Cities of Light : The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain (DVD)

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Publisher/Manufacturer: Unity Productions Foundation (February 2008)
Product specifications: Hybrid Film/Documentary
Item type: DVD

Product description:

A documentary film co-produced by Unity Productions Foundation and Gardner Films Over a thousand years ago, the sun-washed land of southern Spain was home to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, living together and flourishing. Their culture and beliefs intertwined, and the knowledge of the ancients was gathered and reborn. Here were the very seeds of the Renaissance.

But this world too quickly vanished … Greed, fear, and intolerance swept it away. Puritanical judgments and absolutism snuffed out the light of learning. Within a few centuries, the fragile union of these people dissipated like smoke. The time of tolerance was lost, forever.

"Any attempt to understand the history and culture of the Iberian peninsula must take account of that 'incredible Islamic legacy' ... "
Richard Fletcher, Islamic Spain

Over a thousand years ago, Europe experienced one of its greatest periods of cultural enlightenment.

For more than three centuries in Medieval Spain, Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together and prospered in a thriving multicultural civilization. Here, remarkable individuals of different faiths made lasting contributions in such areas as poetry, art, architecture, music, dining etiquette, science, agriculture, medicine, engineering, navigation, textiles, and even hydraulic technology.

Their rich, complex culture reached a high point in the Mediterranean Middle Ages. However, larger forces in conquest of land and power brought about puritanical judgments, absolutism and religious extremism. The conflict they triggered extinguished the shared learning that once flourished in this enlightened land.

Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain takes viewers through an engaging, insightful journey into this critical period in world history. This website allows you to further explore this significant past to better understand the present.