The past of Al-Andalus remains a subject of controversy in our country. Forgotten for a great deal of time, it has only been in the last century and a half that the era has become better known and studied with the depth it deserves. However, the way it fits into the narrative of Spain’s history is still a topic of conflict. From idealizations marked by essentialist viewpoints which hark back to a “paradise lost” to the underlying idea of the legitimacy of a new “reconquista” (being claimed by political groups which find a parallel in Islamist visions which speak of recovering the lost territory), Al-Andalus can be examined through many conflicting interpretations. At this presentation, we will be analyzing what all of these different viewpoints are, and which may provide the best path in the future to get beyond viewpoints so greatly at odds.

Eduardo Manzano Moreno is a researching professor at the CSIC’s Center for Human and Social Sciences. His work has focused on the history of Al-Andalus and on the social implications of History as a field of study and the profession of historians. He has led numerous research projects which revolve around these two topics, about which he has also had a large number of articles and book chapters published both inside and outside of our country. His most notable works include Conquistadores, emires y califas. Los Omeyas y la formación de al-Andalus (Conquistadors, Emirs and Caliphs: The Umayyads and the formation of Al-Andalus, Crítica, 2007); “The Iberian Peninsula and North Africa,” in The New Cambridge History of Islam, Ch. Robinson, vol. II, 2009 and La gestión de la memoria. La historia de España al servicio del poder (Managing Memory: The history of Spain in the service of power), authored with Sisinio Pérez Garzón, Aurora Riviére and Ramón López Facal (Crítica, 2000).