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