The Story of the Moors in Spain
by Stanley Lane-Poole

First published in 1886, this book has held its place as the classic work on the Moors in Spain: a scholarly, wonderfully readable and sweeping tale of splendor and tragedy.

“Palatial cities rose under their hand. Aqueducts, rivaling those of the Roman Campagna, brought the streams from the mountains to city and field. Great districts, naturally sunburnt and barren, were made by skilful irrigation to blossom into wonderful fertility. Under their rule Spain was a rich, a prosperous, and, to a great degree, a happy land. Ample revenue of their monarchs enabled them to undertake and complete works of regal splendor, of which the admired Alhambra and the Mosque—now the Cathedral—of Cordova, with its thousand pillars of variegated marble, yet remaining after the desolations of centuries, are striking examples… Their universities were of such celebrity that students from all Christian lands eagerly repaired to them… In poetry and elegant literature, they attained no inconsiderable success.”