{"title":"Books by Elizabeth Drayson","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781035008599","title":"Crucible of Light","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSpanning centuries, historian Elizabeth Drayson pulls together the epic interwoven history of the Muslim and Christian worlds. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘[An] authoritative, fascinating account . . . \u003ci\u003eCrucible of Light\u003c\/i\u003e underlines the complexity of relations, both individual and collective, between the Islamic world and Europe’ –\u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFocusing on major turning points, individual stories, and key places, from Mecca to Cordoba, from Damascus to Venice, and from Vienna to Istanbul, Drayson tracks the themes that unite us – classical learning preserved in Islamic libraries, the enduring influence of Moorish architecture and design, the food we share, the goods we have traded, and the continuing dialogue between individuals and cultures that has permeated Europe’s history and shaped its borders.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is a history that sweeps across cities and continents, from Spanish patios and palaces to Ottoman-inspired coffee houses in seventeenth-century London to the Mezquita in Cordoba, once a mosque, now a cathedral, the physical embodiment of the ongoing discourse that continues to shape European identity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Absolutely fascinating. At a time when a historical Christian Nationalism and chauvinism are gaining ground, this book arrives as an essential corrective’ – \u003c\/b\u003eAndrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK and author of\u003ci\u003e Secularism: a Very Short Introduction\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘A treasure of a book, exploring the frequently misunderstood, often unsung, yet extraordinarily rich intertwining of Islamic and European culture over nearly one and a half millennia’ –\u003c\/b\u003e Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of \u003ci\u003eKindred\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685728788853,"sku":"9781035008674","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":55897337463157,"sku":"9781035008599","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781035008674.jpg?v=1792598893"},{"product_id":"9781781256879","title":"The Moor's Last Stand","description":"In 1482, Abu Abdallah Muhammad XI became the twenty-third Muslim King of Granada. He would be the last. This is the first history of the ruler, known as Boabdil, whose disastrous reign and bitter defeat brought seven centuries of Moorish Spain to an end. It is an action-packed story of intrigue, treachery, cruelty, cunning, courtliness, bravery and tragedy.       Basing her vivid account on original documents and sources, Elizabeth Drayson traces the origins and development of Islamic Spain. She describes the thirteenth-century founding of the Nasrid dynasty, the cultured and stable society it created, and the feuding which threatened it and had all but destroyed it by 1482, when Boabdil seized the throne. The new Sultan faced betrayals by his family, factions in the Alhambra palace, and ever more powerful onslaughts from the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella, monarchs of the newly united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.  By stratagem, diplomacy, courage and strength of will Boabdil prolonged his reign for ten years, but he never had much chance of survival. In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella, magnificently attired in Moorish costume, entered Granada and took possession of the city. Boabdil went into exile. The Christian reconquest of Spain, that has reverberated so powerfully down the centuries, was complete.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312808210805,"sku":"9781781256879","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781781256879_b9419a17-aaa2-4fdd-8a1d-3ca2522f039f.jpg?v=1786025451"},{"product_id":"9781788547437","title":"Lost Paradise","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe essential history of an iconic European city, by Cambridge academic Elizabeth Drayson. \u003cbr\u003e'An admirable achievement... [Drayson has] expertise as a scholar and command as a storyteller' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBBC History Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A glittering homage to one of the world's most beautiful and storied cities' \u003cb\u003eDan Jones\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Beauty built on blood and brutality... A fascinating new tome' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the early Middle Ages to the present, foreign travellers have been bewitched by Granada's peerless beauty. The Andalusian city is also the stuff of story and legend, with an unforgettable history to match. Romans, then Visigoths, settled here, as did a community of Jews; in the eleventh century a Berber chief made Granada his capital, and from 1230 until 1492 the Nasrids – Spain's last Islamic dynasty – ruled the emirate of Granada from their fortress-palace of the Alhambra. After capturing the city to complete the Christian Reconquista, the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella made the Alhambra the site of their royal court.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eLost Paradise\u003c\/i\u003e, Elizabeth Drayson takes the reader on a voyage of discovery that uncovers the many-layered past of Spain's most complex and fascinating city, celebrating and exploring its evolving identity. Her account brings to the fore the image of Granada as a lost paradise, revealing it as a place of perpetual contradiction and linking it to the great dilemma over Spain's true identity as a nation. This is the story of a vanished Eden, of a place that questions and probes Spain's deep obsession with forgetting, and with erasing historical and cultural memory.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312901239157,"sku":"9781788547437","price":12.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781788547437_5a56a1fa-6ab0-494d-bcd1-90e2b19c9282.jpg?v=1786027078"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-elizabeth-drayson.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}