Kingdoms of Faith 

'A rich narrative account of al-Andalus . . . a reminder that Islam in Europe is set in stone - in marble and mortar - and it cannot be chiselled away.' - Financial Times

'A gripping, colourful and humane account of a period that ought to be better known.' - History Today

'Excellent . . . a fresh portrait of nearly a millennium of history.' - TLS

Prior accounts have portrayed Islamic Spain either as a paradise of enlightened tolerance, or as the site where civilisations clashed. Award-winning historian Brian A. Catlos taps a wide array of original sources to paint a more complex picture, showing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews together built a sophisticated civilisation that transformed the Western world, even as they waged relentless war against each other and amongst themselves. Religion was often the language of conflict, but seldom its cause--a lesson we would do well to learn in our own time.

Kingdoms of Faith rewrites Spain's Islamic past from the ground up, evoking the cultural splendour of al-Andalus and the many forces that shaped it.

• A magisterial, myth-dispelling history of Islamic Spain, from the founding of Islam to the final expulsion of Spain's Muslims in the 17thc.
• Professor Catlos's books have won the American Historical Association's Premio del Rey Award, the John E. Fagg Prize and the Medieval Academy of America's Charles Homer Haskins Medal.
• Examines how religion was often the language of conflict but rarely the cause-a lesson for our own time