Read any good books since your last update about your recent reading?

Yes, although I forget when I last shared the books I've been reading, so hopefully I don't repeat anything.

I know that I've repeated this book because I've mentioned it several times over the past couple of weeks, but I can't help but remind everyone again about Steve Coll's excellent new book, The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO). It's definitely the best book I've read so far this year, and it's one of the better books I've read in the past 10 years.

Other recent books that I've read and would recommend checking out:

•Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by Brad Gooch

•The Far Land: 200 Years of Murder, Mania, and Mutiny in the South Pacific (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by Brandon Presser

•UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government's Search for Alien Life Here -- and Out There (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by Garrett M. Graff Garrett Graff has quickly become one of those authors who I go out of my way to immediately pick up his latest books because he's so well-connected and I ALWAYS learn fascinating things from his books. I don't know if there's a writer/journalist today who has better access to the American defense establishment or proven to be more capable of shining a light on many of the most secretive aspects of the United States government.

•"Uncool and Incorrect" in Chile: The Nixon Administration and the Downfall of Salvador Allende (BOOK | KINDLE) by Stephen M. Streeter

•Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by Jared Cohen

•The Liberation of Paris: How Eisenhower, de Gaulle, and von Choltitz Saved the City of Light (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by Jean Edward Smith

•Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by David Mitchell

•The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty: The Husaynis, 1700-1948 (BOOK) by Ilan Pappe

•In the Houses of Their Dead: The Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by Terry Alford

•Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by Brian A. Catlos

•Borgata: Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia, Volume 1 of the Borgata Trilogy (BOOK | KINDLE) by Louis Ferrante

•Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant (BOOK | KINDLE) by John Reeves

•His Final Battle: The Last Months of Franklin Roosevelt (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by Joseph Lelyveld

•Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) by Scott Eyman

The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650 (U California Press, 2022) presents an original and revisionist narrative of the development of the medieval west from late antiquity to the dawn of modernity. This textbook is uniquely centered on the Mediterranean and emphasizes the role played by peoples and cultures of Africa, Asia, and Europe in an age when Christians, Muslims, and Jews of various denominations engaged with each other in both conflict and collaboration. Key features:

Fifteen-chapter structure to aid classroom use

Sections in each chapter that feature key artifacts relevant to chapter themes

Dynamic visuals, including 190 photos and 20 maps

The Sea in the Middle and its sourcebook companion, Texts from the Middle, pair together to provide a framework and materials that guide students and scholars through this complex but essential history—one that will appeal to the diverse student bodies of today.

Thomas E. Burman is Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame and the Director of the Medieval Institute. He is a scholar of Christian-Muslim-Jewish intellectual and cultural history in the medieval Mediterranean. His book Reading the Qur’an in Latin Christendom was awarded the Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History. Brian A. Catlos is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, and the co-director of the Mediterranean Seminar. He works on Christian-Muslim-Jewish relations in the premodern Mediterranean. His most recent book, Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain, is available in eight languages and as an audiobook. Mark D. Meyerson is Professor in the Department of History and Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. He works on Christian-Muslim-Jewish relations in the premodern Mediterranean and on the history of violence. His book A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain was runner-up for the National Jewish Book Award, USA.

Evan Zarkadas (MA) is an independent scholar of European and Medieval history and an educator. He received his master’s in history from the University of Maine focusing on Medieval Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, medieval identity, and ethnicity during the late Middle Ages.

Fatima bint al-Ahmar

Within the history of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, a number of women tresspassed the threshold of their harem to play important roles in different aspects of the court. This was specifically the case of the sultana Fāṭima bint al-Aḥmar, the daughter of emir Muḥammad II, who can be considered the first lady of this lineage to participate in the political affairs of the kingdom. Fatima was born in 1260 or 1261 during the reign of her grandfather, Muhammad I. Her father, the future Muhammad II, was heir to the throne, and her mother, Nuzha, was a first cousin of his father. She had a brother, the future Muhammad III, and a half-brother, Nasr, whose mother was the second wife of his father, a Christian named Shams al-Duha.

Her father Muhammad was known as al-Faqih (a faqīh is an Islamic jurist), due to his erudition, education, and preference for learned men such as physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and poets. He fostered intellectual activities in his children. Fatima became expert in the study of barnamaj, the biobibliographies of Islamic scholars, while her brothers, Muhammad and Nasr, studied poetry and astronomy respectively. Like her brothers, she likely received her education privately in the royal palace complex, the Alhambra. Her father Muhammad II took the throne in 1273 after the death of Muhammad I. He married Fatima to Abu Said Faraj ibn Ismail, his Nasrid cousin and influential advisor.

Muhammad III took the throne after his father’s death in 1302; Fatima appeared to maintain a good relation with his brother and her husband remained the governor of Málaga throughout his reign. Muhammad III was deposed in 1309 by a palace revolution in Granada, and replaced by Nasr. Unlike with Muhammad III, Fatima and her husband had poor relations with her half-brother. As his rule grew unpopular, she allied herself with factions seeking to overthrow him. Her husband Abu Said led a rebellion in 1311, seeking to enthrone their son Ismail. 

The rebellion was declared in the name of Ismail, because as Fatima’s son he was a grandson of Muhammad II and was therefore seen as having better legitimacy than his father. Their forces defeated that of the Sultan in battle, but Nasr managed to retreat to Granada despite the loss of his horse. Abu Said besieged the capital but lacked supplies for a protracted campaign. Upon discovering that Nasr had allied himself with Ferdinand IV of Castile, Abu Said sought peace with the sultan and was able to retain his post as governor of Malaga but paid tribute to Nasr.

Fearing the sultan’s vengeance, Abu Said negotiated a deal with the Marinids, in which he were to yield Málaga in exchange for the governorship of Salé in North Africa. When this became known to the people of Málaga, they considered it treachery, rose up and deposed him in favor of Ismail. Later, Ismail imprisoned Abu Said in Cártama after suspicions of attempting to flee Málaga, and later moved him to Salobreña where he died in 1320. With her son in control of the city, Fatima helped him engineer another rebellion against Nasr, enlisting the aid of Abu Said’s old ally, Uthman ibn Abi al-Ula, the chief of the Volunteers of the Faith, and various factions within the capital. Ismail’s army swelled as he marched towards Granada, and the capital inhabitants opened the city gates for him. Nasr, surrounded in the Alhambra, agreed to abdicate and retired to Guadix. 

Ismail took the throne in February 1314 and Fatima entered court as queen mother. Despite the falling out between her son and her husband, Fatima maintained good relations with her son, and appeared in various points of Ibn al-Khatib’s biography of the Sultan. She assisted Ismail in political matters, in which according to Rubiera Mata she was “as gifted with great qualities as her husband.” When Ismail was fatally attacked by a relative in 1325, it was to her palace he was brought before he succumbed to his injuries.

By the time of Ismail’s death, Fatima was a highly influential figure at court and she helped secure the ascension of her grandson Muhammad IV, son of Ismail. As Muhammad was only ten years old, Fatima, and a guardian named Abu Nuaym Ridwan, served as tutor and a sort of regent for the young sultan, and they took active role in government. According to historian Bárbara Boloix Gallardo, this was the peak period of Fatima’s political activity. The assassination of the vizier Ibn al-Mahruq, on the order of Muhammad IV in 1328, occurred while he was in the palace of Fatima discussing the emirate’s affairs as he regularly did. Boloix Gallardo speculated that she might have been involved in planning or masterminding this assassination.

Muhammad IV was assassinated in 1333 and replaced by his 15-year-old brother Yusuf I. Fatima again became tutor and regent for her grandson, who was considered a minor and whose authority was limited to only “choosing the food to eat from his table”. According to Rubiera Mata, Fatima likely influenced Yusuf I’s constructions in the Alhambra, the royal palace and fortress complex of Granada, but Boloix Gallardo argues that there is no evidence for this. She died on 26 February 1349 during Yusuf I’s reign and was buried in the royal cemetery of the Alhambra. 

The poet, historian, and statesman Ibn al-Khatib wrote a 41-verse elegy for her death, the only one ever dedicated to a Nasrid princess. In the elegy, he wrote that “She was alone, surpassing the women of her time / like the Night of Power surpasses all the other nights" .He also praised her as: “the cream of the cream of the kingdom, the great pearl at the center of the dynasty’s necklace, the pride of the harem, aspiring to honor and respect, the chain binding its subjects, the protector of the kings, and the living memory of the royal family’s birthright”. Professor Brian A. Catlos attributed the survival of the dynasty, and eventual success, as being partly due to her “vision and constancy.” Historian María Jesús Rubiera Mata compared her guardianship and tutelage of her grandsons to those of the contemporary María de Molina, who also played a central political role as regent of her son Ferdinand IV and grandson Alfonso XI of Castile.

(x)

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate your social and cultural historiography. While I'm familiar with English and French Monasticism from 1300 onward, my focus was on clerical life and theology having contemporaneous context is really helpful. Your explanations are also clear and funny, which I appreciate as well. I haven't gotten too far into your studies yet but do you have any knowledge of European Muslims outside of the O.E.?

Aha, I am afraid I don’t actually know what you mean by “outside of the O.E.” (this is on me for not being a Cool Kid, no doubt, but there you have it). However, if you mean Muslims in medieval Europe, medieval Europe’s perception of/interaction with Muslims, how this changed in the late medieval/early modern period, and where these sites of contact were most likely to happen: yes, I absolutely have all of that! (Edit: @codenamefinlandia kindly suggested that this might mean outside the Ottoman Empire, which I doubtless should have thought of, but I hope this is indeed what you mean? In which case, yes, the below resources will be very helpful for you in exploring the European Muslim presence well before the Ottomans.)

I wrote briefly about Muslims in my Historical People of Color in Europe post, including in the context of the crusades, their long-term settlements in medieval Spain and Italy, and the relationships of the Muslim empires with Elizabethan England. There are, as you might expect, many studies focusing on Muslim-Christian contacts in medieval Europe and in the wider medieval world, of which the crusades are probably the best-known example. Below follows a selection of some reading material which might be helpful:

Sea of the Caliphs: The Mediterranean in the Medieval Islamic World by Christophe Picard (this is about medieval Islamic trade in the Mediterranean, as it says on the tin, starting in the 7th century with the original Muslim conquests, and focuses on its role in cultural contacts between Muslims and Christians of southern and eastern Europe)

The Arab Influence in Medieval Europe, ed. Dionisius A. Agios and Richard Hitchcock (a collection of essays about Arabic influence on medieval Europe, this one doesn’t have any e-version so you might need to consult a university library)

The Muslims of Medieval Italy by Alex Metcalfe (examines the rise and fall of the Islamic presence in southern Italy and Sicily between about 800--1300, and how this was transformed into a frontier of cultural contact, exchange, and conflict alike)

Idols in the East: European Representations of Islam and the Orient, 1100--1450, by Suzanne Conklin Akbari (examines how the Islamic world was depicted in the ‘high’ medieval era, and the developments of some of these Orientalist images in the 19th century and onward)

Sons of Ishmael: Muslims through European Eyes in the Middle Ages by John V. Tolan (in something of the same vein as the above; he has written another book called Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination which focuses more on the semiotic, literary, and narrative construction of the “othered Muslim”).

Muslim and Christian Contact in the Middle Ages: A Reader, ed. Jarbel Rodriguez (a GREAT book with multiple types of examples, primary sources, regions, and types of contact between Muslims and Christians from the seventh through the fifteenth century, including Byzantine, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian authors of the time period)

Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, c. 1050--1614, by Brian Catlos (another book which I really need to read more of, focusing on medieval Muslims who actually lived IN Europe, including in Spain, Italy, Hungary, the Balkans/Eastern Europe, and other places).

The Republic of Arabic Letters: Islam and the European Enlightenment, by Alexander Bevilacqua (studies how the study/approach to Islam changed i the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and how many Enlightenment scholars learned Arabic and read Islamic texts)

As Catlos says in Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom: “In fact, the Muslims of medieval Europe included substantial communities scattered right across the Latin-dominated Mediterranean, from the Atlantic coast to the Transjordan, as well as in Central and Eastern Europe. In some areas they survived for only a century or two, whereas in others they persevered for well over five hundred years. They did not live as isolated enclaves, they were not uniformly poor, and were not necessarily subject to systematic repression; rather, they comprised diverse communities and dynamic societies that played an important role in the formation of what would eventually emerge a modern European culture and society.” In other words, while we’ve discussed before that medieval Europe was never uniformly white and never uniformly Christian, people tend to think that Jews were the only other religion that lived permanently in Europe. While Italy, Iberia, and the Balkans maintained the most enduring Muslim communities, that was not the only place they lived, and they were not merely merchants passing through without settling (though there was plenty of interreligious trade). We’ve discussed before how Yusuf/Joe would not necessarily always be a surprising or unexpected sight in Europe, and how people there would be a lot more used to him than you might expect. So: yes, Islam was always embedded in the fabric of medieval Europe, both as enemies during the crusades and as long-term citizens and communities at home.

Bonus: have some work on queer medieval and early modern Muslims, because reasons!

Sahar Amer, ‘Medieval Arab Lesbians and Lesbian-like Women’, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 18 (2009), 215-236

Sahar Amer, Crossing Borders: Love between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008)

Samar Habib, Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality, 850--1780 A.D. (Teneo Press, 2009)

Samar Habib, Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations (London: Routledge, 2007)

Samar Habib, Islam and Homosexuality (Praeger, 2010)

E. J. Hernández Peña, ‘Reclaiming Alterity: Strangeness and the Queering of Islam in Medieval and Early Modern Spain’, Theology & Sexuality, 22 (2016) 42-56

Gregory S. Hutcheson, ‘The Sodomitic Moor: Queerness in the Narrative of Reconquista’, in Queering the Middle Ages, ed. by Glen Burger and Steven F. Kruger (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001), pp. 99-122.

Gregory S. Hutcheson et al., eds., Queer Iberia: Sexualities, Cultures, and Crossings from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999)

Scott Alan Kugle, Homosexuality in Islam: Critical Reflections on Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims (Oneworld Publications, 2010)

Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe, Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature (New York: New York University Press, 1997)

Anyway. Let me know if you want me to expand on any of these topics in more detail, and I hope some of these resources are helpful!

Lockdown Tag Thing or whatever?

Thank you for tagging me in this, @the-thorster! <3

ARE YOU STAYING HOME FROM WORK AND SCHOOL? 

i go to work, but i live like 5 minutes away from the office so i don’t have to take public transport or anything, and most of my colleagues work from home

IF YOU’RE STAYING HOME, WHO IS THERE WITH YOU?

my partner and our cat

ARE YOU A HOMEBODY? 

totally, but i also need external motivators to leave the house because i do feel my mental health getting worse if i stay in too much

AN EVENT THAT YOU WERE LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT GOT CANCELLED? 

there was a classical concert i had tickets to but it’s postponed to 2022, would have gone to a big folklore festival in lithuania last year, i am pretty sad abt that one. and in general just recurring events that are not happening, because those usually help me get a sense of time having passed

WHAT MOVIES HAVE YOU WATCHED RECENTLY? 

i don’t watch a lot of movies alone tbh

WHAT SHOWS ARE YOU WATCHING? 

Arrested Development, i had never seen it and wanted something fun to watch while doing other stuff. technically i still also need to finish watching Queen’s Gambit with my partner

WHAT ARE YOU READING? 

Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain by Brian Catlos

WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR SELF-CARE? 

i try to work out, only somewhat successfully tho. and i have started preparing the plants for our balcony-garden again, i think that counts as self-care

tagging @t-t-kreischwurst @darkmistandodddreams @forraever @selfishjean @youhavereachedtheendofpie @flareontoast  if you wanna!

So I'm sitting at my desk, adding citations to my thesis and suddenly- this! Is Brian A. Catlos a fellow Tolkien nerd or is this a coincidence? The book is Kingdoms of Faith- a new history of islamic Spain.

history of audiobooks : Kingdoms of Faith by Brian A. Catlos | History

Listen to Kingdoms of Faith new releases history of audiobooks on your iPhone, iPad, or Android. Get any AUDIOBOOK by Brian A. Catlos History FREE during your Free Trial

Written By: Brian A. Catlos Narrated By: Bob Souer Publisher: Tantor Media Date: November 2018 Duration: 14 hours 30 minutes

Hi! Lately I was falling for Spanish and I wanted to ask if you don't know any good sources for reading more about history of Spanish speaking countries. Spain especially but Latin America would be awesome too. I don't really wanna trust Wikipedia you know. Anyway thank you so much before hand. I love your blog

So for an overview of Latin America I would go for Latin America and the Caribbean: Lands and People

I don’t really know of many good overviews of all of Latin America aside from that.

You usually have to go country by country to get good sources because the ones that talk about them all tend to not go into a lot of depth, or are more focused on some countries more than others.

For Spain though, the most common ones I know of are A Concise History of Spain by William D Phillips Jr and Carla Rahn Phillips

Imperial Spain 1469-1716 by J.H. Elliott

Iberia by James A. Michener

Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain by Brian Catlos

A Vanished World: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain by Chris Lowney

And The New Spaniards by John Hooper which is late 19th century into the modern day.

EDIT: J.H. Elliott also wrote a book about the empires in the Atlantic which talks about Spain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. I haven’t read it so I can’t say 100% if it’s good or if I’d recommend it but look into it if you’d like to know more about imperialism in the Americas

Reinos de fe: Una nueva historia de la España musulmana, de Brian A. Catlos. Sinopsis: En medio de un agresivo y politizado debate abierto sobre la historia de al-Ándalus, Reinos de fe supone una nueva manera de entender siete siglos de civilización islámica en la península. Ni el campo de un choque de civilizaciones, ni un idílico paraíso de la convivencia pacífica, al-Ándalus fue una construcción política y religiosa muy compleja que tuvo que buscar equilibrios entre facciones enfrentadas y muy a menudo estableciendo importantes lazos de conveniencia con los poderes cristianos. Este libro marca un hito en el análisis de un período de la Historia de España que algunos pretenden negar desde la ignorancia y la xenofobia y que nos aporta ejemplos muy interesantes para establecer unas bases de una mejor convivencia. Editado por @pasadopresenteeditor #libros #libroshistoria #librosdehistoria #librosrecomendados #historia #historiadeespaña #historiaparatodos #españa #españamusulmana #historiadelislam #islam #alandalus #leerhistoria #leer #saberhistoria #conocerlahistoria #aprenderhistoria #aprendehistoria #lahistoriamola #megustalahistoria #mejoreslibrosdehistoria #nosolohistoria #masquehistoria https://www.instagram.com/p/CDvRBefidab/?igshid=16b1e5fasj6q4

About that "Myth" of al-Andalus book...again

About that “Myth” of al-Andalus book…again

I saw that a certain snotty *lt-r*ght “sage” was talking about the book The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise (again, apparently). However, the book is a pretty lousy screed by someone who isn’t well versed in the subject matter. S. J. Pearce’s devastating review should put any question of its “quality” to rest. You’re much better off getting a hold of Brian Catlos’s Kingdoms of Faith or getting a…

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Królestwa wiary Brian Catlos

Królestwa wiary Brian Catlos

Tysiąc lat wojen, intryg, pasji religijnej i osiągnięć kulturalnych Napisana na nowo, podważająca mity historia Hiszpanii w czasach arabskiego podboju, obejmująca okres od powstania islamu w VII wieku aż do ostatecznego wypędzenia muzułmanów z Półwyspu Iberyjskiego w wieku XVII.

Catlos twierdzi, że wbrew utrwalonym poglądom Al-Andalus nie była ani rajem, w którym…

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Prior accounts have portrayed Islamic Spain either as a paradise of enlightened tolerance, or as the site where civilisations clashed. Award-winning historian Brian A. Catlos taps a wide array of original sources to paint a more complex picture, showing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews together built a sophisticated civilisation that transformed the Western world, even as they waged relentless war against each other and amongst themselves. Religion was often the language of conflict, but seldom its cause—a lesson we would do well to learn in our own time.

Kingdoms of Faith rewrites Spain’s Islamic past from the ground up, evoking the cultural splendour of al-Andalus and the many forces that shaped it.

Religion, Culture; Continent: Europe, Africa, Asia

Religion, Culture; Continent: Europe, Africa, Asia

Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Faith, Power, and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad by Brian A. Catlos Terms like “jihad” and “caliphate” get batted around Western media; this book offers some context for those ideas 390 pages (324 without Glossary, Notes and Background Reading) Oof! This book felt dense after breezing through The Zookeeper’s Wife. Author Catlos crams a lot of…

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