As I watched two Spaniards hotly debate yesterday what year 711 meant for their culture, I realized that it’s not possible for my people. We didn’t have much culture going at that time.
In 1605, when Cervantes published the first part of Don Quijote, we didn’t have anybody who published anything.
…this is ridiculous. Or a joke. Or are you feeling particularly Ukranian today?
I’m barely familiar with the topic of medieval philosophy and literature, but Maimonides was easily a continent-level figure, beating Cervantes to “publishing anything” by about 400 years, and while I risk wandering into the jaws of a monster saying this, I’m pretty sure that Spain was full of jewish translators, philosophers and poets even before then.
“Full” in terms of the medieval age, at least. Needing to wait half a century between someone genuinely interesting popping up was pretty much the norm.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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