Much of modern Spain was under Muslim control for nearly 800 years (from 711 to 1492 C.E.). Medieval Islamic Spain was deeply influential in world events, for a multitude of reasons, including the rediscovery, translation, and dissemination of the lost works of medicine, science, and philosophy of the ancient Greeks, which helped set the stage for the European Renaissance. The Muslim Umayyads (with roots tracing back to Syria) were great lovers of books and learning. An exceptional period of peaceful coexistence during the 10th and 11th centuries between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam occurred under Umayyad rule, providing a powerful lesson in multiculturalism for our 21st century. Together, the three traditions helped launch a remarkable and enduring cultural revolution.
Merchants of Iniquity is the fourth and final release in the Anthems of al-Andalus Series, which breaks open this largely forgotten and fascinating history for modern readers. All four historical novels revolve around love stories set at pivotal moments in the history of medieval Islamic Spain. Merchants of Iniquity is a sequel to Fortune’s Lament and is set 120 years after Emeralds of the Alhambra. The heroine and hero of Fortune’s Lament, Danah and Yusef, are trapped in the middle of the bloody war between Granada and Christian Spain. The surrender of the Alhambra Palace in 1492 marks the end of the storied history of Islamic Spain, and precipitates the tragic Sephardic diaspora, as well as the fateful voyage of Columbus to claim the Americas.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING:
“This impressive work by Cressler ticks all the boxes for a great historical novel. His extensive research and vivid interpretation of the 15th century battle for power between the Christians and the Moors in southern Spain keeps the reader gripped until the very last page.”
—Joan Fallon, author of the al-Andalus Series, Málaga, Spain
“[Cressler] creates an incredibly touching world in which love and loyalty become visceral, and even mystical, through the deep and complex relationships that he helps us to experience between family, friends, and community as he reveals layer by layer what it means to lead, to serve, and to care about the people and places that surround us.”
—Jackie Royster, Dean Emerita of the Ivan Allen College, Georgia Tech
“Cressler’s nuanced portrayal of these dynamic individuals, together with his masterful use of dramatic irony, invites deep empathy and sparks an achingly unrealistic hope that things might end—or, in this case, might have ended—differently.”
―Julia Baumgardt, Marian University
John D. Cressler is Regents Professor, Schlumberger Chair Professor in Electronics, and Ken Byers Teaching Fellow in Science and Religion at Georgia Tech. He is the author of five non-fiction books, as well as the historical novels Emeralds of the Alhambra, Shadows in the Shining City, and Fortune’s Lament. Merchants of Iniquity is the fourth and final release in the Anthems of al-Andalus Series. Visit the author at: http://johndcressler.com.
Page Count: 702
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Publish Date: May 25, 2024
Imprint: Milford House
Genre: Historical
FICTION / Historical / Medieval
FICTION / Romance / Historical / Medieval
FICTION / Religious
You might also like ...
-
$16.95Before the US Constitution defined the role of ...Before the US Constitution defined the role of the President of the United States as the chief executive, fourteen men filled the role of President of the United States in Congress Assembled. Thoug...
-
$19.95by Rebecca Titchner Two sisters who never met. ...by Rebecca Titchner Two sisters who never met. Two decades of intimate journals. One tragic ending. A Ghost Comes Calling tells of one woman's journey to understand herself, her birth family, and ...
-
$9.99What should we do when we feel lonely? Everyone...What should we do when we feel lonely? Everyone feels lonely sometimes, and it can be difficult to navigate that feeling. The Emotion Monster series features the challenging, yet likeable characte...
-
$9.99What should we do when we feel jealous? Everyon...What should we do when we feel jealous? Everyone feels jealous sometimes, and it can be difficult to navigate that feeling. The Emotion Monster series features the challenging, yet likeable charac...
-
$9.99What should we do when we feel angry? Everyone ...What should we do when we feel angry? Everyone feels angry sometimes, and it can be difficult to navigate that feeling. The Emotion Monster series features the challenging, yet likable characters ...
-
$19.95“We are vessels ... and sometimes we have to em...“We are vessels ... and sometimes we have to empty them.” For years, Jhana has traveled the country in search of the stories of people from all walks of life had to tell. Now, after more than a dec...
-
$11.95by Carol Vento War begets unlikely pairings. In...by Carol Vento War begets unlikely pairings. In the shadow of World War I, Carol Schultz Vento’s father, Arthur Dutch Schultz, was born to two military veterans. In the immediate aftermath of World...
-
$19.95The Forbidden Powers - Book 3 Seven years have ...The Forbidden Powers - Book 3 Seven years have passed since the destruction of the Cup of Power and the defeat of Darvor’s armies. Life has gone on for Jonny, but he has not freed himself of the pa...
-
$9.99What should we do when we feel frustrated? Eve...What should we do when we feel frustrated? Everyone feels frustrated sometimes, and it can be difficult to navigate that feeling. The Emotion Monster series features the challenging, yet likeable...
-
$9.99What should we do when we feel sad? Everyone fe...What should we do when we feel sad? Everyone feels sad sometimes, and it can be difficult to navigate that feeling. The Emotion Monster series features the challenging, yet likeable characters fir...
-
$22.95In the railroad city of Altoona, Pennsylvania, ...In the railroad city of Altoona, Pennsylvania, 19-year-old Frank Davis straddles the cusp of manhood in the tumultuous year of 1966. His tranquil lower middle-class neighborhood, adorned with stree...
-
$22.95The Timothy House Chronicles: Book Two Through ...The Timothy House Chronicles: Book Two Through a Dark Valley, Book Two in The Timothy House Chronicles, continues the story of Abbie Richardson and Keith Haliday—two individuals who have suffered i...
-
$27.95From Pearl Harbor to Midway In November 1940, A...From Pearl Harbor to Midway In November 1940, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, told Prime Minister Prince Konoye, “If I am forced to wage war with the Un...
-
$16.95From the twisted mind of horror master Thomas M...From the twisted mind of horror master Thomas M. Malafarina comes the eighth short story collection in his Malaformed Realities series, appropriately entitled Malaformed Realities Volume 8. With th...
-
$16.95From the twisted mind of horror master Thomas ...From the twisted mind of horror master Thomas M. Malafarina comes the seventh short story collection in his Malaformed Realities series, appropriately entitled Malaformed Realities Volume 7. With...
-
$16.95Finding and Losing the Love of My Life in Six S...Finding and Losing the Love of My Life in Six Short Years What if you came home one day and found your husband dead in his favorite chair? This grief memoir explores the author’s experience of the ...
-
$19.95It is the author’s opinion that it is not an ex...It is the author’s opinion that it is not an exaggeration to say that if anyone wishes to experience one of those rare moments of true happiness that occurs in a lifetime, they should go to the mai...
-
$16.95by Carol Vento Carol Schultz Vento recounts the...by Carol Vento Carol Schultz Vento recounts the post-World War II years of her famous father "Dutch" Schultz. "Carol Schultz Vento's testimonial and others like it do not diminish the wartime gener...
-
$9.99What happens when the team goalie gets stuck in...What happens when the team goalie gets stuck in the net during the ice hockey championship game? In the book Stuck! the characters work towards a common goal- helping their goalie get unstuck from ...
-
$22.95- Four women, four stories, and a chance encoun...- Four women, four stories, and a chance encounter that changes everything. Still reeling from a recent breakup, Demi, a Greek-American banquet manager, joins her mother, aunt, and cousin on a trip...
-
$22.95~ The Accountant's Apprentice III ~ “One of the...~ The Accountant's Apprentice III ~ “One of the passengers waiting for a bus . . . said the area . . . was empty. She looked away for a few seconds. When she looked back, he was sitting there in h...
-
$11.95A Story of the West Among the Tribes The Young ...A Story of the West Among the Tribes The Young Frontiersman Book 4 Young Revolutionary War veteran Barnabas Locke makes winter camp in an isolated canyon in the Colorado wilderness, finding pictogr...
-
$11.95A Story of the Great Plains The Young Frontiers...A Story of the Great Plains The Young Frontiersman Book 3 In spring 1782, young Revolutionary War veteran Barnabas Locke and his Abenaki friend, the visionary Squando, reunite to cross the Mississi...
-
$19.95In 1982 Soviet-controlled Poland—a time and pla...In 1982 Soviet-controlled Poland—a time and place of suspicion and mistrust—when geopolitical forces and violent men descend upon her little town of Zygmuntowo, Emilia must decide if she’s willing ...
-
$19.95- The Newly Revealed T206 Baseball Card Collect...- The Newly Revealed T206 Baseball Card Collection of Thomas Edison's Youngest Son Thomas Edison was a long-time baseball fan. In his younger years, he once proclaimed, he could have named the play...
-
$19.95In offering a second volume of Pennsylvania mou...In offering a second volume of Pennsylvania mountain legends and folktales to the reading public, the author does so with a note of appreciation to all who found the first volume of legends of inte...
-
$11.95A Story of the Ohio Country The Young Frontiers...A Story of the Ohio Country The Young Frontiersman Book 2 War-seasoned young Barnabas Locke arrives at Harris’s Ferry, where he does business with John Harris II, as a trader of goods going into th...
-
$34.95This is the riveting, brutally honest story of ...This is the riveting, brutally honest story of a man’s struggle to make something of himself in the theater. Coming from meager circumstances in the Ozark Mountains, he fights his way up the shaky ...
-
$27.951838 St. Petersburg, Russia’s Window to the Wes...1838 St. Petersburg, Russia’s Window to the West. Thirteen-year-old tomboy Rian Krieger has run away to Russia to help her uncle and cousin build a railroad for Tsar Nicholas I. But there’s a probl...
-
$19.95Prose Edda Book 3 An Earl with godly ambitions....Prose Edda Book 3 An Earl with godly ambitions. A Viking warrior. A scheme, decades in the making. The heart of the Ironwood, a mysterious forest, has been pillaged and replaced with a mine. Hrothg...
-
$22.95On the night of March 17, 1934, in a small town...On the night of March 17, 1934, in a small town in rural Pennsylvania, a man crept to a window and shot a woman through her heart. Her name was Susan Mummey, but she was better known as the Witch o...
-
$11.95A Story of the Revolutionary War The Young Fron...A Story of the Revolutionary War The Young Frontiersman Book 1 It is 1777, early in the Revolutionary War, when fleet young Barnabas Locke runs against an hourglass to become a courier in Captain W...
-
$34.95On December 1st, 1784, along a cold and wintry ...On December 1st, 1784, along a cold and wintry Fourth Street in Philadelphia, Major William Trent sputtered his last breath surrounded by friends and family and soon became forgotten in history. Th...
-
$9.99The Northern Appalachia Review is an annual pub...The Northern Appalachia Review is an annual publication making a place for the under-recognized literature of its region. The editors identify northern Appalachia as the Appalachia counties of Ohio...
-
$16.95The Playwrights Alliance of Pennsylvania, or PA...The Playwrights Alliance of Pennsylvania, or PAPA, for short, was spear-headed by the late Marjorie Bicknell and incorporated on June 20, 2008. Shortly after incorporation, the group began to hold ...
-
$19.95The Life and Times of the Author of Ben Hur -- ...The Life and Times of the Author of Ben Hur -- An analytical and deeply rich historical biography of a great American author who is little known or remembered today. Lew Wallace, a fascinating and...
-
$19.95of the New York Yankees Mike Burke arguably led...of the New York Yankees Mike Burke arguably led one of the most interesting lives in twentieth century America. It seems that it was his destiny to have a rendezvous with history at every turn in ...
-
$16.95A Memoir Beyond Barron, the second volume of a ...A Memoir Beyond Barron, the second volume of a memoir initiated by the publication of Back to Barron (in 2008), encompasses captivating humor and telling detail to narrate the story of author Van T...
-
$24.95The Islands of Chincoteague and Assateague are ...The Islands of Chincoteague and Assateague are travel destinations like no other. NEW EDITION FOR 2024 Many visit these islands on Virginia’s Eastern Shore to see the wild ponies made famous by th...
-
$24.95The Plot to Destroy America ~~~ America’s leade...The Plot to Destroy America ~~~ America’s leaders and pundits have long warned that China is the West’s greatest threat to its democratic and economic survival. This is the central theme upon which...
-
$22.95A Connor Stark Novel. Connor Stark, a former ...A Connor Stark Novel. Connor Stark, a former US Navy officer, is head of private maritime security company Highland Maritime Defense and is in the cross-hairs in Claude Berube’s second geopolitic...
-
$22.95A Connor Stark Novel. Connor Stark was a pari...A Connor Stark Novel. Connor Stark was a pariah, a former naval officer whose career came to an unceremonious end after a court-martial resulted in a dishonorable discharge. As head of a private ...
-
$19.95The authors have combed the Mid-Atlantic region...The authors have combed the Mid-Atlantic region, including Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and Washington, DC, to write about and visit the graves of some of the most horren...
-
$19.95Biographies of Famous People Buried in Pennsylv...Biographies of Famous People Buried in Pennsylvania Joe Farrell, Joe Farley, and Lawrence Knorr are back with more interesting biographies and unusual tombstones. Included in this volume: Dick All...
-
$24.95Richard Peters was one of the most important of...Richard Peters was one of the most important officials in colonial Pennsylvania. In the employ of the Penns, Peters was at different times Secretary of the Land Office, Secretary of the Province, a...
-
$14.95Benjon Quimby, an indentured servant to farmer ...Benjon Quimby, an indentured servant to farmer Jonas Baumheit, heads with his master to a new settlement west of the Susquehanna near the newly built Fort Granville (now Lewistown, Pa.). Soon the p...
-
$22.95Thomas Edison Turns Two Thomas Edison didn’t in...Thomas Edison Turns Two Thomas Edison didn’t invent baseball any more than Abner Doubleday did. But his interest in the game might hold the key to unlocking a surprising secret. The Deadball Era wa...
-
$22.95Cranky, aging newspaper publisher Anne Canfield...Cranky, aging newspaper publisher Anne Canfield is determined to live forever, no matter what. Young, brilliant writer and teacher Indira Anand thinks she wants to die. But the winter morning Anne ...
-
$16.95I scream red . . . for a secret passage to air:...I scream red . . . for a secret passage to air: Willow Grove Mine cries out in a poem in the aftermath of a gaseous explosion that claimed the lives of 72 coal miners, devastating a community in So...
Recently Viewed Products
In “Merchants of Iniquity” you will find a work with great depth of character development and emotions, as well as many battle scenes. Cressler’s work is the fourth and final in his series describing Spain in the eight hundred years preceding the voyage of Columbus. He paints a picture that is vivid and personal, delving into the relationships between and among Muslims, Jews, and Christians in medieval Spain. The Anthems of Al-Andalus series is filled with love, strife, and violence. You will see parallels with our world today. This is NOT a book you will be able to put down.
Author John Cressler has done it again! In this final installment in his Anthems of al-Andulus anthology, he presents the events that led to the ending of Muslim influence in 15th century Spain. This is a rousing adventure tale based on little-known history that is filled with stirring battlefield action, court and religious intrigue, passionate love, and historical perspective. A page-turner that will totally capture your attention. At the end you will have the double treat of having been entertained and educated! In this time of world-wide conflict amongst Christians, Jews and Muslims, this book and its three predecessors gives readers insight into today's biases and prejudices that goes back at least one thousand years. Not to be missed!
John Cressler’s energy to believe in a better world is admirable. Once again, he exposed this with his book “Merchants of Iniquity”, in the Anthem of Andalus series: love stories set at peaceful coexistence between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, under Muslim rule in Medieval Spain.
Many of us, Europeans believed “the second world war” would be the last one. Nevertheless, disaster struck again: since February 2022 the war in Ukraine and since last year the war in Gaza. Furthermore, Islam in Europe is increasingly viewed with distrust, often referred to as “political Islam”. There is an increasing sense of crisis and conflict in Europe. It appears that many Christians are unable to resolve disputes with Islam and vice versa. Moreover, the ugly face of anti-Semitism is back again.
John couldn’t create a better moment to share his new book. Although in discussions, I experienced, often people viewed this period of peace and prosperity in Medieval Spanish, when the Islam was in power, as a “fairytale”. Well, let it be a fairytale. Often a love story helps us to understand history; and maybe to understand Medieval Islamic Spain, as both a political Islam, and a period of spiritual well-being. The Muslim Umayyads were great lovers of books and learning. Although Islamic Spain came to an end with the surrender of the Alhambra palace in 1492. Additionally, it resulted in the tragic Sephardi diaspora.
I have faith that John Cressler’s books can provide us with a different perspective to contribute to better understanding in Europe and prevent further violence. We welcome any new insight.
Hugo, Belgium, Europe.
Customer Reviews