Briefly, all too briefly, in Cordoba. Found myself uncharacteristically moved at a sort of diorama featuring Alfonso X, Maimonides, Averroes and Ibn Arabi. Each was given a little speech conveyed over the rather nifty headsets you donned as part of the tour of the tower at one end of the Roman Bridge over the Guadalquivir which housed the not terribly convincing models of the four great men. The speeches were sort of mosaics of some of their sayings, delivered in an engagingly snooty version of my native tongue in the translation I was listening to. Words, as you might have guessed from the cast list, of extraordinary intelligence, well worth listening to in our own times, reflecting the glorious notion of convivencia.
For what it's worth, I'm dubious as to the reality of the convivencia. I believe something of the sort did take place, but in the hearts of men and women of insight rather than the realpolitik of the period. History remains a nightmare - but sometimes mixed in with dreams worth dreaming. This is one historical myth I'm happy to propagate, and happier still to try to make real in our own time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment