THE WISE KING  A Christian Prince, Muslim Spain, and the Birth of the Renaissance

Description

This book provides a beautiful introduction to one of the most fascinating figures of the Middle Ages, Alfonso X. el Sabio, was a poet, politician, warrior and scientist,  a transformer of law and of devotion. It was a turbulent era but started the first vestiges of the renaissance utilizing the knowledge of his Muslim subjects whom he admired for their culture and vast scholarship.

Alfonso’s father was Fernando III, perhaps Spain’s greatest king and in addition  a fierce warrior taking back territory including Seville from the Muslims. He was also a saint of the Catholic Church. This was an earlier Fernando, not the husband of Isabel.