Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors

by James Reston Jr.

From historian James Reston, Jr., comes a riveting account of the pivotal events of 1492, a year when towering political ambitions, horrific religious excesses, and a drive toward adventure and conquest changed the world forever.
 
The Dogs of God chronicles one of the most savage epochs in human history, the years of the Spanish Inquisition. In an effort to consolidate their power on the Iberian peninsula and free themselves from the yoke of the Vatican, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella turned to the priest Tomás de Torquemada, a member of the Dominican order. Torquemada urged an Inquisition that would strengthen the sovereigns’ authority throughout Spain, particularly in the coming campaign against the Moors of Granada. When Granada fell, tens of thousands of Muslims were given the choice of converting to Christianity or facing death or banishment. Torquemada then turned his ferocity on Spain’s Jews, forcing upon them the same grim choice. And in the end, more than 120,000 Jews left their homeland.

With rich characterizations of the central players and breathtaking descriptions of the starkly beautiful Iberian peninsula, Dogs of God also portrays a time during which the entanglement of religious and political passions set the stage for the birth of modern Europe. Ferdinand and Isabella, in solidifying their control over the Iberian peninsula, also presaged the creation of the modern state, with its centralized authority and its collective sense of identity.

Reston’s engrossing narrative brings all of the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition into a terrifyingly brutal focus. And he looks beyond the dark deeds of 1492 as well, capturing the excitement of exploration and the promise of the future that was born in the same year. With an iron grip secured on the political affairs of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella turned their eyes toward the New World and the creation of an empire—and toward a young sea captain named Christopher Columbus.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Spain, European History, World History, Medieval

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

James Reston Jr. was an American journalist, documentarian and author of political and historical fiction and non-fiction. He wrote about the Vietnam war, the Jonestown Massacre, civil rights, the impeachment of Richard Nixon, and the September 11 attacks.

Reviews

[Peter Corrigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absorbing account of a pivotal time in history without a doubt. Perhaps he is trying to do too much with the varying strands of this account as the title indicates. But you need only read the acknowledgments to understand that this is a highly one-sided account 'peering into the the dark corners of the Christian Church'. And dark corners there certainly are, the expulsion of the Jews and later the Moors, and the Inquisition appear barbaric to modern sensibilities. Yet the book focuses its beam of disapproval solely on the Christian behavior. His material would probably go over very well at a cocktail party in Manhattan or Brussels today. The 'Moors' are usually cast in this account as tolerant, benign rulers of the country they violently conquered centuries before. But that is all conveniently well in the past and one must not judge previous behavior (unless it be Christian). He basically ignores or quickly skips past any and all evidence of 'Moorish' misbehavior in Spain and instead creates a pitiful (and mythical) victim of Christian intolerance. Yet anyone (including Mr. Reston) with a shred of historical knowledge knows that Islam spent the better part of 900 years (say 700 to 1688?) attempting to conquer Europe (and anywhere else they got to--ask India (https://blog.sami-aldeeb.com/2018/03/...). Christianity at the time of Isabella and Ferdinand knew it was in an ongoing life-death struggle with Islam. Yes, there were periods of relative tolerance (by both sides) but inevitably the struggle was renewed and given the history since then there is no reason to believe that the tolerance that supposedly existed in Al-Andalus and a few other pockets would have continued. Look at Muslim countries today--500 years later. They are not among the most intolerant in the world, they ARE the most intolerant in the world, by far. Ask a woman (who has not been brainwashed since birth to believe it is ok to be chattel); ask a gay person (before they are thrown off a building); ask a Christian or Jew (if there are any left in Muslim countries). So Mr. Reston, you can feel virtuous in having shown a light on some of the darker corners of Christian history but this is a one-sided and typically western liberal jeremiad through what is a fascinating part of history.

[Jo Walton]

This is a book about something I know next to nothing about, and which I was reading as peripheral research. I'm writing a novel set in Florence between 1492 and 1498, what's going on in Spain is useful to know. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, it's lively, well-shaped, and full of telling incident. But... every single thing it said about Savonarola and Florence was wrong, or at least the most sensational possible reading of the facts, and the same goes for Rome and the Borgia papacy. So that casts doubt for me on the authenticity of the stuff I didn't know and wanted this book to find out about, Spain, the Moors, the expulsion of the Sephardim, Torquemada, and Columbus. If this is his prejudiced partial Protestant reading of Savonarola, how on earth can I trust him on Torquemada? Before I read this book, I knew I knew nothing. Now, I don't know what I know. I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to anyone, which is a great pity.

[Whitaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting Facts I Learnt about the Spanish Inquisition

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
- Monty Python

Torquemada, the prime mover behind the Inquisition, was the son of a converso (i.e., he was half-Jewish: the son of a Jew who had converted to Christianity).

The Inquisition referred to being burnt on the stake as being "relaxed".

How did they prove that a converso was really a secret Jew?
-- It could be by a denunciation made by a Christian. Such a denunciation was accepted as the truth. Many conversos worked as tax collectors collecting tax from Christians.
-- It could be by a denunciation made by another converso. Conversos were encouraged to make a confession of the sincerity of their faith in Christ. To show this, you had to name all those conversos who were not sincere in their faith. If you failed to denounce someone as a false converso and he or she was later denounced by someone else, it showed your own confession of faith was insincere and hence you were a false converso. If you were denounced after you had confessed the sincerity of your faith, this showed that your confession was false and you were a false converso.
-- The Inquisition could call you in. If appropriate, torture could be used to extract a confession. All property of false conversos was confiscated and given to the crown, which was in debt because of the war against the Moors.
-- It could be because you didn't go to church or didn't eat pork. Of course, if you went to church and ate pork that did NOT show that you were NOT secretly a Jew. That showed that you were a devious Jew.

It's uncanny how much this procedure by the Spanish Inquisition sounds like water boarding:

"In this hideous remedy, the prisoner was tied to a ladder that was sloped downward, so that the head was lower than the feet. The head was held fast in position by a metal band, twigs were placed in the nostrils, and ropes winched tightly around his appendages. The mouth was forced open with a metal piece and a cloth placed over the mouth. Then a pitcher of water was brought, and water poured over the cloth. With each swallow, the cloth was drawn deeper into the throat, until in gagging and choking the victim nearly asphyxiated. The terror of suffocation was extreme, and the process was repeated endlessly, bloating the body grotesquely until the victim was ready to confess."

Isabella and Ferdinand thought that they were at the End Times. The belief was that once Spain was "cleansed", a messianic king would go on to conquer Jerusalem and the Holy Land for God. When this was done, then Christ would return. Ferdinand saw himself as this messianic king, oddly enough called "the Bat". Isabella believed she was the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary; I didn't know that Catholics believed in reincarnation.

Isabella had told Columbus that she would not finance his adventure to go west. As Columbus was in the process of leaving Spain, one guy convinced her at the last minute that she was wrong to decide this. This guy was called Santángel. He was a converso. I wonder if it would have been any consolation to him if he had been told that the gold from the Americas would end up destroying Spain's economy.

[Murtaza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written history, like a thriller. Not sure where all the dialogue was sourced from.

[Ryan Reeves · Rating 2 out of 5]

A well written book with a journalistic flair, but based on false estimates about the nature of medieval and ancient religion. Reston begins by claiming that medieval Spain "represents the apogee of tolerance and cross-fertilization between the three great religions". However, his only evidence of this is that Jews, Christians and Muslims lived side by side. No attention is paid to the ghettos and cultural clashes of these centuries.

Reston only manages to praise Moorish rulers and spares no hyperbole in painting Islamic rulers as paragons of tolerance and culture.

Not surprisingly he grossly mishandles early Christian faith, claiming that ancient Christians were almost entirely passive about heresy up until the fourth century. Here lurks the revisionist and anti-Catholic canard that it was the great credal activity of the Fathers that introduced the concept of heresy.

This book is only insightful, then, if one's only understanding of the period is more out of balance than the views presented here. Still the book only manages to provide an equally anachronistic model instead.

[Dr.sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

على الجميع قراءة هذا الكتاب الرائع لانه يسلط الضوء على مرحلة مهمة في التاريخ العالمي وهي سقوط غرناطة وبداية عصر الاستكشاف وعصر النهضة .
ايجابيات :
الاسلوب مشوق جداً والربط بين الاحداث المتتالية والمتزامنة في تلك الحقبة التي غيرت وجه العالم وادت الى انهيار دول وقيام دول كان في غاية العبقرية والسلاسة .
سلبيات :
كالعادة معاناة اليهود مضخمة ومصاغة باسلوب عاطفي جداً , ويتبادر الى ذهن القارئ وكأن اليهود وحدهم تضرروا من محاكم التفتيش الهمجية - التي هي وصمة عار في جبين الانسانية - مع العلم ان اليهود الاندلسيون كان عددهم لا يزيد عن 120,000 كابعد تقدير ,, بينما في قرطبة وحدها اكثر من مليون (ومثلها اشبيلية وبلنسية وسرقسطة وغيرها من المدن )

مسلم تعرضوا للقتل والنتعذيب ومصادرة الاملاك وهدم المساجد ومنع الشعائر الدينية وعانوا الامرين من التطهير العرقي والاثني في تلك الحقبة يتجاهلهم الكاتب ويذكر هذه الاحداث على استحياء في بضعة اسطر وهو ما ازعجني حقاً

الكتاب بشكل عام رائع وكنت سأعطيه 5 نجوم لكن بسبب تلك السلبيات التي ذكرتها آنفاً سأكون مضطراً لان اسحب النجمة الخامسة واكتفي باربع ...

[Hazel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've got mixed feelings about this. Reston has clearly done his research. He credits a number of Spanish and Portuguese experts on the period, and uses quite a few contemporaneous sources. Excellent. He's fairly even-handed in representing the perspectives of the Jewish, Muslim and Catholic players of the time, and uses excerpts from scriptural passages sensitively, so we get a feeling for their faiths as motivating force and consoling influence. Very Good.

The factual content is absorbing, and much of it was new to me. I was taught by Dominican priests and nuns, and never knew that members of their order were the first inquisitors. There were descriptions of 15th century water-boarding. I found similarities to the 'thought police' of Chinese society under Mao, and East Germany under the Stasi, and was reminded that human nature doesn't change. Reston made me think about group behaviour, systems of government, abuses of power and the power of religion: all still very relevant.

But he needed an editor. There were a number of annoying sweeping statements and emotive assertions and generalisations. I imagine he wanted this to be accessible to a 21st century audience, but some of his idioms were incongruous. And inconsistencies and redundancies, eg. describing Queen Isabella as 'gushing enthusiastically' really distracted from the content. And he referred to Richard III as though Shakespeare's portrayal were historically accurate! Perhaps I'm being pedantic, but that kind of thing detracts from the overall effect of the work. Some more time with a good editor would have tightened up his prose and given it a more measured tone. And perhaps this would have made a good article or two, rather than a book.

In general, I'm disappointed. But he certainly makes me want to read more about the period. Maybe two and a half stars?

[Candice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Previously when I thought of 1492 I thought of Columbus reaching the western hemisphere. But so much more happened in Spain in that year. The book makes a good case for separation of church and state. Here was a country where Christians, Jews, and Muslims had lived side by side peacefully and by the end of 1492 most of the Jews and Muslims in Catholic Ferdinand and Isabella's Spain were either dead, baptized, or scattered to the winds. The horror of the Spanish Inquisition is detailed, and Christopher Columbus becomes more than just "the guy who discovered America." A good look at some Spanish history that doesn't make it into American history books.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much wonderfully written history out there and so little time. In this book, Reston shows the intersecting histories of Isabelle and Ferdinand's reigns, the battles to win back lands lost to Muslim peoples, the Expulsion of the Jews, the Inquisition (leading up to the terror of Torquenada) and Columbus' voyages of discovery. amazing scholarship and good writing. I learned a lot of surprising things. For instance, the pope apparently tried to reign in the Monarchs and reprimanded them about letting the inquisition go outside of the rules of law. But he was all too happy to accept the results when they ignored him. 9/09

[Jared Ure · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting contextual history of Columbus and the Inquisition. Worth the read.

[Matthew Aravena · Rating 5 out of 5]

How absolutely refreshing and satisfying. I have finally after dozens of popular history books have found an equal to the magisterial Barbara Tuchman, may she rest in peace. This man knows how to write, period. The book was concise, opinionated without being completely partisan or biased too. The only reason it took so long to read was because every sentence and paragraph was bursting with references that make you want to research them on the spot. Every sentence moved the narrative along, not a single dull moment, replete with ancillary details that were relevant and never detracted from the original point. This book is the model for how popular history should be, I keep getting roped into getting 1000 plus page tomes that simply are not satisfying. I have to stop being prejudiced against shorter history books because this one proves you can say much more with far less words.

[Elliott Bignell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not as light a read as other Reston works I have tackled, and not merely because of the miserabilist tilt of this particular stretch of history. The book covers the destruction of Russell's "brilliant civilisation" of Muslim Iberia, the eclipse of the equally luminous Sephardic Jewry, the rise of modern state terror in the form of the Inquisition, the ascent of the appalling Borgia papacy and the discovery of the Americas and prompt export of lethal pandemics and religious genocide to their perhaps equally brilliant native cultures. Given that the globe is, as it were tilting ever more steeply downhill as Reston sails his course, perhaps the strongest wind of levity could not have pushed the book uphill into the light. Still, Reston can be witty but this book was perfectly serious.

More of the modern world emerged in this period than Enlightenment enthusiasts might perhaps be ready to perceive. The behaviour of the Inquisition and its use of anonymous denunciation to expose heretics cannot but remind one of the apparatus of state terror perfected by Stalin and the Nazis, and in a paler form by McCarthy. All that seems to be missing are electrodes. At the same time, the "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" philosophy so pervasive in 21st-Century empire-making explicitly echoes the sentiments of the Albigensian Crusade and annihilation of the Cathars which book-ends the start of this dismal shelf of journal pages.

The sincerity of the protagonists can often hardly be doubted. Reston has an agenda here, so have a care, but I think he clearly makes his case: Religion, incautiously applied, leads to bigotry, genocide and the dying of civilisation's light. Isabella clearly held her Christianity to be binding, and spoke for tolerance and forgiveness at the beginning, but in the company of an ambitious and prideful King, with the bloodless shade of Torquemada at court and the popes fornicating in beds dressed with the rich cloth bought of simony, a bad end was in sight. Into this vipers' nest came Cristoforo Colombo of Genoa, vain, boastful, charismatic and utterly courageous, and offered the prospect of an Empire that would not merely cleanse Iberia of Jews and Muslims but extend its grip to the world. And so it came to pass. Truces made with Muslims at the end were soon broken, the Jews of Iberia erased and an Age of Empire inaugurated. If only, as Reston pitilessly reveals, the Muslim rulers had not been so easy to turn against their charges, if only Almohad intolerance had not weakened the support and loyalty of al-Andalus' diverse cultural props.

Boabdil the Unfortunate, rather fittingly, fell fighting other Muslims in exile. The final betrayal serves as a synecdoche for the broader failings of this last Moorish monarch of Granada along with the fractious Muslim world as a whole, and its tragic fracture of its promise to the dazzling civilisations of Sephardic Jews and Iberian convivencia.

A tale told by a sad man, full of sound and fury, signifying the advent of the modern state.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting (in a disturbing sort of way) about the Inquisition, Christopher Columbus and the "crusade" against the Moors. Learning just how much the Inquisition was a convenient way for the Spanish monarchs to fund the royal treasury (thereby making it possible for them to continue in their battles against the Moors) was very eye opening. The religious components seemed to be somewhat secondary to the opportunity to confiscaste property. That being said, the focus on the ordained quality of Isabella and Ferdinand -- how they were chosen by God, on a mission from God and doing God's work, and using this is a tool to further their political objectives was fascinating. The corruption of the Vatican and the power-hungry Cardinals and Pope was over the top. It definitely gives one pause to read about the very bloody history of Christianity. This would be in interesting book to discuss in a group composed of Christian, Jewish and Muslim particpants.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's solid history to be found here, but also quite a bit of melodrama. Reston's good at making me think about time periods in ways I never would have otherwise. Somehow it never occurred to me that the Inquisition was happening at the same time as Columbus journeying to the New World.

I was also intrigued by Ferdinand and Isabella's apocalyptic mindset--Ferdinand seeing himself as "the Bat" who would conquer Jerusalem before the second coming of Christ, and Isabella may have thought herself to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary (or at the very least the apocalyptic woman clothed in the sun).

Very good food for thought, but the presentation of the info found within could use a bit of polishing. I found Dogs of God to be more cohesive than The Last Apocalypse, so we're getting there!

[David R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

By and large a fine treatment of a broad theater of activity. Reston gives adequate treatment to the Reconquista, the growth of the Spanish Inquisition, and the Columbus voyage of discovery. These are often treated separately for purposes of achieving depth, but the author manages to develop each and weave them together effectively. His glaring weakness is falling back to almost stereotypical characterizations: the virtuous Isabella, the heroic Columbus, the scheming Ferdinand, the malevolent Torquemada, and so on. This is not historically sustainable, and does mars the work.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully crafted narrative about the three pivotal events that all converged in the year 1492: the Spanish Inquisition, the defeat of the Spanish Moors, and the voyage of Columbus. The basic premise is that these three events, while portrayed with religious and apocalyptic imagery, were all used as tools of the state to solidify the rule Spanish monarchy. State power went from a weak confederation of local kings and lords to a worldwide empire that wasn't averse from using violence to further its aims.

Why I picked up the book
I have been increasingly noticing the gaping hole in my knowledge of history that is the Middle Ages, and I'm feeling a bit cheated for it. If you don't take AP European History, you probably only have vague notions about the Middle Ages-- and even that class has fallen out of favor for being too "Eurocentric." My thoughts about the Middle Ages were stirred up recently in my readings by C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton. Planet Narnia by C. S. Lewis shows how Lewis drew on the medieval concept of the solar system to construct his Narnia series. Lewis was drawn to the Middle Ages. It was his specialty as an English don. I have yet to read The Discarded Image, where he more explicitly draws out the importance of the Middle Ages.

Chesterton had a lot to say about the Middle Ages. He was very against the Enlightenment tendency to paint the Middle Ages as a barbaric age filled with unreason and violence. Here's a few quotes that express some of those sentiments:

I take in order the next instance offered: the idea that Christianity belongs to the Dark Ages. Here I did not satisfy myself with reading modern generalisations; I read a little history. And in history I found that Christianity, so far from belonging to the Dark Ages, was the one path across the Dark Ages that was not dark. It was a shining bridge connecting two shining civilizations. If any one says that the faith arose in ignorance and savagery the answer is simple: it didn’t.

There are two things, and two things only, for the human mind, a dogma and a prejudice. The Middle Ages were a rational epoch, an age of doctrine. Our age is, at its best, a poetical epoch, an age of prejudice. A doctrine is a definite point; a prejudice is a direction. That an ox may be eaten, while a man should not be eaten, is a doctrine. That as little as possible of anything should be eaten is a prejudice; which is also sometimes called an ideal.

Anybody who supposes that the Dark Ages were plain darkness and nothing else, and that the dawn of the thirteenth century was plain daylight and nothing else, will not be able to make head or tail of the human story of St. Francis of Assisi... The end of the Dark Ages was not merely the end of a sleep. It was certainly not merely the end of a superstitious enslavement... Viewed merely in an external and experimental fashion, the whole of the high civilisation of antiquity had ended in the learning of a certain lesson; that is, in its conversion to Christianity.

This book is one of the first books to try to fill in that knowledge gap. And it is perhaps a difficult topic to grapple with: the Spanish Inquisition.

The Spanish Inquisition
The book portrays events leading up to 1492, including the rise of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain. And the author gives a very honest account of the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. There is no minimizing of the events that occured. He explicitly ties it to the more modern holocaust of Jews in Germany by referring to their final expulsion as the "final solution." I was surprised at the similarities: Jews were required to wear stars of David as an outward symbol of their religious identity. They were confined to ghettoes, removed from positions of power, and targeted for violence and murder. Converting to Christianity could not save you, because Jews could not become true Christians but only pervert the faith. Anti-Semitism was a racial doctrine that originated far before the intellectual seeds of social Darwinism.

One thing that I did not know, and that Reston explicitly states, is that the Inquisition was an organ of the state. The Inquisition was more a religious excuse for a state problem. Spain epitomized the rise of the modern nation-state. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand were intent on solidifying their power. Another monarch of the time, the King of Portugal, expressed the woes of a weak monarch: "my father left me nothing but the highways of Portugal." Spain was a weak confederacy of rival kingdoms, united by the marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. The local barons in each kingdom had an inconvenient sense of independence, and some of their main supporters were the Jews and Jewish converts to Christianity, the conversos. Furthermore, political rivals on the Iberian peninsula included Portugal, a serious contender for maritime power, and the Moorish kingdom of Granada. The Inquisition was a tool that simultaneously could be used to spread fear in the hearts of the local lords and fund the war against the Moorish infidels. The 15th century holocaust of the Jews became the Spanish war chest. This reminded me of another book I read semi-recently about religious violence, "The Myth of Religious Violence":

"The myth of religious violence should finally be seen for what it is: an important part of the folklore of Western societies. It does not identify any facts about the world, but rather authorizes certain arrangements of power in the modern West. It is a story of salvation from mortal peril by the creation of the secular nation-state. As such, it legitimates the direction of the citizen's ultimate loyalty to the nation-state and secures the nation-state's monopoly on legitimate violence. In the U.S., it helps to foster the idea that secular social orders are inherently peaceful, such that we become convinced that the nation that spends more on its military than do all the other nations of the world combined is in fact the world's most peace-loving country. The myth also helps to identify Others and enemies, both internal and external, who threaten the social order and who provide the requisite villains against which the nation-state is said to protect us."

The Defeat of the Moors
I also don't want to minimize the fascinating account of the war with the Moors. I was already acquainted with the beautiful and vibrant culture of Islamic Spain in the book God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe. In fact, Dogs of God picks up where God's Crucible ends. There were multiple reasons that account for the loss of the Moors including internal succession conflicts and weak leadership. Interestingly, the last Moorish king, Boabdil, had a prophecy given at his birth that said he would be the last king of the Moors, and their kingdom would fall to the Christians. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy for him as he used it to explain his losses in battle and at court.

Columbus, the first Conquistador
Columbus is the final of the three "Dogs of God." I feel that Columbus has already had plenty of hate directed towards him today, with many trying to get Columbus Day removed from the calendar. This book touches a little on the sins if Columbus in the New World, but most of that happened after his first voyage in 1492, and is more epilogue than main story. The book mostly touches on Columbus's attempts to climb the social ladder. If anything, there are plenty of Columbus's out their today. Our world actively encourages careerism. I feel it in academia all the time. It reminds me of a quote from Stages of Faith by Fowler:

First, they tell themselves that this is an increasingly crowded, competitive world. They recognize that there are more 25-year-olds alive right now than there ever have been before. In a world of growing scarcity they feel a deep urgency about getting what they feel are their shares of power and its rewards. They tell themselves that in their urgency they cannot afford relationships that place any "drag" on their progress. Marriage is possible if it does not hamper career. Children, for most of them, must wait until both members of the marriage have claimed lucrative posts. For many of them the decision to remain childless feels final. Even their leisure activities, they tell themselves, can be defended only if they contribute to career enhancement. Further, these young respondents tell themselves that the most rapid path toward advancement and salary lie in making frequent moves from one corporation to another. They ask themselves regularly whether they are staying too long at their present posts. Excessive loyalty to one employer, they say, can be detrimental. They live with the "ever-ready resume." Another set of substories they tell themselves say that most of the men and women presently at the top are probably less imaginative and less competent than they are (or will be). They do not believe, therefore, that they will have too much to learn on the way up. The major obstacles to their rising that they see are the inertia and self-protecting power of the present incumbents. Finally, they believe that in order to make it to the top in their chosen fields they must be within striking distance of a chief executive's post by the time they are thirty-five...

Columbus did have vision, and Reston does give him that. He was a visionary. But he also serves as a warning. I still don't think we can put on a moral grandstand and believe ourselves immune to the same sins as Columbus.

Finally, I was surprised at the apocalyptic imagery the leaders of the era evoked to illustrate their actions. Queen Isabella saw herself as the Virgin Mary or the woman clothed with the sun and moon, as evoked in the book of Revelation. Kind Ferdinand saw himself as the one destined to defeat the Anti-Christ, and lead the fight against the hordes of the devil (a role filled by the Moors and Jews of Spain). And Columbus's New World filled the role of the New Jerusalem. Everyone was fully convinced that the world would end in 1500. There was plenty of this at the year 2000 as well. But even when we aren't at the turn of the century, and regardless of religiosity, we tend to see ourselves as the pinnacle of civilization. Looking back at the 1500s, they seem very silly. But again, we will probably look just as silly to those in the year 2500. So perhaps exercise a little humility and don't make the mistake of the Spanish monarchs.

[Abeer Nwaider · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب محاكم التفتيش في اسبانيا لم يكن محتواه كما تخيلت عن طرق تعذيب وتشويه غير المسيحيين في عهد مابعد سقوط الاندلس من قبل محاكم التفتيش
Dogs of God اخر كتاب من سلسلة كتب جيمس رستن لتوثيق مرحلة تاريخية الغريب جدا اننا لم نتطرق اليها في مراحل دراستنا في المدارس
تحدث الكتاب عن تطور مملكة قشتالة بعد احتلالها من المسلمين ونشأة ملكتها ازابيلا وزراجها من ملك اراغون واتحاد الارض والقوى وتوحيد البلدين تحت حكم الملكين ورحلة انتزاع الاراضي والحصون والمدن من المسلمين واليهود
وعن طريقة حكمها لرعيتها وقيادتها وزوجها للمعارك بنفسها
عن اكثر ما المني خيبة ملوك المسلمين وقادتهم وردتهم ومساعدة ملكي اسبانيا وتامرهم على اخوتهم واعمامهم وقعها كان في نفسي اكبر من هول التعذيب الذي تعرض له المسلمون بعد سقوط بلادهم ومصادرة دينهم وابنائهم وتحدث الكاتب باعجاب عن شجاعة امراء وقادة جيش اخرين
تطرق الكتاب لتفاصيل رحلة كريستوفر كلومبوس لاكتشاف اميركا او العالم الجديد
الكاتب كان حياديا في طرحه
الترجمة والاسلوب كان جيد جدا لمجير ماجد العمري من دار السيد للنشر والتوزيع
استحسنت فكرة تقسيم الكتاب الى اقسام صغيرة معنونة ومتسلسلة
سلبيات الكتاب لم يرفق بخرائط للمعارك وصور للحصون والقصور مما يضطرني لترك الكتاب والاستعانة بالبحث على الانترنت
احببت ان اشارك معكم من الكتاب قصة عن احد من عايش فترة مابعد سقوط الاندلس و ما حل بسكان تلك البلاد

محمد الصغير

قال: كنت يومئذ صغيراً، لا أفقه شيئاً مما كان يجري في الخفاء، ولكني كنت أجد أبي ـ رحمه الله ـ يضطرب، ويصفر لونه، كلما عدت من المدرسة، فتلوت عليه ما حفظت من " الكتاب المقدس "، وأخبرته بما تعلمت من اللغة الإسبانية، ثم يتركني ويمضي إلى غرفته التي كانت في أقصى الدار، والتي لم يكن يأذن لأحد بالدنو من بابها، فلبث فيها ساعات طويلة، لا أدري ما يصنع فيها، ثم يخرج منها محمر العينين، كأنه كان بكى بكاءً طويلاً، ويبقى أياماً ينظر إلىَّ بلهفة وحزن، ويحرك شفتيه، فعل من يهم بالكلام، فإذا وقفت مصغياً إليه ولاّني ظهره وانصرف عني من غير أن يقول شيئاً، وكنت أجد أمي تشيعني كلما ذهبت إلى المدرسة، حزينة دامعة العين، وتقبلني بشوق وحرقة، ثم لا تشبع مني، فتدعوني فتقبلني مرة ثانية، ولا تفارقني إلا باكية، فأحس نهاري كله بحرارة دموعها على خدي، فأعجب من بكائها ولا أعرف له سبباً، ثم إذا عدت من المدرسة استقبلتني بلهفة واشتياق، كأني كنت غائباً عنها عشرة أعوام، وكنت أرى والديّ يبتعدان عني، ويتكلمان همساً بلغة غير اللغة الإسبانية، لا أعرفها ولا أفهمها، فإذا دنوت منهما قطعا الحديث، وحوّلاه، وأخذا يتكلمان بالإسبانية، فأعجب وأتألم، وأذهب أظن في نفسي الظنون، حتى أني لأحسب أني لست ابنهما، وأني لقيط جاءا به من الطريق، فيبرح بي الألم، فآوي إلى ركن في الدار منعزل، فأبكي بكاءً مراً. وتوالت علي الآلام فأورثتني مزاجاً خاصاً، يختلف عن أمزجة الأطفال، الذين كانوا في مثل سني، فلم أكن أشاركهم في شيء من لعبهم ولهوهم، بل أعتزلهم وأذهب، فأجلس وحيداً، أضع رأسي بين كفي، واستغرق في تفكيري، أحاول أن أجد حلاً لهذه المشكلات.. حتى يجذبني الخوري من كم قميصي، لأذهب إلى الصلاة في الكنسية.

وولدت أمي مرة، فلما بشرت أبي بأنها قد جاءت بصبي جميل، لم يبتهج، ولم تلح على شفتيه ابتسامة، ولكنه قام بجر رجله حزيناً ملتاعاً، فذهب إلى الخوري، فدعاه ليعمد الطفل، وأقبل يمشي وراءه، وهو مطرق برأسه إلى الأرض، وعلى وجهه علائم الحزن المبرح، واليأس القاتل، حتى جاء به إلى الدار ودخل به على أمي.. فرأيت وجهها يشحب شحوباً هائلاً، وعينيها تشخصان، ورأيتها تدفع إليه الطفل خائفة حذرة.. ثم تغمض عينيها، فحرت في تعليل هذه المظاهر، وازددت ألماص على ألمي.

حتى إذا كان ليلة عيد الفصح، وكانت غرناطة غارقة في العصر والنور، والحمراء تتلألأ بالمشاعل والأضواء، والصلبان تومض على شرفاتها ومآذنها، دعاني أبي في جوف الليل، وأهل الدار كلهم نيام، فقادني صامتاً إلى غرفته، إلى حرمه المقدّس، فخفق قلبي خفوقاً شديداً واضطربت، لكني تماسكت وتجلدت، فلما توسط بي الغرفة أحكم إغلاق الباب، وراح يبحث عن السراج، وبقيت واقفاً في الظلام لحظات كانت أطول عليّ من أعوام، ثم أشغل سراجاً صغيراً كان هناك، فتلفتّ حولي فرأت الغرفة خالية، ليس فيها شيء مما كنت أتوقع رؤيته من العجائب، وما فيها إلا بساط وكتاب موضوع على رف، وسيف معلق بالجدار، فأجلسني على هذا البساط، ولبث صامتاً ينظر إليّ نظرات غريبة اجتمعت علي، هي، ورهبة المكان، وسكون الليل، فشعرت كأني انفصلت عن الدنيا التي تركتها وراء هذا الباب، وانتقلت إلى دنيا أخرى، لا أستطيع وصف ما أحسست به منها.. ثم أخذ أبي يدي بيديه بحنو وعطف، وقال لي بصوت خافت:

يا بني، إنك الآن في العاشرة من عمرك، وقد صرت رجلاً، وإني سأطلعك على السر الذي طالما كتمته عنك، فهل تستطيع أن تحتفظ به في صدرك، وتحبسه عن أمك وأهلك وأصحابك والناس أجمعين؟

إن إشارة منك واحدة إلى هذا السر تعرض جسم أبيك إلى عذاب الجلادين من رجال " ديوان التفتيش" .

فلما سمعت اسم ديوان التفتيش ارتجفت من مفرق رأسي إلى أخمص قدمي، وقد كنت صغيراً حقاً، ولكني أعرف ما هو ديوان التفتيش، وأرى ضحاياه كل يوم، وأنا غاد إلى المدرسة، ورائح منها ـ فمن رجال يصلبون أو يحرقون، ومن نساء يعلقن من شعورهن حتى يمتن، أو تبقر بطونهن، فسكتُ ولم أجب.

فقال لي أبي : مالك لا تجيب! أتستطيع أن تكتم ما سأقوله لك؟

قلت: نعم

قال: تكتمه حتى عن أمك وأقرب الناس إليك؟
قلت: نعم

قال: أقترب مني. أرهف سمعك جيداً، فإني لا أقدر أن أرفع صوتي. أخشى أن تكون للحيطان آذان، فتشي بي إلى ديوان التفتيش، فيحرقني حياً.

فاقتربت منه وقلت له:

إني مصغ يا أبت.

فأشار إلى الكتاب الذي كان على الرف، وقال:

أتعرف هذا الكتاب يا بني؟

قلت: لا

هذا كتاب الله.

قلت : الكتاب المقدس الذي جاء به يسوع بن الله.

فأضطرب وقال:

كلا، هذا هو القرآن الذي أنزله الله، الواحد الأحد، الفرد الصمد، الذي لم يلد ولم يولد، ولم يكن له كفواً أحد، على أفضل مخلوقاته، وسيد أنبيائه، سيدنا محمد بن عبد الله النبي العربي صلى الله عليه وسلم.

ففتحت عيني من الدهشة، ولم أكد افهم شيئاً.

قال: هذا كتاب الإسلام، الإسلام الذي بعث الله به محمداً إلى الناس كافة.. فظهر هناك.. وراء البحار والبوادي.. في الصحراء البعيدة القاحلة.. في مكة في قوم بداة، مختلفين، مشركين، جاهلين، فهداهم به إلى التوحيد، وأعطاهم به الاتحاد، والقوة، والعلم والحضارة، فخرجوا يفتحون به المشرق والمغرب، حتى وصلوا إلى هذه الجزيرة، إلى إسبانيا، فعدلوا بين الناس، وأحسنوا إليهم، وأمنوهم على أرواحهم وأموالهم، ولبثوا فيها ثمانمئة سنة.. ثمانمئة سنة، جعلوها فيها أرقى وأجمل بلاد الدنيا.

نعم يا بني نحن العرب المسلمين..



صورة لقصر الحمراء في الأندلس

فلم أملك لساني من الدهشة والعجب والخوف، وصحت به:

ماذا.؟ نحن؟ .. العرب المسلمين!

قال: نعم يا بني. هذا هو السر الذي سأفضي به إليك.

نعم نحن. نحن أصحاب هذه البلاد، نحن بنينا هذه القصور، التي كانت لنا فصارت لعدونا، نحن رفعنا هذه المآذن التي كان يرن فيها صوت المؤذن، فصار يقرع فيها الناقوس، نحن أنشأنا هذه المساجد، التي كان يقوم فيها المسلمون صفاً بين يدي الله، وأمامهم الأئمة، يتلون في المحاريب كلام الله، فصارت كنائس يقوم فيها القسوس والرهبان، يرتلون فيها الإنجيل.

نعم يا بني .. نحن العرب المسلمين، لنا في كل بقعة من بقاع إسبانيا أثر، وتحت كل شبر منها رفات جد من أجدادنا، أو شهيد من شهدائنا. نعم .. نحن بنينا هذه المدن، نحن أنشأنا هذه الجسور، نحن مهدنا هذه الطرق، نحن شققنا هذه الترع، نحن زرعنا هذه الأشجار.

ولكن منذ أربعين سنة.. أسامع أنت؟ منذ أربعين سنة خدع الملك البائس أبو عبد الله الصغير، آخر ملوكنا في هذه الديار، بوعود الإسبان وعهودهم، فسلمهم مفاتيح غرناطة، وأباحهم حمى أمته، ومدافن أجداده، وأخذ طريقه إلى بر المغرب، ليموت هناك وحيداً فريداً، شريداً طريداً وكانوا قد تعهدوا لنا بالحرية والعدل والاستقلال. فلما ملكوا خانوا عهودهم كلها، فأنشؤوا ديوان التفتيش، أفدخلنا في النصرانية قسراً، وأجبرنا على ترك لغتنا إجباراً، وأخذ منا أولادنا، لينشئهم، على النصرانية، فذلك سر ما ترى من استخفائنا بالعبادة، ��حزننا على ما نرى من أمتهان ديننا، وتكفير أولادنا.

أربعون سنة يا بني، ونحن صابرون على هذا العذاب، الذي لا تحمله جلاميد الصخر، ننتظر فرج الله، لا نيأس لأن اليأس محرم في ديننا، دين القوة والصبر والجهاد.



من أدواة التعذيب التمشيط بأمشاط الحديد ما يصدهم هذا عن دينهم

هذا هو السر يا بني فاكتمه، واعلم أن حياة أبيك معلقة بشفتيك، ولست والله أخشى الموت أو أكره لقاء الله، ولكني أحب أن أبقى حياً، حتى أعلمك لغتك ودينك أنقذك من ظلام الكفر إلى نور الإيمان، فقم الآن إلى فراشك يا بني.

صرت من بعد كلما رأيت شرف الحمراء أو مآذن غرناطة، تعروني هزة عنيفة، وأحس بالشوق والحزن، والبغض والحب، يغمر فؤادي، وكثيراً ما ذهلت عن نفسي ساعات طويلة فإذا تنبهت أطوف بالحمراء وأخاطبها وأعاتبها، وأقول لها:

أيتها الحمراء .. أيتها الحبيبة الهاجرة، أنسيت بُناتك، وأصحابك الذي غذوك بأرواحهم ومهجهم، وسقوك دماءهم ودموعهم، فتجاهلت عهدهم، وأنكرت ودهم؟

أنسيت الملوك الصيد، الذين كانوا يجولون في أبهائك، ويتكئون على أساطينك، ويفيضون عليك، ما شئت من المجد والجلال، والأبهة والجمال، أولئك الأعزة الكرام، الذين إن قالوا أصغت الدنيا، وإن أمروا لبى الدهر. أألفت النواقيس بعد الأذان؟ أرضيت بعد الأئمة بالرهبان؟؟

ثم أخاف أن يسمعني بعض جواسيس الديوان، فأسرع الكرة إلى الدرة لأحفظ درس العربية، الذي كان يلقيه عليّ أبي، وكأني أراه الآن يأمرني أن أكتب له الحرف الأعجمي، فيكتب لي حذاءه الحرف العربي، ويقول لي: هذه حروفنا. ويعلمني النطق بها ورسمها، ثم يلقي عليّ درس الدين، ويعلمني الوضوء والصلاة لأقوم وراءه نصلي خفية في هذه الغرفة الرهيبة.

وكان الخوف من أن أزل فأفشي السر، لا يفارقه أبداً، وكان يمنحنني فيدس أمي إليّ فتسألني:

ماذا يعلمك أبوك؟



من أدواة التعذيب التي كانت متبعة من قبل محاكم التفتيش تقطيع الأعضاء بواسطة الأدوات الحادة

فأقول : لا شيء

فتقول: إن عندك نبأ مما يعلمك، فلا تكتمه عني.

فأقول: إنه لا يعلمني شيئاً.

حتى أتقنت العربية، وفهمت القرآن، وعرفت قواعد الدين، فعرفني بأخ له في الله، نجتمع نحن الثلاثة على عبادتنا وقرآننا.

وأشتدت بعد ذلك قسوة ديوان التفتيش، وزاد في تنكيله بالبقية الباقية من العرب، فلم يكن يمضي يوم لا نرى فيه عشرين أو ثلاثين مصلوباً، أو محرقاً بالنار حياً، ولا يمضي يوم لا نسمع فيه بالمئات، يعذبون أشد العذاب وأفظعه، فتقلع أظافرهم ، وهم يرون ذلك بأعينهم، ويسقون الماء حتى تنقطع أنفاسهم، وتكوى أرجهلم وجنوبهم بالنار، وتقطع أصابعهم وتشوى وتوضع في أفواههم، ويجلدون حتى يتناثر لحمهم.

واستمر ذلك مدة طويلة، فقال لي أبي ذات يوم: إني أحس يا بني كأن أجلي قد دنا وأني لأهوى الشهادة على أيدي هؤلاء، لعل الله يرزقني الجنة، فأفوز بها فوزاً عظيماً، ولم يبق لي مأرب في الدنيا بعد أن أخرجتك من ظلمة الكفر، وحملتك الأمانة الكبرى، التي كدت أهوي تحت أثقالها، فإذا أصابني أمر فأطع عمك هذا ولا تخالفه في شيء.

ومرّت على ذلك أيام، وكانت ليلة سوداء من ليالي السِّرار، وإذا بعمي هذا يدعوني ويأمرني أن أذهب معه، فقد يسر الله لنا سبيل الفرار إلى عدوة المغرب بلد المسلمين فأقول له : أبي وأمي.؟

فيعنف عليّ ويشدُّني من يدي ويقول لي: ألم يأمرك أبوك بطاعتي؟

فأمضي معه صاغراً كارهاً، حتى إذا ابتعدنا عن المدينة وشملنا الظلام، قال لي:

اصبر يا بني.. فقد كتب الله لوالديك المؤمنين السعادة على يد ديوان التفتيش.

ويخلص الغلام إلى بر المغرب ويكون منه العالم المصنف سيدي محمد بن عبد الرفيع الأندلسي وينفع الله به وبتصانيفه.

[Paul Pessolano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this book received good reviews I found it only interesting to the true historian. It fell far below what I was looking for in a book. I love history and thought this would give me a good resume of the Spanish fight with the Moors, a look into the excesses of the Inquisition, and a different view on Christopher Columbus. The book only came alive only when it got to Christopher Columbus. Although it passes over most of the voyagers, it certainly laid out his rise in the Spanish Hierarchy and how he fell from that lofty perch to being basically a nobody.

The book is not meant for the casual reader and confuses the reader as it goes from one story to another and changes timelines.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it

[Chiara Drake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bye Spain you did some bad things

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 15th Century is a very interesting period for Western Civilization that includes the development of the nation state and the invigoration of monarchs over the nobility. I have been learning a great deal from the lectures of Professor Teofilo Ruiz on Iberian developments during this period. Those lectures have given me the impetus to read more widely and Reston's book is one of those I have devoured.

Dogs of God is a popular-style history of this period in Spain. It traces the growing disintegration of a pluralistic society that was present during much of the previous centuries when a Muslim caliphate dominated Iberia. Reston describes the growing Christian "jihad" and how the rise of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand play into it. He tells a great story and Isabella must have been one amazing, to have everyone wanting to kiss-up to her, including those she defeated. He gives us a few looks at the "conversos" but Reston fails to make a few connections.

> He correctly notes that both Isabella and Torquemada had Jewish blood in their family trees.
> I do not believe he gives enough time to what preceded this, particularly the events of 1391.
*Even by 1391 there were plenty of conversos, the Jews that converted
*He should have mentioned the scholar (and Rabbi of Burgos), Selomah ha-Levi, who converted to Christianity in 1390 and later became a Bishop.
*Some of his children and grandchildren also became bishops.
> There were a variety of reasons for conversion and the fact Jews in the Palace hierarchy held on to their roles and could still advise the monarchs was very significant. He does come back to this during the events of 1491-92 but without the backstory, it is not quite coherent.

By the time of the expulsion, there were tens of thousands of conversos. Reston does a good job of discussing the fanning of flames that encourages the acts of atrocity against them (since all other Jewish people had been expelled). And, he makes a good case for how this focus on "a crusade to purify the world of heresy and idolatry" advanced the glory that Spain would have in the centuries to come.

He weaves a very interesting story of Christopher Columbus' years of lobbying the monarchs (for his expedition) into the overall story. Reston apparently had access to many source materials that allowed him to give us critical dialogue revealing the personalities of these major characters at critical points in history.

[Freda · Rating 1 out of 5]

From the attention given to the Jews of Spain and the inattention given to the Muslims, this book suggests that the Spanish inquisition only affected Jews. Over 41 pages are devoted to the sufferings of the Jews under Christian rule, but except for mentioning that after one major defeat, the Muslims were made slaves, the Moors/Muslims are mentioned only in terms of their fighting against Christian Spain, and their infighting among themselves.
Chapter One, titled “The Land of the Infidel” on one page talks about the “golden age of diversity in medieval Spain,” and then immediately talks of how the” Jewish population, numbering about 120,000, maintained good relations with the Christian kings of Castile. Under the rulers of the Almohades, the Jews had been repressed.” The last pages of this chapter contain a useful short history of the Inquisition from its beginnings in the 300’s until its most horrifying apex as the Spanish Inquisition. The rest of the book goes downhill from there.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were three big events in 1492 for Spain, and discovering the New World was, for the immediate future of the country at least, the least significant. The other two were the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand and the final expulsion of the Moors. This is a good book to read, even with it's sometimes overly dramatic tone, if only to counteract years of American high school "history" courses and their myopic inability to consider events outside the U.S. and how important they might have been.

[Jimmy Tarlau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting popular history book on the last part of the 15th Century that brings together the inquisition, the expelling of the Jews from Spain, the conquest of the Moors in Spain, and the launching of the Columbus expedition to find the New World. All in one two decade period. Jimmy Reston is the son of a well-known editorial writer for the NY Times.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written book that puts a perspective on the beginnings of the Inquisition and the Renaissance and the Discovery. It draws incredible connections, and lays the groundwork for a whole new understanding of those pivotal years when all of Western Civilization changed.

[Mr Shahabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why the world ends and begins is an act of one man against another.

The end of old America was the beginning of the new, history will always remember the magnificent changes that happened.

A great book with beautifully written history.

[Jody · Rating 3 out of 5]

--Loses momentum, but well-researched, very detailed information on Columbus, Los Reyes Catolicos, the Spanish Inquisition, the Moorish kingdom of Al Andulus & the expulsions.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The underlying theme of this book is the significance of the year 1492. James Reston Jr. points out that the three most important dates in American history are 1492, 1776 and 1865. Events occurring in the first year, however, were European in origin and therefore impacted more than America's history. This seminal year also had far-reaching consequences for Spanish, Jewish, and Arab history. Likewise, the voyages of Christopher Columbus did not occur within the neatly defined myths of traditional American creationism.

Reston makes the creation of Europe's first nation-state, Spain, compelling reading. The marriage of Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon finally united the fragmented north of Spain under one ruling family. The lower part of Southern Spain, Granada, was the remnant of the Moorish, Muslim kingdom which had dominated a large part of Spain for almost five hundred years, but had been gradually shrinking during that time. The priority of the new Spanish royal couple was to complete the reconquest, so that Spain would be an entirely Christian kingdom. Although pursuing this objective had undeniable religious reasons, it also would cement the tenuous hold the new monarchs had over the country by uniting the nobility throughout the far-flung kingdom through mutual participation in a goal that had been a dream of Spaniards for centuries.

The sovereigns turned to the Dominican Order to help them in their efforts to get control of Spain's nobility and citizenry. The Dominicans were known as the "Hounds of God", for their efforts in reining in Catholics from straying into impiety and heresy. The royals invited the Dominicans to bring the Inquisition to Spain. The Inquisition's main purpose was not to scare Christians as much as it was meant to terrorize converted Jews. During the late-fourteenth, early- fifteenth centuries, many Jews in Spain converted to Christianity following the 1391 massacres of Jews. Many of these "Conversos" and their descendants became very successful businessmen; Spain's intellectual and financial spheres were dominated by these converted Jews. Many Spaniards resented this influence, suspecting that the conversos were merely calling themselves Christians while practicing Judaism in secret. Reston describes how the Dominican Tomas De Torquemada, named Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, set up an organization using brutal torture methods against any Conversos denounced for religious impiety. The fanatic Torquemada's methods were topped by the use of Autos-da-fe, literally public spectacles of burning of heretics at the stake.

Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor, meanwhile, started to woo the Spanish royal court for funds to undertake a voyage of discovery by sailing far to the west in search of the riches of Cathay. As Reston states, Columbus's services in discovering an overseas empire for exploitation benefitted Spain at the expense of Portugal. At this time, Portugal was the leading European nation in finding new sailing routes along the coast of Africa for the purpose of accessing Asian trading markets. It was logical that an up-and-coming seafarer/explorer would gravitate to Portugal, and this was Columbus's proposed route to fame. He had some access to Lisbon's royal court through his marriage to a woman of minor Portuguese nobility. His notions of sailing across the sea westward to Cathay were met with skepticism, since the prevailing wisdom at the time was that the earth was divided into "Antipodes", which meant that sailing far enough into the Ocean Sea (the Atlantic Ocean) would place one into the far Antipode where wicked things could happen. Portugal, for practical reasons, was doing just fine at the time without the need to tempt fate with a westward journey of exploration, and Columbus left Portugal for Spain when King Joao II rejected his services.

Reston gives Columbus credit for his perseverance and ability to navigate in a Spain rife with religious persecution and holy war. He had presented his proposal for leading a state-sponsored sailing expedition through authorities but he had to cool his heels in Spain while more pressing issues were resolved. All of this waiting came to a head in the year 1492, when the Spanish prevailed against Granada. Grenada's Caliph, Boadbil (thereafter known as "The Unfortunate") was sent into exile while the Royals marched into the magnificance of the Alhambra. Muslims living in Granada were allowed to remain in Spain and practice their religion in freedom as long as they obeyed the law (within ten years, Spain's Muslims would be forced to choose expulsion or conversion while their Korans were destroyed in public book burnings, when a new Grand Inquisitor influenced Isabella to change her policies. This event, according to Reston, is just the sort of outrage which has fueled the Arab/Islamic world's sense of historical revenge for centuries).

Columbus received his funding for his expedition while the royal court was in session at the Alhambra. Meantime, paranoia in Spain whipped up by increasingly outrageous rumors of heresy and atrocities by Jews led to the 1492 royal edict ordering all Jews in the kingdom to convert or to leave the country within three months. Reston's point is that our national creation myth conveniently omits the knowledge that Columbus's first voyage to the New World was made possible by the successful war against Spain's Muslims and the expulsion of over 120,000 Jews on short notice.

Amid the hordes of Jewish refugees crowding roads to leave Spain by sea from the port of Cadiz, Columbus traveled to Palos to take possession of his fleet of three caravels. Reston gives an interesting account of the voyage and of the first contact with the Taino Indians who inhabited the newly-named West Indies. The Europeans were impressed with their friendliness, and especially with their women. Forty men were left behind in the New World to build a village called La Navidad from the ruins of the flagship Santa Maria, which had met with an accident (none were alive to greet Columbus on his return trip). Columbus returned to Europe with samples of foodstuffs, some gold obtained from the Indians, and a number of captives, including women and girls. Another "gift" from the New World to the Old was a disease carried by members of the crew who had had contact with Indian girls; it was soon named syphilis, and its first outbreak in Europe occurred in Barcelona in 1493.

Columbus was instantly famous. He was immediately conferred the title "Don Cristobol Colon, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, viceroy and governor of the lands he discovered", and was invited to the Royal Palace in Barcelona to be honored for his service to Spain. He described the wonders of the island of Hispaniola and Juana (Cuba), claiming that he had discovered a biblical land of gold, and Cipangu (Japan). His lack of contact with any great Asian cities or palaces, or with the Great Khan of Cathay were explained by his claim that he had only been to outlying islands of these countries in the time he had. He believed that Juana, if an island, could be the island that Marco Polo called Java.

All of this is to describe how the years 1492 and 1493 were the epitome of the life of Columbus, who previously had been a very minor character in this eventful era. The legitimacy of Spain's claim to the New World was in jeopardy of being preempted by Portugal. The Spanish royals were anxious for Columbus to lead a new expedition back to Hispaniola in order to protect their new holdings there. Legally, they appealed to the Vatican, the closest institution at the time to an international arbiting body since all European countries' state religion was Roman Catholic. Reston seems to relish that this question was settled by the "disgraceful Alexander VI", the "Borgia pope, the purchaser of the papacy, the Spanish swindler." During this pre-Reformation, scandalized Catholic church, the fix was in for Spain on this issue. A papal bull was issued which drew a line, north to south, across the globe partitioning the oceanic world between Spanish and Portuguese spheres of influence. Portugal, barred from interfering in Spain's New World turf, nevertheless supported this decision since the "right of first discovery" it was built on protected Portugal's current and future interests in Africa and India from Spanish meddling. This bull, and the later Treaty of Tordesillas between the two countries in 1494, ushered in the "Age of Empire" which created America and transformed Europe.

Columbus got his second voyage going in 1493 with a fleet of seventeen ships, sailing from Cadiz. This expedition was paid for by Isabella with funds confiscated from the Conversos. Columbus tried to bring 550 slaves back to Europe, but 200 died on the voyage. Reston notes that the diseases the Europeans brought to the New World, including smallpox, measles, bubonic plague, diptheria, influenza, yellow fever and typhoid eradicated entire Indian populations within two decades, including the Taino. Columbus' career soon also dissolved into greed. slavery, genocide and personal humiliation. The irony, as Reston notes, is that this litany of bad news would largely be forgotten in the popular memory of Columbus.

[Richard Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

DOGS OF GOD by: James Reston, Jr.

The author starts with a premise: 1492 is one of the most momentous years in recorded history and constructs his book with the separate histories of the great movements leading to 1500. That year, 1492, saw Spain at last complete its Reconquista by defeating the Moors' last holdout in Granada. Columbus discovered a New World. Finally, Ferdinand and Isabella, driven by a vision their mission was to Christianize the world, set out to purify Spain – expelling the Jews and remaining Islamists (breaking their earlier assurances of tolerance) and finally, cooperating with the Inquisition to root out heresy and false prophets among the Catholics. Ferdinand and Isabella had visions of fulfilling Christianity by cleansing Spain and retaking the Holy Land – thus bringing on The Second Coming and eternal Glory.

Meanwhile, Ferdinand found the Inquisition very helpful in collecting steep fines from the accused, but also for his determination to bring the unruly Spanish nobility under central control. Evidently, nothing frightens the imagination like the flames, screams and odors of a good old-fashioned auto de fe..

Columbus-- grandiose, confident, mystical and determined – had been tremendously persistent in pushing his case that a new world was just to the west. King Joao of Portugal heard Columbus out, refused his petition, and then promptly sent his own Portuguese admiral to try to do just what Columbus had proposed. The fleet was caught in a terrible storm and promptly turned back. Columbus was furious the way the Portuguese had double crossed him and took his offer to Spain, where he was heard by a slow-moving committee that couldn't make up its mind. Besides, Ferdinand and Isabella had other matters at hand: conquering Granada – held by wily and blood-thirsty Moors who won almost as many battles as they lost. But the Muslim leaders quarreled among themselves (kept betraying each other) and the Spanish were able to grind down their strongholds – one at a time.

Years would pass before Columbus would be heard again – until Isabella finally made her final decision: NO. Then she promptly changed her mind and sent riders out to chase down Columbus already on his way to France, and bring him back. Columbus was destined to make four trips but his most glorious moment was starting off on his second voyage. His career would be all downhill from there as expeditions were disfigured by greed, slavery, disease, genocide, shipwreck, disappointment and personal humiliation.

With spreading Christianity always on her mind, Isabella was most insistent that her explorers treat any natives they met with great kindness.
We all know how that turned out.


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Anyone interested in that period of history should also look at COLUMBUS: The Four Voyages by Laurence Bergreen. Highly recommended.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-fiction or factition? Hard to say because the author has written it as though he were a silent witness to all its events. How else would he know that someone's joy was 'momentary' or that he felt 'a wave of revulsion' (p. 231) or that someone 'quailed' or 'peered through the slats of his jalousies window'. I understand that adding such details is more engaging for some readers, but for me it raised the question of historicity on almost every page. When writing history, please leave the (imagined) feelings of the players out of the story unless you have a source. And this was another problem--no footnotes nor sources within the text. Streams of quotes but no leads to their source and a bibliography in the back of the book isn't sufficient.

That said, it's an easy and interesting read of a fascinating period in world history--the sort of book one might give an intellectually curious teenager to interest them to study history. Explorers, popes, kings & queens of Europe, adventurers, the Inquisition, battles, illegitimate heirs, even some sex...all good stuff.

So why the high rating of 3.5 stars, despite my concerns. Because there are some 'facts' (again, are they?) that I hadn't seen before--for example, that it was Bartholomew Dias who met Columbus when he returned from his first trip and made landfall first in Portugal before heading back to Spain. That Columbus had been lurking in the back rows of the court of King John II when Dias returned from rounding the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.... It is, as one reviewer wrote, admittedly "engaging and richly detailed", but caveat emptor.