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      • August 2020

        Leila Means Night

        by Aleksandra Lipczak

        For eight centuries, southern Spain has been home to a multicultural political entity founded by the Arabs and co-created by Muslims, Jews and Christians. Medieval Cordoba, Seville and Toledo are bustling metropolises to which merchants, scientists and artists are drawn from all over the world. Here the first tracheotomy procedure is performed and astronomy is developed, here magnificent libraries are created, Greek philosophers are translated, multilingual poetry is written, and foreign policy at the Muslim court is directed by a Jewish diplomat.In a book stretched between history and modernity and between essay and reportage, the author deconstructs popular symbols of Spain (flamenco, mosaics, palm trees), revealing their Muslim-Arab roots. She shows how Andalusia today handles its heritage. Coexistence, the meeting of the so-called West with so-called Islam, the fluidity of borders, but also fundamentalisms, expulsions, exorcising others.... Al-Andalus is a palimpsest that is useful in thinking about the world today. Prizes: Nike Literary Prize 2021 - shortlist Witold Gombrowicz Prize 2021 - winner

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