

Gifts: Sicily, 1236: Cordoba, 1236; Granada, 1236

Banned in Paris: Paris, 1277

Visions of other worlds: Avila, 1305

Foreign dignitaries at the courts of Castile: Seville, 1364; Toledo, 1364

In the Alhambra: Granada, 1492

Somewhere in La Mancha: 1605

Epilogue: Andalusian shards

A reading group guide.

Beginnings

A brief history of a first-rate place

The palaces of memory

The mosque and the palm tree: Cordoba 786

Mother tongues: Cordoba, 855

A grand vizier, a grand city: Cordoba, 949

The gardens of memory: Madinat al-Zahra, south of Cordoba, 1009

Victorious in exile: The battlefield at Argona, between Cordoba and granada, 1041

Love and its songs: Niebla, just west of Seville, on the road to Huelva, August 1064; Barbastro, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, on the road to Saragossa, August 1064

The church at the top of the hill: Toledo, 1085

An Andalusian in London: Huesca, 1106

Sailing away, riding away: Alexandria, 1140

The abbot and the Quran: Cluny, 1142

Gifts: Sicily, 1236; Cordoba, 1236; Granada, 1236

Banned in Paris: Paris, 1277

Visions of other worlds: Avila, 1305

Foreign dignitaries at the courts of Castile: Seville, 1364; Toledo, 1364

In the Alhambra: Granada, 1492

Somewhere in La Mancha: 1605

Epilogue: Andalusian shards

A reading group guide