The Story of the Moors in Spain

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Summary: The Story of the Moors in Spain
Review: Regardless of what the naysayers on this site postulate, this book is very useful in describing the moors, and their historical legacy. This book deals in specifics, whereas those criticizing this book, is dealing in generalizations.

It's funny how the critics of this book, refer to the moors as "white", when it is convenient, whereas many of their brethren, refer to the moors as a non-white, mixed group, when it suits their racial purposes, by displaying the history of non-white invasions into Europe, and how the steadfast will of the European people eventually staved off such invasion, by reclaiming and conquering their original lands: vis-a-vis the Moors being driven out of Spain, France, etc.

Todays many (not all)Arabs are primarily non-white: they're not pure white, seeing as how many of them, especially the North Africans, possess black genetic strains; which makes the statement that Arabs across the board are categorically white-ludicrous (unless you consider semites, as classically a "white" people).

Again, this book is brilliant in its' documentation of the Moors, and their racial make-up, and those that oppose it, only wish that what they were saying was the truth, as opposed to how it really was-and what they probably don't want to believe.

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Summary: Classic text. Poor Introduction.
Review: Stanley Lane Pool's book is a classic example of the Reinhardt Dozy school of scholarship in the field of Hispano-Arabic studies. However, the introduction by Stanley Jackson is extremley misleading. The term Moor is not meant to denote black Africans, it was a term used by Christians to describe the Muslim inhabitants of Iberia not any specific racial group. The Arabs which crossed the straits of Gibralter into Iberia were originally from the Arabian peninsula. Also, they did not make up the majority of the troops who invaded Spain. The majority of the Islamic peoples who came to Iberia were north African Berbers of what anthropologists classify as the Hamitic branch of the caucasoid race. Furthermore, the indigenous Iberians always outnumbered the Arab, Berber and black African contingent. The Indigenous Iberians were simply islamized, adopted the Arab culture and were thus called Moors by the Christians. It was not until the Almoravid empire which arrived in Iberia in the 12th Century, where large numbers of black Africans came to Iberia, being that the Almoravid empire originated from Senegal and southern Morocco. Black Africans did make very important contirbutions to Iberian history, such as the great medieval, Spanish linguist Juan Latino who helped unify the Castillian language, however, he was a freed slave and a Christian not a Moor. To say that the Moors were of any specific racial group as Stanley Jackson posits is misleading and irresponsible pseudo-scholarship.

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Summary: A Terribly Innacurate Work
Review: Stanley Lane-Poole has written a book that is so filled with errors, non-truths and misleading direction that it is much more fiction than fact. The original Moors were Berbers. These people were Mediterranean whites, being marginally present in the far southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula well before the muslim invasion of 714 AD. The Arabs that conquered a large portion of Spain (and Portugal) originated mainly from Syria and what is now Iraq. ORIGINAL Arabs, of course, were (and are today) members of the white race. Very few blacks, or those of the Negroid race, were part of the Arab advance. Nearly all came as slaves or servants. Mixing between the Arabs or Muslims and Iberians (European Christians) was rare in Spain and Portugal during the time that Muslims held influence in Iberia. Black Africans were so few between 714 and the mid-to-late 1100s (the period when Muslims were present in reasonable numbers)that they were never viewed as part of the Iberian population equation, by Christians or Muslims.

In sum, Lane-Poole's book is an sad distortion of a period in Iberian history that is generally not well understood. It is an injustice to Spaniards, Lusitanians, Arabs, Berbers as well as Black Africans. This piece merits classification under fiction and, quite possibly, DUST BIN.

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Summary: Ethnocentric Fiction
Review: This is not at all a critical overview of the Muslim influence in Spain. However, much of the work that has been done on the Moors in Spain in the twentieth century has been more or less a re-writing of al-Maqqari's history in absolutely deathless prose.

Stanley Lane-Poole was descended from Edward Lane, author of the famous Lane's Lexicon, which is an invaluable source for students of Medieval Islam. And Lane-Poole worked on the lexicon (which is still unfinished) for some years. However, he was more inclined to popular history than philology.

_The Moors in Spain_ is not necessarily accurate, but it is a wonderfully written book, full of the romance and adventure that made the historical supplements of Victorian magazines like Harper's monthly such a treat. It's full of Asiatic bombast and dramatic vignettes. If you're offended by all historical authors preceding the advent of the Post-Modernist era, then you will hate this book. However, if you are a fan of 19th century history and travelogues, then you will probably enjoy the book.

Rating:
Summary: Vintage 19th Century History
Review: This is not at all a critical overview of the Muslim influence in Spain. However, much of the work that has been done on the Moors in Spain in the twentieth century has been more or less a re-writing of al-Maqqari's history in absolutely deathless prose.

Stanley Lane-Poole was descended from Edward Lane, author of the famous Lane's Lexicon, which is an invaluable source for students of Medieval Islam. And Lane-Poole worked on the lexicon (which is still unfinished) for some years. However, he was more inclined to popular history than philology.

_The Moors in Spain_ is not necessarily accurate, but it is a wonderfully written book, full of the romance and adventure that made the historical supplements of Victorian magazines like Harper's monthly such a treat. It's full of Asiatic bombast and dramatic vignettes. If you're offended by all historical authors preceding the advent of the Post-Modernist era, then you will hate this book. However, if you are a fan of 19th century history and travelogues, then you will probably enjoy the book.