L'Espagne Medievale

For many centuries, Spain was home to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike : historians thus refer to the country as " the Spain of three cultures ". But any student of medieval times learns that - beyond the three religions that were present, a very special culture evolved that was to play an influential role throughout the long history of the Mediterranean region. The inhabitants of the Spanish peninsula inherited their law, politics and urban way of life from Rome, their philosophy and sciences from Ancient Greece and their religion from Palestine and Arabia. And all three of these peoples have found a common ground in Jerusalem. Although at variance over which of their religions was the "true" one, and despite the fact that each group lived according its own " law " (often fighting amongst themselves), they nonetheless shared a love of wine and poetry, enjoyed festivities and entertainment, were skilled in weaponry and trade, gifted in languages and love gardening. It was in Spain that Averroes and Maimonides crossed paths, not to mention such legendary figures as El Cid Campeador, who distinguished himself in Valencia and Spain's monarch, King Alfonso VI. Medieval Spain passed on to us the Great Mosque of Cordova and Santiago de Compostella's St. James' Cathedral, Grenada's Alhambra Palace, the Roman frescos of Catalonia, the Batalha Monastery and the Transito Synagogue of Toledo. How ever, as Polish explorer Nicolas de Poplau observed in 1484 : " in all regions of Andalusia, Portugal and Algarve, the buildings and people are similar and the ways in which Saracens and Christians differ in terms of their education, customs and way of life can be perceived only in their religions ".Hispanic medieval civilization was the fruit of the long-term relations - sometimes friendly and sometimes belligerent but never neutral - that Jews, Christians and Muslims had maintained in a land that they all ardently loved.Docteur ès-Lettres de la Sorbonne, Directeur de Recherches au C.N.R.S., auteur d'une Histoire médiévale de la Péninsule ibérique, Adeline Rucquoi a également publié L'Espagne médiévale dans la collection Guides Belles Lettres des Civilisations.