Moros y cristianos [Moors and Christians]

La gran aventura de la España medieval [The Great Adventure of Medieval Spain]

By: Javier Esparza

Narrated by: Jaume Comas

"La necesaria continuación de La gran aventura del Reino de Asturias, el libro de historia más vendido."

José Javier Esparza comienza la historia de este audio libro donde terminó La gran aventura del Reino de Asturias del que lleva vendidos más de 30,000 ejemplares. Han concluido los tiempos agónicos de la primera resistencia cristiana contra el invasor musulmán y entramos en una España de moros y cristianos donde no siempre es fácil separar historia y leyenda: una España de doncellas cautivas y reinas moras, de guerreros y trovadores, de monjes y comerciantes en un tiempo en el que la vida era una apuesta continua.

El periodo de Reconquista que ahora se abre - desde el siglo X al comienzo del XIII - no va a ser más pacífico que el anterior pero el escenario se amplía hacia el sur de las montañas y asistimos al nacimiento y expansión de los reinos cristianos: Castilla, Navarra, Aragón, y Portugal, enfrentados al poder de Al Andalus.

En esta España de los cinco reinos vivirán, guerrearán, y amarán personajes míticos que, sin embargo, existieron realmente, como el gran Abderramán, el conde Fernán González, Almanzor, el Cid Campeador o la reina Urraca, enfrentados en batallas épicas que cambiaron el curso de la historia, hasta llegar, en 1212, al lance definitivo: Las Navas de Tolosa.

Please note: This audiobook is in Spanish.

©2011 Sant Yago, S. L. (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Excelente Lectura, La Historia Medieval de España

La Historia Medieval de España es ALUCINANTE, una historia llena escrita con siglos de Aventuras, LO RECOMIENDO

Economics, Leadership, and Methods of Reconquest

Detalles que eran nuevos para mi:

(1) The Cantabrian Mountain Range was a natural defense and incubator for the Spanish people and civilization after 700's. People had to flee to live free and worship god as they wished. There was no paradise south the Cantabrian Range for Spanish people, just danger and pillage. Resilience over generations by nuestros ancestors. Spanish people did in Iberia what the Greeks could not in Anatolia, they took back their homeland. Armenia vs Turks, Ireland vs England. Britons vs Vikings, Gauls vs Romans, India vs Great Britain, Poland vs Russia. Korea vs Japan. Dutch vs Hapsburgs. Africans vs Great Britian. A story of Home Rule and the Right to Exist.
(2) The reconquest required farmers and settlers to brave moving into "empty" border areas that were hard to defend from raiding. The Duero valley has the blood, sweat, and tears of many poor but brave people. The Duero was like the wild west, only hard people survived. They are the real Protagonistas of this process, someone had to settle and farm the land, establish towns and cities. One thing to win a battle, the other is to re-establish a population.
(3) The Islamic invasion required a huge military expense to maintain itself. Berber mercenaries and Slavic slave soldiers. These factions were stratified politically, with trade oriented Arabs on-top. There were even regions totally controlled by Slavic mercenaries and Yemeni raiders factions. The Yemeni raiders were settled in the Ebro River valley as a buffer state to keep the Spanish busy and borders under pressure. The military expense was paid for by pillaging the Spanish states, pillaging not just materials but humans for slavery.
(4) The Islamic civilization zone in Spain was a slave society. With slavic soldier slaves, minining slaves from Sudan, field slaves from Sudan, Berbers as underclass mercenaries paid with pillage, and open slave markets in the streets. There were multiple Berber rebellions and even a take-over after Almanzor and then a permanent takeover. The Islamic occupied zone was actually multiple states and there was not a continuity of administration over the entire occupation period. Almanzor actually burned the Hispano-Roman libraries. After the cosmopolitan Levant Arabs were deposed, the relatively privative Almoravids of Saharan Africa came to revitalize the Islamic purity of the Occupation zone. Then the Saharan Almohads took over. The area was a patch-work region with very little central administration, especially after Almazor, who was himself a usurper of "caliphate" power.
(5) Spanish women and children were routinely captured sold to slavery in the occupation zone, especially in the first 300 years. The Islamic chroniclers mention the killed, captured, sold, and material stolen. Almanzor in 1005, sacked Barcelona over weeks, destroyed the city, the surrounding area, and enslaved many people. The enslaved had to escape and head back north. There was even large scale ethnic cleansing in the Occupation Zones by the Almoravids and Almohads, mass deportations etc.
(6) The Spanish had many kingdoms that had to develop separately due to distance and disrupted connections to each other and Europe. Without the invasion, Hispania would likely not have so many languages and national identities.
(7) After 1050, the Reconquista process moved at the speed of population, political cohesion, and economic growth. The Islamic invasion did not leave great things for the Spanish to take or appropriate, mostly empty space that had to be populated and chartered for administration. Castles for an Caliphate Oligarchs are not the same as Roman Aqueducts, Roman Roads, or other useful infrastructure. The country had to be built, populated, and defended square-mile by square-mile.
(8) Why is the Spanish language called "Castilian" or "Castellano", because the castles protected the population and settlers from the raids of the Muslims. They were the symbols of safety. Also the represented the marcha de cultura Hispana contra el mundo de pillaje, esclavitud, saceo, vasalaje, y mercenarios extranjeros.

El narrador es excelente.

Moros y Cristianos

un buen libro, bastante detallado sobre la historia de España durante el periodo que comprende. sin embargo cuenta mas sobre la visión de la historia del lado cristiano que sobre la visión del lado musulmán. ciertamente esto no es malo pero hubiera Sido un poco más agradable conocer un poco más la visión de los musulmanes sobre el tema. que dicho sea de paso si se expone mucho acerca de ellos. hubiera Sido aún mejor si la historia se extendiera aún más en el periodo histórico asta los reyes católicos. ya que el título se llama moros y Cristianos. y no España medieval. por lo que el periodo histórico comprendido por el libro no es el periodo completo que duraron los musulmanes en la península.

Ameno e ilustrativo

Muy buen libro que me sirvió para aprender muchas cosas acerca de la sociedad de la España de la Edad Media y la relación entre moros y cristianos. Excelentemente narrado.

Excelente

Apasionante. Muy buen leído y redactado.
El autor es fascinante y tiene otros títulos muy interesantes.

El freno al Islam.

Me han gustado los muchos detalles. Lo que no me gustó, es que hablan de las ciudades como si yo las conociera.

Buen libro, pero de estilo mediocre

El lector a veces se pregunta si Esparza escribe para adultos o para adolescentes, no por el contenido, sino por la forma pueril de presentarlo. Sin embargo, es una gran obra.

El narradores terrible. Tiene una pronunciación tan extremadamente fuerte que es chocante incluso para muchos Españoles. Por ejemplo, pronuncia "Ajárcito", por "ejército", "peri-ódo" por "período", y como muchos, "Ad-lántico" por "Atlántico", etc. Esto limita el número de oyentes.

Confused with so many names

With so many names at the beginning, it was so hard to follow who was who, or who was with whom. It has very interesting information. After half of the book I started to enjoy it.

muy bueno y se entiende mucho de lo vivido

se aprende de lo vivido en esa zona del mundo en esa ventana de tiempo quisiera seguir avanzando más

muy recomendable

excelente reseña de tres siglos de historia española. Felicidades al autor y al narrador