When the Moors Ruled Europe 2008
Distributed by Films Media Group, PO Box 2053, Princeton, New Jersey 08543-2053; 800-257-5126
Produced by Channel Four Television/4 Learning
Director n/a
DVD, color, 50 min. and 53 min.
Jr. High - Adult
Architecture, Area Studies, Art History, European Studies, Geography, History, Middle Eastern Studies, Multicultural Studies, Postcolonialism, Religious Studies, Travel and Tourism
Date Entered: 07/25/2008
Reviewed by Brad Eden, Associate University Librarian for Technical Services and Scholarly Communication, University of California, Santa BarbaraThis two-part documentary (The Moors: At the Height of Empire, and The Moors: Prelude to the Renaissance) examines the influence of Islam on European culture, showing how the rich modern culture in Spain and Portugal can be partly attributed to this influence in the eighth through fourteenth centuries. British historian Bettany Hughes takes the viewer through the vast architectural, intellectual, and archaeological history that has survived in these countries today, and how Moorish advances in many of the sciences, especially astronomy and medicine, were centuries ahead of Western civilization, and helped to fuel the beginnings of the Renaissance.
It is apparent that this documentary has received both highly acclaimed praise and quite a bit of scorn and skepticism in its reviews by others. A search on Google will reveal some of these opinions. As a medieval scholar, I found the videos highly enlightening, knowing quite well how much of Western civilization's advances in the Renaissance were due to both discovery of ancient Greek and Roman authors, as well as contacts with Islamic culture and science. This series is a great introduction for Western audiences to Islamic influences on medieval and Renaissance society.