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Presentation of “Azahares de Granada” and “Poetry and Culture in Al-Andalus”

December 04, 20197:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Ambassadors’ Hall (at Calle Alcalá, 62, First Floor). 7:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In Spanish.

The event, organized by Casa Árabe and the Spanish-Arab Intercultural Circle (CIHAR), will be taking place in Madrid on Wednesday, December 4.

The presentation will include talks by Jordi Vedaguer Vila-Sivill, the author of  Azahares de Granada (Orange Blossoms of Granada), and Leopoldo de Trazegnies Granda, author of Poesía y cultura en al-Andalus (Poetry and Culture of Al-Andalus). Presented by: Abdo Tounsi, President of CIHAR.

In Azahares de Granada, the first chapters describe the historical events in the takeover of Granada, within the framework of the “novela de caballería,” a genre describing knights’ chivalry in that era. However, halfway through the book, the plot changes and becomes more like that of an adventure novel. The end is sure to disconcert and please readers, evoking the nostalgia of times past, enveloped in the scents of the orange blossoms in Granada. As for Poetry and Culture of Al-Andalus,  it is an anthology of Spanish-Arab poetry from the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries, followed by a study on Al-Andalus. The author recreates the cultural scene in which the exquisite poetry of Al-Andalus was written, influencing the entire European Middle Ages, and doing so while questioning some commonly accepted canons.

Jordi Vedaguer Vila-Sivill is a graduate in Law from the University of Barcelona. His intellectual concerns led him to complete his bachelor’s degree studies on the “Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature,” specializing in Arabic language and literature. He broadened his studies by attending the University of Damascus, where he was also a Spanish teacher. In the year of 2014, he had his first novel published, Azahares de Granada, written in Damascus and also translated into Arabic.

Leopoldo de Trazegnies Granda left Lima, Peru in 1958 to study Law in Madrid, but he never finished his degree or returned home. He has had two books of poetry published: “De las casas que nos poseyeron y que fuimos abandonando” (“On the houses which possessed us and we gradually abandoned”) for which he was awarded an Honorable Mention at the Second Poetry Biennial of Panama in 1972, and “Versos del oriental” (“Verses of the Oriental), for which he won the Acentor Poetry Prize in 1982. He also authored the selection and notes of “Cinco poetas antiguos desconocidos” (“Five Unknown Ancient Poets,” 2008). He has resided in Seville since 1977.
Presentation of “Azahares de Granada” and “Poetry and Culture in Al-Andalus”