As a documentary film producer who happens to be Muslim, I wanted to do a film to address the impression that Muslims, Jews, and Christians never got along. I adopted Islam many years ago, before people linked it with extremism. Now—after 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Patriot Act—that’s all changed.
My affair with Islamic Spain began a few decades ago, with a visit to Cordoba’s landmark mosque. Its beauty and repose, employing both Roman and Syrian architecture, convinced me that great things must have come from the culture that built it.
This led me to my own education and discovery of the history of Islamic Spain. What could be better, I thought, than to tell the story of a time in medieval Europe when three monotheistic faiths created a blaze of civilization that illuminated the Dark Ages.
Within a century of the mosque’s construction, Cordoba became the continent’s largest, richest, cleanest city. By 900, it provided citizens running water, public hospitals, libraries, lighted roads. Muslims ruled, but Jews held high office. Christian bureaucrats wrote masterful Arabic. Each faith had its law courts. Respect for knowledge prevailed. Science, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, and poetry flourished. Moreover, Cordoba was the capital of a large, integrated federation with a diverse population across the peninsula.
When that federation finally fell, two dozen culturally mixed city-states arose to replace it. Still later, several emerging Spanish Catholic states likewise adopted a pluralistic approach. Into the 13th century, a spirit of collaboration in learning, business, and government prevailed.
Did all this come off without a hitch? Of course not. As in our time, great achievements and great villainy occurred in tandem. There were violent periods. Life was uncertain for those without gold or power. Did the whole story end well? Absolutely not. Medieval Spain’s strength lay in its religious and cultural diversity. For centuries it comprised the largest region in Europe where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together in relative peace. But eventually that peace staggered and went under, undone by war, plague, self-interest, and religious extremism on both Muslim and Christian sides.
When our two-hour film of this complex story airs on PBS, it will tell of a flourishing pluralistic society. It will also illuminate the unavoidable tragedy that ensues whenever rulers clash, diversity falls to conflict, and interfaith relations turn devious, violent and exclusive.
The history of the rise and fall of Islamic Spain holds many lessons for us today.
Michael Wolfe is executive producer of "Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain," premiering nationally Wednesday on PBS.
