Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree: A Novel (The Islam Quintet Book 1)

We in the West tend to forget or ignore the huge contributions to learning and science provided by Arabic scholars. This novel, which takes place at the end of seven hundred years of Arab occupation of southern Spain -- mostly Andalucía-- provides a stunning reminder of that era. The story is told predominantly from the point of view of a young boy in a Muslim household outside of Granada. As so often, when the Muslim world and the Christian --specifically Catholic here -- clash, the results are ugly and far from uplifting. Well-written and engaging. I would highly recommend this book.

Ali's "Shadow of the Pomegranate Tree" provides not only a great reading, but an extremely useful corrective to the general western misconception about Muslim society. His work while a fiction, has clearly been thoroughly researched. The openness, tolerance and cosmopolitanism of Islamic society during the Moorish period is clearly presented with accents and touches that ring true. While westerners are inclined to view Islam as a monolithic entity, Ali brings out the division and tension that existed within the societies of each period. "Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree" is set in Spain after the fall of Granada. The story of the Banu Hudayl, a landed aristocratic family, the book explores the fateful decision that the Muslims of Spain had to make in the aftermath of the Reconquista. Shadows opens with the Muslim community having been recently shaken by the burning of their books on the order of Ximenes de Cisneros, Isabella's confessor. Sent to Granada to debate theology, Cisneros was verbally bested by the Muslim scholars. Defeated, he ordered all Muslim books to be destroyed two million manuscripts burned. "They set our culture on fire...The record of eight centuries was annihilated in one day", Umar the head of the Hudayl, laments. The only books to be saved from this wanton destruction were 300 medical and scientific works, spared by the petitions of Christian scholars who realized their superiority, and those books that the soldiers carrying them to the square discarded, judging the books' importance by their weight. Cisneros, a man of the church is hell bent on destroying all vestiges of the Muslim society and culture in Granada. He sees force as the only way to win the conversion of the Muslims to Christianity, unlike his predecessor, who had given orders for the priests to learn Arabic and have Christian works translated. Yet his actions also have a personal element, as others whisper about his apparent Jewish features. Cisneros cruelty is interestingly contrasted to the outlook of Don Ignio, the civilian governor of the Granada region, and a life long friend of Umar's. Don's entrouge consisted of Jewish and Moors, and he tells Umar "For me a Granada without them is like a desert without Oasis. But I am on my own" When Umar comments that the current situation would never have arisen had the Moors used the same tactics that the Christian were now employing, Dons's response is: "Instead you attempted to bring civilization to the whole peninsula regardless of faith or creed. It was noble of you now you must pay the price." The reason I find this an excellent read is because Ali treats western history with the same thoroughness and brutal honesty, he demolishes the myth that the episode was a victory of one sort or the other of western society, simply by incorporating facts into the narrative. The triumphalism and sheer blood thirstiness of the Christian west is underscored most clearly in "Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree".

As an Israeli, I have to admit to approaching this book (the first one I have ever read by this author) with a bit of trepidation. I was concerned that it would be full of the kind of pro-Islamic, anti-Western propaganda that a topic like the aftermath of the Spanish Reconquest could easily trigger in a Muslim writer. In the most part, my fears proved unfounded; the book is well-written, interesting, and takes an unflinching look at the end of an important civilization. However, Mr. Ali cannot seem to overcome the twin downfalls of contemporary Muslim liberal intellectuals: the denial of Jews as political and ethnic entity that dates back in history and putting the blame for all the ills that have ever befallen Muslim communities on their leaders while holding the population blameless. Mr. Ali's insistence on avoiding at any cost the mention of Jews as anything but individuals of a different religious bend (a view that is as historically false as it is prevalent among educated Muslims) in particular makes for a rather amusing situation in which the Reconquest and its consequences for the non-Christian populations of southern Iberian peninsula are discussed in detail without a single mention of Isabella and Ferdinand's edict to expel all Jews from the peninsula issued the same year that the reconquest was completed (1492). This edict would undoubtedly be known to the Muslims and would have informed their decision making process as to what was in store for them. And yet it is wholly absent from this book, which deals precisely with the dilemma facing the Muslim population in the wake of the Reconquest, As to the long-established practice by Muslim educated elites of blaming the leaders of the day for leading the "pure" populace astray, current events unfortunately shine a bright and unforgiving light on the folly of this practice. Whenever "democratic" elections are held in Muslim countries, more, not less extreme regimes are elected. Furthermore, "moderate" and "progressive" leaders such as Anwar Sadat are assassinated or marginalized. The reasons for the twin blind spots are simple: admitting the existence of Jews as a historical ethnic and political entity leads to admitting that the sate of Israel has a right to exist, and admitting that the over 500 years of crushing defeats suffered by Muslims worldwide and their current unremitting state of misery is not the fault of a few individuals, but of Islam as a political theory that is incompatible with modernity. It is unfortunate that Mr. Ali proves incapable of transcending these, it would have made for a much more interesting read. There is a subtle irony in this book that is only understood if one remembers that Mr. Ali is the scion of a large land owning family in Pakistan. Undoubtedly his ancestors during the Mughal conquest of what is now Pakistan and northern India where faced with the same dilemma faced by the fictional Muslim Banu Hudayl family near Cordoba: convert (from Hinduism to Islam in the case of Mr. Ali's family, from Islam to Christianity in the case of the Banu Hudayls) or lose your ancestral domains. The fictional Banu Hudayls choose the path of futile but noble resistance and perish. The real-life ancestors of Mr. Ali, whose Hindu name is long lost, chose to submit and keep their lands. Another irony lies in the (accurate, though of course with the aid of hindsight) prediction that one of the key Muslim protagonists in the book makes to a Catholic inquisitor. The Muslim leader predicts that by following the path of religious intolerance Spain will lead itself to eventual ruin. It is true that the reconquering Christians did not learn religious tolerance from their conquered Muslim subjects with ruinous consequences to Spain that are very much felt to this day. But can it also be argued that the virus of religious extremism was transmitted to the retreating Muslims and found there a very fertile ground with even more ruinous consequences for the entire Muslim world? Finally, it is hard not to draw comparisons between Mr. Ali and his countryman, coreligionist, and fellow expat in Britain, Salman Rushdie. Sadly, Mr. Ali does not benefit from this exercise.

Have been reaing a lot about Spain. Enjoyed this book so much I will now read the rest of the series. Author has a style that engages you to keep reading. Many nights I read too late!..Good book if you are enterested in Spain. Interesting to learn of the lives of the Spanish moors and the culture that added to Spains.

1499. Zuhayr bin Umar and his brother Yazid, sister Hind, are the generation that sees the ‘final solution’ of the Catholic church and Christian rulers for the “Muslim problem” of the 15th and 16th Century. Though the Moors had inhabited much of Iberia for the past few hundred years; though the Moors skills and knowledge in most areas of science and mathematics far surpassed that of their Christian neighbors; though the Moors offered no threat other than their mere presence; though all these factors would seem to be in the Moors’ favor, the “Ximenes de Cisneros had always believed that the heathen could only be eliminated as a force if their culture was completely erased,” and so their art, their writing, their lives, even, were destroyed. Some Moslems departed Spain. Some converted to Christianity. Some pretended conversion. And some fought back. Many of the latter two groups died.

The language is powerful and conjures up images of an era gone by. I recommend this book to people who enjoy historical fiction. I enjoyed the book thoroughly. The characters are well developed.

A very interesting and informative book. So many awful things are done in the name of religion. Perhaps if we learnt more about other religions, we would become more tolerant and accepting of others beliefs and learn to live with each other in harmony.

The book was hard to follow, names were confusing, text was depressing and boring. The book rambled on and on and never held my interest. This was never a book that I eagerly wanted to pick up and read so that I could see what was going to come next. I only read the first 50 pages and could never figure how the author won any awards with this type of writing. This is a book that I definitely will not be passing on to a friend. I do not recommend this book.