[Steppes] 12th Night Theme

[AlKudsi at aol.com]

OK, here's a list of the most pertinent books that I've got in my library for 
those who are interested:

Burckhardt, Titus. _Moorish Culture in Spain_. Translated by Alisa Jaffa and 
William Stoddart.  Fons Vitae. Louisville, KY: 1999.  Original German edition 
1970. ISBN-1-887752-28-5  [scholarly work with emphasis on arts, but which 
includes research on the root of the European idea of chivalric love in Arabic 
poetry -- yep...Arabic!]

Melczer, William.  _The Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago de Compostela_.  (First 
English translation). Italica Press, Inc. New York, NY. 1993. ISBN 
0-934977-25-9 [Santiago de Compostela was in Northern Spain, but was on the edge of 
Moorish Spain] 

Billings, Malcolm.  _The Cross and the Crescent: A History of the Crusades_. 
Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. NY, NY.  1988.  [Published to accompany the BBC 
Radio Series, The Cross and the Crescent, first broadcast in 1987.  ISBN 
0-8069-6904-0

Fletcher, Richard. _Moorish Spain_. University of California Press; Berkeley, 
CA.  1992.  ISBN 0-520-08496-9 [By the same author who wrote The Quest for El 
Cid]

Kollek, Teddy and Pearlman, Moshe.  _Pilgrims to the Holy Land: The Story of 
Pilgrimage through the Ages_.  Harper and Row; NY, NY. 1970.  [contains a 
brief overview of the travels of Benjamin of Tudela, a Spanish Jew who traveled 
throughout the whole Mediterranean area starting in 1159, and whose notes make a 
remarkable travelogue of the time period of the entire area.]

******ed. Mann, Vivian; Dobbs, Jerrilyn Denise; and Glick, Thomas in 
association with The Jewish Museum of New York.  _Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and 
Christians in Medieval Spain_.  Contributors include Vivian Mann, Thomas Glick, 
Benjamin Gampel, Raymond Scheindlin, Dwayne Carpenter, et. al.  Published by 
George Braziller, Inc. NY, NY. 1992.  ISBN 0-8076-1283-9  A compendium of essays 
and research on the period of time in Spain from 711 AD (the Moorish Conquest) 
to 1492 AD (expulsion of the Jews and defeat of the last Muslim ruler).

The last one in particular has a broad spectrum of research, from Hebrew 
poetry to the influence of Islamic decorative arts on Synagogues of Medieval 
Spain.  

Each book has a separate focus, but all have a lot of material of interest 
for those studying Moorish Spain or the Holy Lands during the period from the 
end of the 1st Crusade to the end of the 2nd Crusade.

Hope that this is helpful for those who are doing some research in 
preparation for 12th Night.  If anyone is interested in going through any of these, 
please let me know privately, and I'll try to arrange a convenient time. I hope 
you all will understand why I won't be lending any of these out, however -- some 
are pretty difficult to find.

In service,

Honorable el-Sayyidda Saqra al-Kudsi