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54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
A historic fiction tale of the Moors in Spain
Ali's "Shadow of the Pomegranate Tree" provides not only a great reading, but an extremely useful corrective to the general western misconception about Muslim society. His work while a fiction, has clearly been thoroughly researched. The openness, tolerance and cosmopolitanism of Islamic society during the Moorish period is clearly presented with accents and touches that...
Published on May 16, 2001 by Muhammad A. Zaidi
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
The intolerance of Christianity
This small novel covers the late 14th Century and the attitudes of the Church that spawned the Inquisition. Many are aware of the damage to the Jews through the cruelty and torture of the Inqisitors. However, there was another target in Spain- the demolition of Moorish culture, particularly Granada. The most spectacular and infamous event in this history is the massive...
Published on December 23, 2000 by Luan Gaines
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54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
A historic fiction tale of the Moors in Spain, May 16, 2001
Ali's "Shadow of the Pomegranate Tree" provides not only a great reading, but an extremely useful corrective to the general western misconception about Muslim society. His work while a fiction, has clearly been thoroughly researched. The openness, tolerance and cosmopolitanism of Islamic society during the Moorish period is clearly presented with accents and touches that ring true. While westerners are inclined to view Islam as a monolithic entity, Ali brings out the division and tension that existed within the societies of each period. "Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree" is set in Spain after the fall of Granada. The story of the Banu Hudayl, a landed aristocratic family, the book explores the fateful decision that the Muslims of Spain had to make in the aftermath of the Reconquista. Shadows opens with the Muslim community having been recently shaken by the burning of their books on the order of Ximenes de Cisneros, Isabella's confessor. Sent to Granada to debate theology, Cisneros was verbally bested by the Muslim scholars. Defeated, he ordered all Muslim books to be destroyed two million manuscripts burned. "They set our culture on fire...The record of eight centuries was annihilated in one day", Umar the head of the Hudayl, laments. The only books to be saved from this wanton destruction were 300 medical and scientific works, spared by the petitions of Christian scholars who realized their superiority, and those books that the soldiers carrying them to the square discarded, judging the books' importance by their weight. Cisneros, a man of the church is hell bent on destroying all vestiges of the Muslim society and culture in Granada. He sees force as the only way to win the conversion of the Muslims to Christianity, unlike his predecessor, who had given orders for the priests to learn Arabic and have Christian works translated. Yet his actions also have a personal element, as others whisper about his apparent Jewish features. Cisneros cruelty is interestingly contrasted to the outlook of Don Ignio, the civilian governor of the Granada region, and a life long friend of Umar's. Don's entrouge consisted of Jewish and Moors, and he tells Umar "For me a Granada without them is like a desert without Oasis. But I am on my own" When Umar comments that the current situation would never have arisen had the Moors used the same tactics that the Christian were now employing, Dons's response is: "Instead you attempted to bring civilization to the whole peninsula regardless of faith or creed. It was noble of you now you must pay the price." The reason I find this an excellent read is because Ali treats western history with the same thoroughness and brutal honesty, he demolishes the myth that the episode was a victory of one sort or the other of western society, simply by incorporating facts into the narrative. The triumphalism and sheer blood thirstiness of the Christian west is underscored most clearly in "Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree".
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
The intolerance of Christianity, December 23, 2000
This small novel covers the late 14th Century and the attitudes of the Church that spawned the Inquisition. Many are aware of the damage to the Jews through the cruelty and torture of the Inqisitors. However, there was another target in Spain- the demolition of Moorish culture, particularly Granada. The most spectacular and infamous event in this history is the massive burning of all the great Muslim writings on mathematics, science and religion. Under the watchful eyes of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, a fanatical Inquisitor, Ximenes de Cisneros, attempts to thoroughly obliterate the Moorish culture. The book burning is merely the first step in the plan; Cisneros understands that if you can destroy history, traditions and freedom to speak the language, people are more easily subjugated. During this shameful period, the Catholic Church was relentless in its efforts to destroy those who refused conversion. Families who had passed their land and wealth from generation to generation were targeted for assimilation as "conversos" or put to death. We follow the lives of one such family as its members decide to either flee for safety, join forces to fight, or are brutally slain. The story moves slowly throughout, but historically, so did the times. I would like to have had more detail about the activities of the Inquisitors and the beliefs of the Muslims in Granada; the primary statement of belief is stated, "There is only one God and His name is Allah, and his prophet is Mohammed." At times it almost felt like reading a fable in the style the author used, an ancient story passed along in oral tradition. Unfortunately, it isn't just a fable. This is an area of great interest as belief systems affect modern as well as ancient attitudes.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
A pleasure, January 26, 2007
Not historical fiction with a message but a story of the times with the truth: Moorish Spain at one point was the height of knowledge, culture, art, architecture and most important of all, religious tolerance and understanding. The Muslims ruled fairly in contrast to Isabel and Ferdinand, so loved for their gift of ships to Columbus, who when they finally defeated the Moors at Granada promised the Moorish people that they could retain their religion and lifestyle and culture. But the greedy and dark forces of the (at that time) troubled Catholic Church convinced the royalty to go back on their promises. The twisted and sadistic bishops started to destroy the culture of the Moors by burning their books (the same approach used with the Mayans in the New World) and reducing their promised freedoms. And so the story begins.
The members of a Moorish family who has lived outside Granada for many generations faces the new day with all the possible options; fight, flight, death, assimilation. The story is very well written, the characters real, the sense of time and place well set. The story is not slanted towards Moors=good, Christians=bad, although a quick look at those times in Spain one could easily make that argument. Instead the author pursues not religious credos but the challenges of individuals balancing the conflicts between their beliefs, their hearts, their ethics, orders from their superiors; the easy, the hard and the difference between right and wrong and the void between.
It is a great book, I liked it on several levels, it was the first Tariq Ali I read; I went right and got another.
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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Historically Fascinating, May 28, 2005
I enjoyed this book most for its historical value, second for its introduction to the Moorish culture in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition. For instance, as a dieter, I noticed how often they talked about vegetables as culinary delicacies; they served them to honored guests (tomatoes laced with herbs and spices, that kind of thing). I guessed the Moors must have been thin and thought about how modern Americans view and consume food (mindlessly, quickly, etc.). But that's just one tiny aspect of what I reflected on in the book. There was also their bathing rituals, their family relationships, the use of names that reflected ancestry, a whole host of interesting tidbits.
The anti-Christianity was to be expected. The Christians were destroying their culture and killing them off, whether we like to remember that or not. Should they have *liked* us for that? Come on. Our religion was foreign and strange to them and--of course--our massacres were evil. Horrific. A holocaust.
The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars was that so many points of view were represented that I found it hard to identify with individual characters.
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40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
At times captivating novel about Muslim Spain, November 21, 1998
By A Customer
I am quite surprised to discover the lack of attention which this book seems to have received. A highly respected political analyst and writer, (And a brilliant speaker. I have witnessed him speaking at the Oxford Union and he was as impressive as I had heard), Tariq Ali, in my opinion ventures successfully into the area of novel writing. My wife and I enjoyed the book quite a bit and it provoked many an interesting discussion. I would say that the highpoints are an impressive depiction of the progressive, liberal and still very much Muslim society which existed in Spain and its cultural and literary achievements. This is indeed a golden era of Spanish, Muslim and world history and the South of Spain still contains many a splendid remnant of this golden past. At various levels, Tariq Ali is very successful in showing what the last days of this great civilization must have been like and how brutal and narrow-minded the inquisition was after this period of great political harmony, intellectual and cultural synthesis and progress. Tariq Ali paints his characters with affection and care and most of the time they are highly believable. The sincere pathos he feels about this chapter of history comes through clearly in his depiction of various instances especially the burning of the Islamic libraries by the Christians who successfully went on to more or less erase the Muslim character of and contribution to Spanish history. A recent trip to the Mayan ruins in Mexicorevealed the brutality and wonton destruction of other cultures by the same people in other geographical contexts. Indeed the christian revival which transformed into the inquisition was one of the most repressive regimes in the history of mankind. Tariq Ali shows how a one-time magnificent Muslim culture, gets corrupted and sterile and loses out to a more vicious and narrow-minded zealotry. Anyone who has been to the south of Spain and has seen Moorish cities will empathize with the lament of the writer in this book. There are stylistically awkward instances in the novel but on the whole it is quite well written and evocative and covers an important point in history. I think that Tariq Ali should seriously consider continuing fiction writing. A worthwhile read which I would highly recommend to anyone interested in the history of Islam, Moorish Spain, the Inquisition or even the broad category of good fiction coming from writers of South Asian origin.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Beautiful trip through history, August 17, 2006
I thought this book was a beautiful trip through history. It is well written and takes you on a journey through a man's life and gives you a great picture of what his life was like under the pomegranate tree...
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
A Jewel in Granada, May 28, 2000
A wealthy granadan family looks to its past as it faces the uncertainty of life under Christian rule with the recent conquest of spain. Intertwining stories of love and valour overlie the background of the family's unwillingness to change to the new regime, and their current powerlessness. The stories are poignant, the characters fully fleshed and the backdrop of Moorish Spain is richly depicted. A must read.
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11 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Sombras da Romanzeira., February 28, 2001
Certamente este livro deve fazer parte de sua bilblioteca se vocę se interessa por romances históricos. Claro que năo é o melhor exemplo do estilo, mas, Tariq Ali consegue transpor personagens distantes com descrisőes simples e humanas, fazendo com que vocę faça parte de seu mundo e compartilhe certos momentos históricos. O ponto forte do livro năo esta na apuraçăo histórica, mas a falta de informaçőes é sutil, uma vez que a narraçăo é muito boa. Eu tambęm li a versăo traduzida, que já năo é tăo boa por pequenos erros sintáticos no texto.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Stirring, May 2, 2001
A poignant account of an aristocratic muslim family in Moorish Spain, Tariq Ali spins a brilliant tale of empires lost and heroism re-discovered. One of my personal heroes from his days as a student leader in the 60's, Ali is as always brilliant in his penmanship. I was introduced to his writings by my father, a close personal friend of the author and Iv been hooked ever since. One of the very best accounts you could find of Moorish Spain and the end of an empire that gave the world such architectural masterpieces like the Al-Hambra.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Key word here being "fiction", May 8, 2007
I have to say that I admire Ali's intellectual vigor and his propensity to instictively take the weaker position on any issue , which makes him a formidable debater and iconiclastic speaker. And in that light, "Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree (Islam Quartet 1)", is an interesting exercise in championing history's perrenial under-dog, Islamic culture. No doubt also that Ali's strong anti-Western bias plays a rather strong, albeit silent role in this work.
A rather more interesting book might cover the rapid Muslim conquest in the 8th century of Syria, Palestine, and the North African coast from Egypt to Morocco, followed by a permenant imposition by force of Islamic culture on what had previously been a largely non-Arab, Christian base. From this staging area, Iberia fell quickly and the subsequent Umayyad invasion into Gaul (France) was halted by the Frankish army under the military commander, Charles Martel in Tours (NW France) in 732 a.d.
Had this invasion suceeded and conquered the Frankish army, Europe would have had very little defense against the invaders and Western history would have been quite different indeed.
From my vantage point, the great debater and rationalist Tariq Ali comes off as intellectually disingenuous at the very least in this work, for forcing such a hamfisted position. He exploits the West's ability to only half-remember it's own history. And he typifies the Islamic position of only remembering the glories of it's own history.
So let's recap:
West = Crusades = Inquisition = Bad.
Muslim Culture = Peaceful = Enlightened = Good.
Shame on the West. Shame on the bloodthirsty, barbarian Christians for treating the peaceful, culturally superior Muslims so badly.
A must-read for all Muslim apologist/revisionists and all self-flagellating Westerners.
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