There is a delirious joy driving through the sleepy white villages of the Axarquia region of Andalucia- a strip of land devoid of the lights and crime of the costa and the frozen air of the Sierra Nevada. This part of my loving land holds its secrets in tiny details, so you need to be [...]
On the road to learn about love again, this time to the Spanish island where most people from Essex travel to, Mallorca. I overhear conversations about booze and serrano ham as we board, so I know instinctively what I might expect. But even at 6am I cannot help but hear my tickling brain-what was the [...]
It is one thing to be besotted by Spain, it is another to be in the grips of Andalus. This intoxicating place that had me the moment I set foot there shifted my entire worldview and allowed me to enter a bigger world where I see history, politics and life in all forms morphed into [...]
When I want something badly, I can be a nuisance, I know. But I did not need to use any of my bugging or bargaining skills when I asked Steven to talk to me about his book, Granada- a Pomegranate in God’s Hands. He was ready to share and willing to weave a conversation on [...]
"Nothing in life can be more cruel than to be blind in Granada" - I think it was Francisco Icaza who said this, although I know many quote this as a motto from the Alhambra Palace itself. Granada is the dream city for many travellers to Andalucia and for good reasons. It has the magic [...]
Andalus, the land that has many intricate stories about coexistence, identity and politics. It is also one of the richest lands where food culture flourished, a subject I feel particularly passionate about. Medieval collections of recipes followed the social and economic progress of the land and when we talk about food in Andalus, we need [...]
One of the most debate issues about Al-Andalus is the question of convivencia, co-existence or living together. Some academic circles promote the flourishing of a diversified society where people’s religion, spiritual or worldly matters co-existed peacefully. Others share the view that it was just a utopia that could never materialize. Me, as a writer, when [...]
The Black Death, the plague of 1348-1349 in Granada wiped out one third of the population but it transformed the Christian and the Islamic world in Andalus. At the time of great political unrest the last thing any empire was praying for was a disease that would jeopardize political, economic, social stability and in the [...]
Some things you never knew about this romantic little town...
Music has always been a contentious issue within Islam and many a debate surrounds around the validity of it. It was certainly not the case in Andalus. The arriving new culture to the Iberian peninsula brought by Berber tribes, the Arabs and Muslims have been a new, fresh, different set of notes, rhythms and it [...]
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