discussing Muslim Spain

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   Bi ismillahir rahmanir raheem

Assalamu alaikum

LATEST PROGRAMME

Thursday 21 November 2002 

MUSLIM SPAIN

In 711 a small army of North African Berbers invaded Spain and
established an Iberian Islamic culture that would last for over 700
years.

Despite periods of infighting and persecution, Muslim Spain was a
land where Muslims, Jews and Christians co-existed in relative peace
and harmony.

Its capital, Cordoba, although not unique amongst Spanish cities,
became the centre and focus for generations of revered and respected
philosophers, physicians and scholars. By the 10th century Cordoba was
one of the largest cities in the world.

But what some historians refer to as Cordoba�s Golden Age came to
an end in the 11th century, when the society was destabilised by new
threats from Africa to the South and Christendom to the North.

However, it was not until 1492, when Granada fell to the Catholic
monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, that Islamic Spain was well and truly
over.

In that same year the Jews were expelled from its shores and
Christopher Columbus set sail to lead Spanish Christian expansionism
into the new world. 

But how did Muslims, Jews and Christians interact in practice?

Was this period of apparent tolerance underpinned by a respect for each
other�s sacred texts? What led to the eventual collapse of Cordoba and
Islamic Spain? And are we guilty of over-romanticising this so-called
golden age of co-existence?

Guests

Tim Winter

a convert to Islam and lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University.

Martin Palmer

an Anglican lay preacher and theologian and author of The Sacred History of Britain.

Mehri Niknam

Executive Director of the Maimonides Foundation, a joint Jewish-Muslim Interfaith Foundation in London.

 Dr. 
          Tim Winter on In Our Time BBC Radio 4 discussing Muslim Spain 
          with Melvyn Bragg.

          Website here.

Dr Tim Winter's Islamic name and title is Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad.