Jerrilynn Denise Dodds

This excellently written and well-sourced book has inspired me, when I can find the time, to get back to my work on learning both the several versions of classical Hebrew and Arabic, and especially to read more of the poets and the Rambam's works in the wonderful medley of languages in which they were working. I suppose I will have to add Persian at some point to my toolbox in order to understand the original framework in which the earlier poetry was set.
I loved the way each set of cultural show more pieces was traced back to origins in the East, and then shown to have interacted in unique ways with the political environments in which the various competing kingdoms were seeking to attract talent and prestige to themselves, creating a unique environment (particularly starting around the reign of Alfonso X el Sabio, for the evolving Castilian language).
The Tahkemoni in particular is worth learning more about, and apparently in each of the relevant languages (I am also seeing poetry quoted in Turkish translation in the series Muhteşem Yüzyıl and the comments of modern Turkish readers on the need to read the poems in the original Persian).
A wonderful book to keep coming back to again and again.
21 May, 12017 HE
40th Day of the Omer, the 25th of Iyar 5777, which is the 24-Shaban-1438
Shira Dest. show less

This excellently written and well-sourced book has inspired me, when I can find the time, to get back to my work on learning both the several versions of classical Hebrew and Arabic, and especially to read more of the poets and the Rambam's works in the wonderful medley of languages in which they were working. I suppose I will have to add Persian at some point to my toolbox in order to understand the original framework in which the earlier poetry was set.
I loved the way each set of cultural show more pieces was traced back to origins in the East, and then shown to have interacted in unique ways with the political environments in which the various competing kingdoms were seeking to attract talent and prestige to themselves, creating a unique environment (particularly starting around the reign of Alfonso X el Sabio, for the evolving Castilian language).
The Tahkemoni in particular is worth learning more about, and apparently in each of the relevant languages (I am also seeing poetry quoted in Turkish translation in the series Muhteşem Yüzyıl and the comments of modern Turkish readers on the need to read the poems in the original Persian).
A wonderful book to keep coming back to again and again.
21 May, 12017 HE
40th Day of the Omer, the 25th of Iyar 5777, which is the 24-Shaban-1438
Shira Dest. show less

From the title, this book sounds boring. However, it is far from boring. Although a scholarly work, it is written clearly and with panache. The subject -- how Castilian culture stems from three traditions -- is fascinating. The book also contains gorgeous pictures

This may be the single most stunningly beautiful book in my library. The authors collect a wide range of artistic, architectural, literary, and geographic images, rendered by brush, lens and word, and paint the history of early Castile through these images. It is a deeply interconnected and vivid set of tableaus that bring the land alive.

This is a scholarly work worthy of Gerard of Cremona.