WHERE ARE YOU HEADED?

Our travels will take Heidi and Lee primarily through Al-Andalus (Arabic for "to become green at the end of the summer"), today known as Andalusia, the southern portion of the Iberian peninsula occupied and ruled by Muslims between 711 and 1492.  The trip is "bookended" by a couple of days each, first, in Madrid and, at the end of the tour, in Lisbon, Portugal.

Approaching Spain, as we are, from the East (having earlier toured Burma, India, Turkey and Egypt in years past) brings us to this experience primed to inquire further into this particular and specific period of Spanish history, one ruled by those known locally as the Moors ("Blacks" from Morocco).  No doubt we're bound to see lots of Moorish architecture and examples of the decorative arts almost everywhere we go in almost every city on our itinerary.  We're looking forward to that!

Interestingly, however, we're less likely top learn much about Islamic rule and Islamic culture in general as they developed during these seven centuries.  Spanish historical accounts, we've found, tend to almost completely gloss over this Muslim-dominated period.  Much attention is given instead to the Reconquista, the "holy war" leading to the establishment of a unified Christian Catholic Empire under Ferdinand and Isabella by 1492 (the very year Christopher Columbus sailed off in search of the New World).

We know, from what we've learned from our friend, the Muslim activist Irshad Manji, that the Islamic world during this time was really centered in Al-Andalus, its capital, Cordoba, the largest city in Europe and the locus of education and culture within a world otherwise dominated by the Dark Ages, the Crusades and Arab disarray.  

Jews, Muslims and Christians lived and worked together here in open, tolerant communities.  Modern European civilization consequently benefited enormously from Islamic continuities maintained in Al-Andalus through ties to the Greek and Roman past (eventually via Latin translations of Arabic versions of original Greek philosophical texts, for example).

Over the past several weeks we have advanced our own limited knowledge of these centuries a bit, but we still have lots to learn.  Here's hoping we'll find ways and means to accomplish that while we journey through this part of the (European) world in the days and weeks ahead.