Meh, I honestly found this quite dull. Which is a shame considering the harrowing and exciting time it is set in.

The writing itself was fine, but there were too many characters and Ali didn’t make me care about any of them. Also this was one of those books where the names just confused me. I understand it’s historically accurate but it confuses me if someone is referred to by multiple names if it isn’t done well.

I have no problem following Lynch’s Locke Lamora name changes, but Ali’s for ALL the various dudes in the book just got a bit much for me. ( )

Not quite a decade after the fall of Granada, a new archbishop orders the burning of Islamic books and begins forced conversions contrary to the treaty. This book covers the last months of a noble Islamic family with lands producing silk and food and the choices they make. It really seems to be a call for Islamic unity as nearly every catastrophe is bracketed by lamentations about infighting which is itself only mentioned in that context. ( )

Una bella novela que relata la implacable persecución que tras la capitulación del reino de Granada en 1492 sufrieron las últimas comunidades áraben en Granada.

So good and so sad! ( )

The historical novel, The Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree by Tariq Ali tells of the Reconquest of Spain during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella in the 1500s. The Reconquest was the absorbing or eliminating of Jews and Muslims from Christian lands. Although the Moors had allowed all religions their freedoms and rights and there existed treaties for the Christians to allow the Muslims their religion and culture, both Queen Isabella and certain Church officials were strongly opposed. Focusing on one family, the Banu Hudayl, we learn of the price paid by the doomed Muslims of the sixteenth century Spain.

This family lived just outside Grenada and for over 800 years had been a powerful force in the Muslim world. In the times written of, each member held their own beliefs and expectations of what was going to occur and how best to react. Narrated by multi-generational members of the family, we learn of their life and their culture through the descriptions of food, clothing, daily routines and the inter-action of various family members with one another.

While much of the book seemed more like a non-fiction recreation of Moorish society, the author certainly managed to get across his message of how hatred can destroy. I was fascinated by this look at events from a different aspect. Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree is a tragic story of the destroying of Islamic Culture for the political and monetary gain of the Roman Catholic Church. ( )