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Books! new and shiny
Dec. 25th, 2008 07:05 pmJ. bought me "God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215" which I'm really really hoping will be better than the last book on Islamic Spain that I found. It's new and the front cover flap promises a fresh perspective that doesn't frame Christian-Islamic battles as defenses of Europe vs. scurrilous invaders, so that would be a pleasant change.
It's odd that the social history texts are mostly blithe about "all the advanced science, medicine, and knowledge of the classics in this period came mostly through translations from Arabic either of Arabic research or of Greek/Roman texts that the Arabs had preserved" (and yes, I know that Arab =/= Islamic, but I'm using the terms as used in the respective texts, here), whereas the political history texts are still mired in this sort of Crusaders and Chivalry! mindset.
I mentioned the book I returned unread the second time it described the Islamic folks as "wily" and "sly", right? That's just not appropriate characterization for a serious text, it made me feel as if I was reading some kind of Shakespeare pastiche and Iago was going to jump out from behind a curtain any minute. Bleh.
And I saw while at the bookstore that the Hourani text on the history of the Arab Peoples that I picked up because a library was discarding it is one of the classic texts, so that's handy.
Postscript: can I once again express my irritation that none of the texts, I mean NONE of them, are cataloged under al-Andalus or anything similar? The Muslims ruled the country for 700 odd years and we don't use their name for it during this period why? I mean, there are tons of little bitty European countries whose entire history from founding to total absorption in other European countries is a lot less than 700 years, and we use THEIR names when talking about them, rather than just referring to them as provinces of whatever country swallowed them later.
Y'know what they're cataloged under? Wait for it ---- "Moorish Spain".
Sometimes "Islamic Spain" in more modern catalogings, but the majority? "Moorish Spain". It doesn't seem quite appropriate to me. I know I've kvetched about this before, but it is still bugging me.
If I have money left later this season, I want that Maimonides biography. It looks delectable.
It's odd that the social history texts are mostly blithe about "all the advanced science, medicine, and knowledge of the classics in this period came mostly through translations from Arabic either of Arabic research or of Greek/Roman texts that the Arabs had preserved" (and yes, I know that Arab =/= Islamic, but I'm using the terms as used in the respective texts, here), whereas the political history texts are still mired in this sort of Crusaders and Chivalry! mindset.
I mentioned the book I returned unread the second time it described the Islamic folks as "wily" and "sly", right? That's just not appropriate characterization for a serious text, it made me feel as if I was reading some kind of Shakespeare pastiche and Iago was going to jump out from behind a curtain any minute. Bleh.
And I saw while at the bookstore that the Hourani text on the history of the Arab Peoples that I picked up because a library was discarding it is one of the classic texts, so that's handy.
Postscript: can I once again express my irritation that none of the texts, I mean NONE of them, are cataloged under al-Andalus or anything similar? The Muslims ruled the country for 700 odd years and we don't use their name for it during this period why? I mean, there are tons of little bitty European countries whose entire history from founding to total absorption in other European countries is a lot less than 700 years, and we use THEIR names when talking about them, rather than just referring to them as provinces of whatever country swallowed them later.
Y'know what they're cataloged under? Wait for it ---- "Moorish Spain".
Sometimes "Islamic Spain" in more modern catalogings, but the majority? "Moorish Spain". It doesn't seem quite appropriate to me. I know I've kvetched about this before, but it is still bugging me.
If I have money left later this season, I want that Maimonides biography. It looks delectable.
