THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE

by Elmer Bendiner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 14, 1983

Only specialists, it's true, have paid much attention to tenth-century Andalusia: an earthly paradise to the ruling Moors and a golden age for Muslims and Jews. But this is not the best place for Bendiner (The Fall of Fortresses, The Virgin Diplomats). Casual with the facts and free with sneers and jibes, he turns much of the story behind ""that astonishing tenth century"" into a buccaneering farce--when the intrigues and deviltries of the Muslim conquest of Visigothic Spain (711-55), and the peccadillos and beneficences of the ensuing Omayyid rulers (755-976), can be sorted out at all. Historians have long puzzled over why and how the Muslims invaded Spain, for instance; but Bendiner has a string of anecdotes, featuring a ""seduction or rape,"" that accounts for everything. Toward the Muslims (called Moslems here), he's cavalier if not contemptuous--dwelling, in particular, on their ""high puritanical virtues"" and everyday lechery. (There is much, of a not-particularly-heady nature, on the ""sexual high jinks"" of the Caliphate.) The Jews, on the other hand, fare relatively well. Seen first as scapegoats and victims of the Visigoths, they were better treated by the rival Franks (an immediate boon and future danger) and, famously, flourished under the pragmatic tolerance of the Caliphate for nonbelievers, Christians and Jews alike. Bendiner has little of interest to say about Andalusian-Jewish high culture, but he expands on Jewish merchant-travelers and their contacts with far-flung Jewish communities (including the Khazars); on Jewish medical practice and educational customs--with special attention, perforce, to Court physicial-diplomat Hadai ibn Shaprut. The closing chapter-and-a-haft, focused on Hasdai, is the book's most straightforward stretch. For Jewish readers, then, some trails of glory; otherwise, mostly daubs of color.

Pub Date: Nov. 14, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION