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Elmer Bendiner
(1) biblio.comTHE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE: WHEN ARABS AND JEWS BUILT A KINGDOM IN SPAIN Sterling Publishing. 1990. 254 pp ISBN: 0880294663 reviewed by Patrick Killough Would you recommend this book to other readers? * * * * Probably. review: Imagine Arthur's Camelot, but a far brainier and more tolerant a city, transported centuries later to Cordoba in Andalusia, Spain. This southernmost tip of Spain nearly touches Africa and was the gateway for Muslim incursions into Western Europe as early as 710 A. D. The early history of Andalusia ("Land of the Vandals" is one etymology) is sketched by Elmer Bendiner in his 1983/1990/1995 THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE: WHEN ARABS AND JEWS BUILT A KINGDOM IN SPAIN. Early and middle chapters of this history are but prologue to the long and brilliant reign in Cordoba of the muslim Caliph Abdar Rahman III (born 889, ruled 912 - 961). Daily life of the majority Christian population is little attended to by Bendiner. He is at pains to emphasize minority Jewish contributions to a kingdom ruled by muslims centuries after expulsion of the earlier Viking invaders. The book is impressionistic, all shining, attractive surface with little digging for historical depths. Its best section, I suggest, for most readers not familiar with this brilliant era is Chapter 9: "The Palace of the Caliph's Lady." In it Bendiner sketches the daily lives of Jews, Christians and muslims in Cordoba and in its hinterlands. Not far behind in reader appeal is Chapter 10: "The Kidnaped Rabbi." Here there is much emphasis on the world of early medieval Jewish and Arab doctors and the spread of medical knowledge. Here there is, for instance, much about contraception ("pessaries made of cabbage leaves") and abortifacients. "The
woman was also advised to leap up promptly after every act of sexual
intercourse, and jump violently backward seven or nine times" (in
acccordance with Jewish numerology lore).
When he died in 961 Abdar Rahman III left a kingdom pretty much at peace, where Jews enjoyed freedoms almost unique in all the world. There were hard-core muslim fundamentalists, but the kingdom's prevailing tone was a light-hearted worldliness which did not disrespect religion. There was much cultural and literary interaction among Jews, Arabs and Christians. But things began to unravel shortly after 961. The later Christian Crusades did not help. Finally in 1492 the then Emirate of Granada in once upon a time Andalusia fell to the armies of "The Most Christian Kings" Ferdinand and Isabella. The Reconquista, centuries in building, had made the Iberian peninsula once again a Christian kingdom. -OOO- http://www.biblio.com/books/2536371.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (2) lunch.com 11/22/2010 name of review: How King Sancho the Fat of Leon became King Sancho the Ex-Fat rating: * * * review: I shall try to be brief. I am not wild about Elmer Bendiner's vignettes of the southwestern corner of Spain, Andalusia, in the 900s A.D. The book (published in 1983, reissued in 1990 and 1995) is called THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE: WHEN ARABS AND JEWS BUILT A KINGDOM IN SPAIN. My 1995 edition has no maps. Grr! That set me more than once to googling on the internet to envision the geography of a large part of southern Spain that included what is now Britain's Gibraltar and that approaches very close to Africa. THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE does have an Index and a good one. You need it, when you have finished reading the book, to refresh your memory, for example, of a historian like "Amador de los Rios, Jose, 248," "Circumcision rituals, 167," Moslem heretic "Karaites, 179 - 181, 218, 219" or the Christian champion, Count of Toulouse, "William of the Curved Nose, 69-70, 72." Let me cut to the chase. In my opinion, by far the best part of this history of a culturally fascinating part of Spain in the early Middle Ages is "Bibliographical Note," pp. 244 - 248. Only when I read this, at the end of the narrative, did I finally grasp what the author had been trying to do. He was correcting earlier one-dimensional histories of Spain in the 900s. Some historians had focused on Moslems and Arabs. Others on Christians. A few on the Jews of Spain, especially their semi-independent decades in Granada. Nobody before Elmer Bendiner had allegedly tried to pull all three ethnic elements together, graft them on to earlier Carthaginians, Romans and Vandals (the latter being one alleged source of the name "(V)andalusia") and give each group due weight in shaping today's Spain. There are, for instance, allegedly historians, usually Spanish Christians, who detect a pure Spanish/Iberian racial essence unaffected by outside influences. There are critics who make seven centuries of Moslem Omayyad Dynasty rule in Cordoba or Sevile or Granada too worldly, some too religious, others as "just right" in tolerant treatment of Jewish, Berber and Christian subjects. Elmer Bendiner sets out to get things right. Bendiner's hero and focal point of THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE is Abd-er Rahman III, Caliph of Cordoba (born 889, ruled 912 -961). At the end of the book, unfortunately, I still had no sense of Bendiner's having detected deep, underlying causes of how Arabs, hugely assisted by Jews, had managed to rule over a majority of Christians. There were one vignette after another and a few chapters laying out, imaginatively, daily life in Cordoba or the state of medicine, surgery, and the like. History was presented as a passing parade. Brilliant surfaces. All these loosely linked stories made me want to learn more, and more systematically. That is why I said that the "Bibliographical Note" is the book's best feature. It describes the specialized modern historians writing in French, Spanish and English who can lead you more deeply into a very civilized period of Spanish history. Here is one vignette of hundreds that stays with me with some force: the tale of How King Sancho the Fat became Sancho the Ex-Fat. In 955 Caliph Abd-er Rahman III empowered his Jewish friend Hasdai to improve relations with King Ordono III of Leon, particularly to dismantle ten provocative frontier forts. This was easily done. Then the King of Leon died and his hated half-brother Sancho the Fat inherited. He "had
the ambitions of a gallant hero encased in grotesque rolls of lard. ...
He could not mount a horse without an embarrassing amount of
engineering and finally had to give up riding altogether."
Later Hasdai persuaded deposed King Sancho, with mother and son in tow, to travel 500 miles from Pamplona to Cordoba to work out an alliance with Abd-er Rahman III. Sancho the Fat then slimmed down prodigiously under the care of Jewish doctors and could ride a horse again. With Moslem help, this Christian King regained his throne. After the death of the Caliph, the new Moslem ruler of Andalusia then faced nine years of trials. "Among these preoccupations was the persistent itch caused by Sancho the ex-Fat." For Sancho reneged on earlier promises to dismantle frontier fortifications, but was eventually brought to heel. Sancho The Fat/Ex-Fat makes for amusing reading as do dozens of other vignettes. I for one have not, however, been able to pull them together in my mind in a coherent unity. May things go better with you! It is hard not to be impressed by tenth century Moslem Spain, where a descendant of the great Abd-er Rahman III amassed a library of 400,000 volumes. Embassies went to and from the Franks, the Byzantine Greeks and Arab rulers in Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad. Love poetry was much appreciated. Architects had a field day. Literacy was almost total in Andalusia. And Jews, Christians and Moslems got along better then they ever would again in Spain. A fascinating period, indeed. -OOO- http://www.lunch.com/EditReview?id=1664615 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (3) bn.com 11/23/2010 title of review: Jews of Tenth Century Spain rating: * * * review: In high school I was taught that good writing exemplifies the acronym "CUE": Coherence - Unity- Emphasis. Being weak on Coherence and Emphasis, the Unity of Elmer Bendiner's book THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE has to carry the load of holding reader attention. In my case, it did not. (1) What U N I F I E S a book subtitled WHEN ARABS AND JEWS BUILT A KINGDOM IN SPAIN? (A) LOCATION: Spain,
especially southwestern Andalusia opposite Africa, with bits of
southern France (Langedoc and Narbonne) dragged in;
(B LINEAR CHRONOLOGICAL narration (interrupted by two or three "topical" chapters; (C) pivoting around the life and times of Caliph of Cordoba Abd-er Rahman III, (born 889, ruled 912 -961) when Arab-Jewish cultural inter-penetration was at its alleged best. (2) What makes THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE I N C O H E R E N T? Read Bendiner's "Bibliographical Note." You find him doing battle with a string of allegedly one-sided modern historians of medieval Spain. This writer emphasizes Arabs. That one their newly converted allies, North African Berbers. One historian argues for a mystical "Iberian essence" assuring that no outside influences contributed to the true soul of Spain: not Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Christians, etc. A few writers focus on Spanish Jews. There had supposedly never before been an effort to bring together all religious, cultural and ethnic elements of Spain and give each its balanced weight. Bendiner, in my opinion, bit off more than he could chew. The book is incoherent because he did not first master his warring sources. (2) That leaves E M P H A S I S. Having found it "helpful and exciting to dip into PIerre Riche's DAILY LIFE IN THE WORLD OF CHARLEMAGNE" (Bibliographical Note), author Bendiner then did likewise for Spain in chapters romping through life, love, professions, land tenure, taxes, childbirth, abortion, medicine and health in 10th Century Cordoba. Dazzling passages illustrate nothing beyond the thesis that things were pretty sophisticated in Omayyad Dynasty Spain for their times. Despite his professed intent to balance all ethnic elements in Moslem-ruled Andalusia, Bendiner shortchanges both Christians (playing up their leaders' intolerance and love of martyrdom) and Moslems alike (library-building, pleasure-addicted Caliphs v. fundamentalist mullahs). What he uniquely EMPHASIZES is Jewish presence in Spain (allegedly a million Spanish Jews in Roman times), and Jewish contributions to agriculture, medicine and scholarship. It is a weak scaffolding for a narrative of 800 years. The worst argued, least documented thrust of THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE is Jewish contributions to Spanish history. If Cordoban Caliph Abd-er Rahman III incorporates all that is best in Muslim rule, then a similar, high subordinate role is limned for "that singular favorite of the caliph, the
physician-poet-diplomat, the Jewish prince Hasai ibn Shaprut"
(Ch.1).
And there is passing reference to Jews being large landowners and even soldiers in Andalusia. But Bendiner has to range abroad to pad the Jewishness of his Spanish narrative. We read at length about Jews of Languedoc, France, and concessions from Carolingian monarchs. We learn of Khazars of the Caucasus who chose Judaism as their faith. But France and Khazaria are not Spain! -OOO- recommended reading: -- James Fenimore Cooper - MERCEDES OF CASTILE -- Washington Irving - TALES OF THE ALHAMBRA -- Sir Walter Scott - THE VISION OF DON RODERICK http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Rise-and-Fall-of-Paradise/ Elmer-Bendiner/e/9780880294669/?itm=1&USRI=elmer+ bendiner+-+the+rise+and+fall+of+paradise =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (4) amazon.com 11/23/2010 title of review: Tenth Century Spain: "room for sinners as well as saints" rating: * * * average. review: I have just finished reading and taking notes on Elmer Bendiner's THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE: WHEN ARABS AND JEWS BUILT A KINGDOM IN SPAIN. So far I feel a bit alienated from, repelled by the text. For I am unable to imagine how I might use it in my daily routine as a retired Foreign Service Officer. Lecturing? Teaching adult education courses? Discussing in a book club? No, no and no, alas. For he author does not present, in my opinion, a systematic historical treatment of Tenth Century Andalusia/Spain. He proceeds chronologically and selectively, but it is just one static, vivid tableau vivant after another. I like the funny names of some of the players: Sancho the Fat, later Sancho the UnFat; William of the Curved Nose, count of Toulouse; Bodo -- a German priest and noble who converted to Judaism, and on and on. I learn of the existence of castration centers and slave markets. I applaud a Moslem-ruled Andalusia with literacy close to 100% around the year 950. I read mini-bios of Jewish and Arab doctors, pharmacists and healers and ponder their liberal-minded approaches to birth control and even abortions, all in a culture in which dissection of corpses was illegal. Here is one sample of the hundred Picasso-like surfaces which author Bendiner offers us. If you like this, you may wish to read more. He is speaking of mid-10th Century Cordoba: "Out of the clattering workshops in the
bazaars would come a stream of bracelets, necklaces, pendants and
miniature boxes on which might be carved or painted scenes of the
court, of battle, of love and the hunt. The graven image
taboo, like the drinking of wine, was one at which all but the most
pious winked, smiled or shrugged. For this was a society with room for
sinners as well as saints. Men and women tried to hamonize both natures,
as did the Caliph himself, who led Friday prayers but still had his
wine and enjoyed the wit, political sagacity and love of slaves as well
as freed men and women, of Jews and Christians as well as Moslems" (Ch.
9).
From the early 700s until the fall to Ferdinand and Isabella of Granada in 1492, much of southwestern Spain was ruled by Moslem emirs or caliphs, who were combined secular and spiritual leaders. If you were born of Moslem parents, you could be legally executed if you converted to Judaism or Christianity. But in their heyday the Moslem rulers of Cordoba bent over backwards not to make martyrs of anyone. This included even zealous Christians determined to win heaven by insulting the prophet Mohammed. Spanish Christians tend to come across in the mass as low-class, stupid zealots in Bendiner's narrative. Arabs write the best poetry. And Jews contributed more to Spain than many one-sided modern historians have been willing to concede. In later centuries such staunch Catholics as King Ferdinand of Aragon had Jewish ancestors on his mother's side. So did Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross. Christians and Jews dressed like the ruling Arabs. All races accepted slavery, though they would spend much money ransoming co-religionists from bondage. Moslem fundamentalists abounded. But they accorded their emirs and caliphs enough moral wiggle room so that poetry was written, songs sung, libraries filled with up to 400,000 volumes and on and on. And this in the European Dark Ages! Late Roman Spain had perhaps as many as a million Jews. They farmed. They traded around the world. They dominated cities like Granada. They sometimes served in Moslem armies, even rising to high command. Rarely in this world, according to Elmer Bendiner, have Jews enjoyed such security, light taxes, tolerance and a willingness by local majorities to let them live in peace without being periodically terrorized or uprooted and made to move on. -OOO- tags: elmer bendiner, Caliph of Cordoba Abd-er Rahman III, Jewish prince Hasai ibn Shaprut http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Paradise-Arabs -Kingdom/dp/B000IXQA80/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid =1289386683&sr=8-12 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (5) epinions.com 11/24/2010 Review Title: Why Was Early Medieval Spain So Tolerant? Product Rating: * * * 2.6 rounding up to * * * average PROS: Dozens of colorful tableaux vivants of southwestern Spain from 700 to 1492. Safehaven for Jews. CONS: Not a single map. No comparative time line charts. Narrative weakly coherent, emphatic, unified. BOTTOM LINE: To most people I know I would not commend this history. Readers with zero knowledge of medieval Spain may end with many impressions but little understanding. Best part: "Bibliographical Note." aohcapablanca's Full Review: After reading and re-reading THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE: WHEN ARABS AND JEWS BUILT A KINGDOM IN SPAIN, I remain uncertain what to make of this history of southwestern Spain in the Tenth Century A. D. Risking the paralysis of analysis, I therefore ask: -- (1) what was author Elmer
Bendiner trying to do?
-- (2) how well did he do it? -- (3) was he honest in stating his intention? * * * * * -- (1) what was author Elmer Bendiner really trying to do? I believe that THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE was written to highlight and brag about previously under-noticed Jewish dimensions of Spain, France and Volga-Caucausus from Roman days till the capitulation in 1492 of Moslem Granada to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Jews were partners in building that Spain and two other principalities. Whenever Christians did not rule there, one geographical fraction of Spain before 1492 was the safest, most literate, most creative place in the world for Jews to live. -- (2) how well did Bendiner realize his unacknowledged goal? I believe that the author made his point. Historically, Jews are to this day bone of Spain's bone. You cannot ignore or explain away their contributions. This thesis of Bendiner's is, however stupidly, denied by certain modern historians who believe in a mystic Spanish heart that is impervious to outside influence by Celts, Carthaginians, Romans, Christians, Jews, Vandals, Arabs, Berbers and slaves. Bendiner spilled so much ink on Narbonne and Khazaria not because those distant, heavily Jewish areas did much if anything for Spain, but simply because they were Tenth Century Jewish political success stories. For a fact, medieval Jewish achievers anywhere that he could find them seem to be what Bendiner wanted to flag and "boost." The stated geographic area being studied is Spain. Yet he writes many pages about Jews of Languedoc/Narbonne in France, across the Pyrenees from Spain. There Jews wrested concessions from the Carolingian rulers. They ruled, in effect, a feudal kingdom of their own. Jewish culture and ritual were very important to the first Carolingian King of the Franks, "Pepin the Short, and his queen, Bertha of the Big Feet." They liked Jews and things Jewish. Pepin was a Christian who emphasized his Jewish roots. "Pepin fancied himself in David's line as well as in Caesar's" (Ch. 4, "A Jewish Princedom). But why so much about Jewish France in a book supposed to be balanced and even-handed about Christian/Jewish/Arab SPAIN? The author also spills much ink about the independent Jewish (since the 7th Century) Kingdom of Khazaria tucked between the Volga and the northern Caucasus. Why so much foraging abroad in a book about multi-ethnic SPAIN? In late Roman days, there may have been a million Jews in Spain, argues Elmer Bendiner. Even the conqueror of Moslem Granada, King Ferdinand of Aragon, had a Jewish grandmother. Jewish blood flowed in the great Catholic veins of Saints John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. Also of Cervantes and many others. Without Jews, Spain would have been both less great and unrecognizable. Bendiner convinced me that the Tenth Century was an almost uniquely happy time for Jews in Narbonne, Khazaria and Andalusia. Yes, Bendiner did what I think he set out to do. Bendiner's thesis about Jews reminds me of what the Father of modern China, Sun Yat-Sen, said of his own people (thinking of what he had seen of the tolerant, honest, lightly taxing government of the British Crown Colony, Hong Kong). "Give the Chinese good government and they will prove their greatness." Ditto Jews, as I read Elmer Bendiner. In the three polities where Jews were either ruling or well treated in the 900s A.D., they flourished, they gave back to their local or national culture. And the rulers and others living in the same places were none the worse for their enlightened tolerance of Jews. -- (3) But was Elmer Bendiner entirely honest in stating his intention? No. I don't think so. Before you read the narrative, take a look at Elmer Bendiner's lengthy "Bibliographical Note." There he puts down or knocks all previous historians of medieval Spain, especially of Moslem Andalusia. For what? For their unfairly taking sides: for championing Christians over Arabs or Arabs over Jews or Jews over Berbers. What was needed, and what Elmer Bendiner would supply was a history that describes the contributions to Spain made by every major ethnic and religious group. A history that then goes on to assign precisely accurate weights to the distinct contributions of each tile in the Spanish mosaic. An ideal historian of medieval Spain (presumably, Bendiner) is going to be impartial, magisterial, detached, non-partisan. The author does not, however, come across to me as non-partisan. -- Most Christians (and they were the majority of 950s Andalusia) are presented as unimaginative, undereducated hewers of wood and haulers of water. Yet elsewhere Andalusia around the year 950 A. D. is described as close to 100% literate! Christian religious leaders incessantly goad the lay faithful to become fanatic wannabe martyrs, constantly on the lookout for ways to provoke their Moslem lords to kill them. Those provocations normally take the form of verbally, loudly and publicly insulting Mohammed and the Koran. They are surprisingly often overlooked by Moslem rulers. -- The upper class Arabs of Spain, especially the ruling Omayyad dynasty, are Royal Stuart/Charles II Merry Monarchs before their time. They love. They carouse. They fill libraries with 400,000 volumes. They abolish illiteracy. They go through just enough of the motions of orthodox Islam to keep fundamentalist mullahs, Berbers and other Moslem true believers from rising up to toss them out. And the smartest thing that Omayyads do is to reward talent wherever they find it, especially Jewish literati, physicians and pharmacologists. Serve the Moslem state well, keep the peace, and, whoever you may be, you will go far. And what emir or caliph cares about your religious or sexual orientation? The Omayyads have a soft spot for sinners and sinning and they are (therefore?) big on tolerance. Without giving the matter a lick of thought, Moslem rulers tossed off a charming little paradise for Spanish Jews (by comparison with Vikings and other Christian rulers who would burn or evict Jews whenever they could). Bottom line: this is not a balanced treatment of Jews, Christians and Moslems in Tenth Century Spain. This is, instead, a glorification of Tenth Century Jews everywhere, and rightly so. If Elmer Bendiner can find good historical documents about any Jewish achievements in the 900s, at that point he willingly steps off his Spanish path to prove his point. He shows us Spain, France, the Caucasus. In Spain the easy-going Omayyad dynasty emirs and caliphs of Cordoba come across as blessed by God for their kindness to deserving Hebrews. Christians, by contrast, are either improbably passive and stupid or imprudently fixated on martyrdom. The best part of THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADISE is the "Bibliographical Note." It is certainly the most honest part of the book. Still, there are many memorable unlinked up vignettes patched together all across the narrative. I would be surprised if there is not something there to hold your fancy for a minute or three: medicine, for example, loin therapy, birth control, poisons and their antidotes. But as for the old acronymic ideal "CUE": Coherence - Unity - Emphasis: Elmer Bendiner provides not nearly enough. -OOO- Recommended? Only to a few, a very few beginners willing to root about for nuggets. Try speed reading. Then select some deeper historians from the "Bibliographical Note." I rate this book below average: 2.6 stars rounding grudgingly upward to 3.0. P.S. Thanks to epinions category lead pestyside/Patsy for making this book reviewable. http://www.epinions.com/review/Elmer_Bendiner_The_Rise_and_Fall _of_Paradise_When_Arabs_and_Jews_Built_a_Kingdom_in_Spain_ epi/content_532140035716 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= file: bendiner_paradise http://www.patrickkillough.com/books/bendiner_paradise.html |