Elizabeth Drayson se specializuje na středověkou a raně novověkou španělskou literaturu a kulturní historii, se zvláštním zájmem o arabskou, židovskou a křesťanskou kulturu středověkého a zlatého věku Španělska. Její publikace se zabývají vztahem mezi středověkou literaturou, uměním a filmem a zkoumají témata jako je legenda o posledním vizigótském králi Španělska a kulturní status záhadných olověných knih z Granady. Věnuje se také dopadu sedmi staletí muslimské nadvlády ve Španělsku, jak je popsáno v jejím posledním díle o posledním granadském králi.
The book was published in Great Britain in 2017 by Profile Books Ltd, indicating its relevance to contemporary themes and discussions. It likely explores modern issues or narratives that resonate with readers today, reflecting the cultural and social context of its time.
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.
An illustrated account of the historical city of Granada for the Anglophone world.
Hailed as early Christian texts as important as the Dead Sea Scrolls, yet condemned by the Vatican as Islamic heresies, the Lead books of Granada, written on discs of lead and unearthed on a Granadan hillside, weave a mysterious tale of duplicity and daring set in the religious crucible of sixteenth-century Spain.