Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History

Maria Rosa Menocal is Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University, where she is Director of the Whitney Humanities Center. She is author of The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain and Shards of Love: Exile and the Origins of the Lyric.

"Solidly researched and splendidly written."-Comparative Literature "Beautifully written... A fascinating introduction to an area of medieval literacy still replete with nationalistic tensions."-Speculum "Calls for a wider acceptance of the idea that medieval Western culture was influenced more widely by Arabic thought."-Choice "Admirable for breadth of reading and attractive for its uncramped sympathies... A sobering reminder ... of the presence of much racism and chauvinism in literary and cultural history."-Relgion and Literature