27 February, 7 p.m.
Three Cultures Foundation.
Spanish history has been used as an intellectual and ideological weapon, always with the intention of defending the established order and the privileges of its leaders. Thus, for example, the Middle Ages were seen as a disastrous period, as it was argued that during the Middle Ages Spain had been "invaded" by "foreigners", the Arabs, and "contaminated" by the Jews, who had imposed a culture alien to the Spanish, and fragmented into various kingdoms, which had led to the break-up of the ideal unity achieved, it was said, in the time of the Visigoths.
The triumph of Christianity meant the physical eradication of the other two religions between 1492 and 1614, and the religious unification of a hitherto plural territory. Today, the central question of the whole affair is still being debated: whether or not there was tolerance and coexistence between the members of the three great monotheistic religions (cultures) in the Middle Ages.
José Luis Corral Lafuente (Daroca, 1957), writer and professor of Medieval History who has also directed archaeological excavations at medieval sites in Daroca, Trasmoz, Maleján and Tarazona, will talk about all this in the next session of the Chair al-Andalus. His curriculum includes more than thirty books on history, such as Islamic culture in Aragon (1986), Aragon's history told (2000 y 2010), Brief History of the Order of the Temple (2006), A history of Spain (2008) o The enigma of the cathedrals (2012); and more than 250 articles in History. In June 2012, the French magazine The Adventure of History described him as one of Spain's most internationally renowned historians.
At the same time, as a novelist, he is considered the master of the Spanish historical novel, with works such as The Golden Hall (1996), The Winter of the Crown. Peter the Ceremonious (1999), El Cid (2000), The Knight of the Temple (2006), Love and death (2010) o The Prisoner of Rome (2011), translated into several languages and with more than two million copies sold. In addition, in 1992, he was a consultant to Ridley Scott on the film 1492. The Conquest of Paradise.