The Ornament of the World:

How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain
by MARIA ROSA MENOCAL.

Boston and New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2002. 298 pages, illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. US$14.95 (Paper) ISBN 0-316-56688-8

Most recent non-specialist studies about Muslim-Jewish-Christian relations have been polemical in nature and have obsessively focused on what is wrong with Islam and what is necessary for its reform. Seldom does one encounter a serious academic study about medieval history and interfaith relations that reaches out to multiple audiences and is at the same time frank, thoroughly engaging and divorced of ideology. One such meticulously researched work is Maria Rosa Menocal's The Ornament of the World, which provides a much-needed counterbalance to the extremist rhetoric about Islam and the history of Islamic civilization. Highly readable and accessible to non-specialists, it is ideally suited for undergraduate medieval history and literature courses and should also be an integral part of university and college outreach programs. In brief, Menocal, a professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University, has produced a masterpiece that will remain an indispensable resource for years to come.

Telling the story of Andalusia and nearly eight centuries of one of the greatest exemplars of cultural and religious symbiosis and tolerance in the medieval world requires a unique talent, which Menocal possesses. Herein she recreates for the western reader the setting of tolerance, cultural efflorescence and convivencia (to use Americo Castro's designation) that came to epitomize medieval Andalusian society at a time when the rest of Europe was culturally and scientifically backward. From the flight of the last of the Umayyads and his arrival in Andalus in 755, to the capitulation of the last Nasrid ruler of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 this is an accurate, though not overwhelming portrayal of political events.

The reign of the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Rahman III at Cordoba came to epitomize a "golden age" of cultural and literary achievement. Following an official deputation from Abd al-Rahman III that included his Jewish vizier Hasdai ibn Shaprut and the Mozarabic bishop, the German nun Hroswitha writes that Andalus was the "Ornament of the World." It was a world where Jews like Hasdai ibn Shaprut and Samuel ibn Nagrila rose to prominent positions. It was also a world of contradictions which helped maintain a unique balance within Andalusian society. Puritanical Christians, Jews and Muslims within Andalusian society and outside criticized their co-religionists for embracing aspects of Andalusian culture they found objectionable, such as use of the Arabic language, the composition of Arabic poetry and artistic forms.

The Arabic language not only became a lingua franca, but also the basis for a literary and scientific culture to whose success Muslims, Jews and Christians contributed. Arabic was the mother tongue of Jews and Christians who came to speak and write it. Jews, Christians and Muslims undertook the translation of ancient Greek philosophical and scientific works into Arabic. Menocal writes: "The Umayyads, much like the Abbasids, who devoted vast resources and talent to the translation of Greek philosophical and scientific texts, had created a universe of Muslims where piety and observance were not seen as inimical to an intellectual and 'secular' life and society" (p. 87). Such Jewish luminaries as Ibn Ezra, Judah ha-Levi and Samuel ibn Nagrila composed Jewish and Hebrew poetry. The caliphal library at Cordoba possessed some 400,000 volumes, more than any other European library.

In a postscript Menocal reflects on our dramatically changed world and stresses the need to learn the lessons of the past. Today, an unhealthy obsession exists in the West on what needs to be done about Islam that often borders on intolerance. Real political solutions to the world's conflicts must be forthcoming so support for extremism and terrorism and the intolerance, hatred and violence that they embody and engender will diminish. Jews, Christians, and Muslims must set about reclaiming their past, which has been hijacked by religious and secular extremists, and perhaps to reform both Western and Islamic societies based on long-existing forms of convivencia and tolerance.

Josef W. Meri
Institute for Ismaili Studies (Reviewed 2004)