When the Moors Ruled in Europe

Popular historian Bettany Hughes—host of several series on ancient history for British and American television—looks at the Islamic culture of the medieval Iberian Peninsula in this fast-moving, tightly edited, and beautifully filmed two-part documentary. Combining visits to numerous sites, a wide selection of artwork, and interviews with archaeologists and historians, Hughes sketches the 8th-century conquest of the Visigothic realm, the northward expansion into southern Gaul that ended with the battle of Tours in 732, and the vicissitudes of the various Moslem states under the Moors that rose and fell in what is now modern Spain and Portugal over the next 700 years, ending with the Spanish takeover of Granada in 1492. When the Moors Ruled in Europe rightfully emphasizes the cultural contributions of the Andalusian Arabic civilization to the early modern West (with special attention given to the remarkable architectural achievements), although it has an unfortunate tendency to oversell a revisionist insistence that Moslem rule in Iberia is largely forgotten now due to cover-up attempts by Spanish rulers—which is certainly not the case with medieval historians, who are well aware of its significance. Still, as with so much else about the Middle Ages, the average viewer is far less knowledgeable about this subject, and Hughes' engaging introduction will help to rectify that situation. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (F. Swietek)