Ruggles Illuminates ‘Cities of Light’

08/29/2007 | | Architecture & Landscape Design, European & World History, Jewish Studies, Literature & Cultural Studies, Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Religious Studies, Television

The film Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain examines a time during the Middle Ages when Christians, Jews and Muslims peacefully coexisted in southern Spain.  D. Fairchild Ruggles, author of the forthcoming Islamic Gardens and Landscapes, is among the expert scholars interviewed in the program.  If you missed the broadcast of this public television documentary, you may be able to catch it on cable or digital television. Visit PBS.org to check your local listings. 

If you’ve seen Cities of Light and wish to deepen your understanding of medieval and early modern Spain and the cultural interplay between faiths, here’s a reading list.

Creating East and West: Renaissance Humanists and the Ottoman Turks
Nancy Bisaha

Reading the Qur’an in Latin Christendom, 1140-1560
Thomas E. Burman

Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources
Edited by Olivia Remie Constable

Early Modern Spain: A Documentary History
Edited by Jon Cowans

Isabel the Queen: Life and Times, Second Edition
Peggy K. Liss

The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250: A Literary History
Karla Mallette