God's Crucible

Resonating as profoundly today as when it was first published to widespread critical acclaim a decade ago, Gods Crucible is a bold portrait of Islamic Spain and the birth of modern Europe from one of our greatest historians. David Levering Lewiss narrative, filled with accounts of some of the most epic battles in world history, reveals how cosmopolitan, Muslim al-Andalus flourisheda beacon of cooperation and tolerancewhile proto-Europe floundered in opposition to Islam, making virtues out of hereditary aristocracy, religious intolerance, perpetual war and slavery. This masterful history begins with the fall of the Persian and Roman empires, followed by the rise of the prophet Muhammad and five centuries of engagement between the Muslim imperium and an emerging Europe. Essential and urgent, Gods Crucible underscores the importance of these early, world-altering events whose influence remains as current as todays headlines.