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DOMESTIC ENEMIES: THE RECONQUISTA is a novel set in the near future in the American Southwest, during a period of low-intensity civil war. The action takes place between Texas and California, but the story is mainly centered around New Mexico. Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista is a sequel to Enemies Foreign And Domestic, but it may be enjoyed on its own..
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No subject looms larger over the historical landscape of medieval Spain than that of the reconquista, the rapid expansion of the power of the Christian kingdoms into the Muslim-populated lands of southern Iberia, which created a broad frontier zone that for two centuries remained a region of warfare and peril.

Drawing on a large fund of unpublished material in royal, ecclesiastical, and municipal archives as well as rabbinic literature, Jonathan Ray reveals a fluid, often volatile society that transcended religious boundaries and attracted Jewish colonists from throughout the peninsula and beyond. The result was a wave of Jewish settlements marked by a high degree of openness, mobility, and interaction with both Christians and Muslims.

Ray's view challenges the traditional historiography, which holds that Sephardic communities, already fully developed, were simply reestablished on the frontier. In the early years of settlement, Iberia's crusader kings actively supported Jewish economic and political activity, and Jewish interaction with their Christian neighbors was extensive. Only as the frontier was firmly incorporated into the political life of the peninsular states did these frontier Sephardic populations begin to forge the communal structures that resembled the older Jewish communities of the North and the interior. By the end of the thirteenth century, royal intervention had begun to restrict the amount of contact between Jewish and Christian communities, signaling the end of the open society that had marked the frontier for most of the century..
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The very name El Cid sums up much of the special character of medieval Spanish warfare It comes from the Arabic al sayyid, master or chieftain, and seems to have been given to Rodrigo de Vivar by his Muslim foes. But was it given in recognition of El Cid's victories against Islam in the 'Reconquista' – or because this Castilian nobleman was as content to serve beside the Muslims as to fight them? The story of the Christian conquest of the Iberian peninsula which gave rise to the legend of El Cid, is here examined by David Nicolle, who outlines the history, tactics, arms and armour of the period..
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Medieval Spain: battleground between Christianity and Islam; home too of Santiago, the holy city that lies at the end of the long and dangerous pilgrim's road, the Camino de Santiago

When a Papal commissioner is killed on the Camino, close by the Knight Templar's castle at Ponferrada, its Master, Robert Montagnac orders one of his knights, William Stanley, to investigate. Stanley takes the pilgrim's road to Sahagun where he discovers the killer's identity and sets off into the wastelands after him. The killer is already dead when Stanley finds him, in circumstances that confirm the commissioner was assassinated.

Returning to Ponferrada, Stanley finds that Montagnac has been seriously injured. Nevertheless his orders are to continue the investigation. Stanley has found the commissioner's journal and he enlists the help of Diego Delmirez, a scholar accused of blasphemy for criticising the War against Islam, to translate it. Delmirez agrees if Stanley will escort his niece, Cristina, to Leon. Bandits waylay Cristina on the journey. She is devastated by the attack, as is Stanley who, in failing to protect her, has forfeited his knight's honour. His investigation has reached a dead end and he is about to return to Ponferrada when chance points him towards the city of Palencia.

He returns to Ponferrada from Palencia, having solved the murder and reports to Montagnac. Montagnac (now recovered) takes the case to the Provincial Commander, leaving Stanley in command. But Stanley is betrayed. Confirmed as Master of Ponferrada and commanded to lead an unconscionable military action, he has to choose between his allegiance to the Templars and his first oath as a knight, to follow the code of chivalry..
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This digital document is an article from Confluencia: Revista Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2007. The length of the article is 8190 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Estrategias discursivas de la Reconquista y la Conquista: la construccion del "otro" en los romances y en las escrituras de Cristobal Colon.(Estudios y confluencias)
Author: Kelly McDonough
Publication:Confluencia: Revista Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Page: 10(19)

Distributed by Thomson Gale.
Price: $9.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]