Spain, which was once called Iberia and then Hispania, was largely forged from the Mediterranean. It is on this premise that Emilio González Ferrín builds the thesis that he develops in the pages of this book. He argues that the sea was the vehicle that facilitated the continuity of the Greco-Latin civilisation of Antiquity, which survived in Alandalus, one of the most advanced cultures of its time and a piece of the East in the West thanks to a kind of cultural homogeneity developed along its shores. However, this cultural entity has always been seen in Spain, from our present day, as something strange, something that is either tiptoed over or used in favour of certain mythical stories both in one sense (an idyllic past to return to) and in another (a "them" to confront the "us" of the Reconquest).
At Alandalus. East in the West, González Ferrín proposes a diverse and counter-current reading of the history of our country, free of mythification and academicism. A reading that we will have the opportunity to share with the author himself (Islamologist, professor of Arab and Islamic Thought at the University of Seville and writer) in the presentation of the work, in a session that will take place on the next Wednesday 4 December 2024 at 18.00 h. in the Palacio de los Marqueses de la Algaba.
Free admission until seating capacity is reached, limited to 100 people.