Word: guedalla
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Concentrating on Spain, Anti-Historian Philip Guedalla reverses history by awarding Boabdil, the Moorish King of Granada, the victory in his battle with Ferdinand and Isabella at Lanjaron in 1491. Actually, Ferdinand and Isabella won, expelled the Moors, and, for good measure, drove away Spain's Jews under the threat of forced conversion. Spain thus was depleted of most of its learning, most of its artisans and half of its cultural inheritance...
...Guedalla's universe, Granada continues to thrive as a great center of civilization, encompassing most of Spain. After its annexation of Morocco in the 17th century, it takes its place as a formidable European power. Granada is sporadically allied with England, but by 1865 the two countries nearly go to war, the author roguishly reports. Why? Because the poet Swinburne, who in real life had curious difficulties with the opposite sex, is killed while adventuring in the royal seraglio. The scandal is smoothed over, however, partly because of the good feeling left by the fervently pro-Moorish writings...
...Philip II of Spain. Such history tinkering, though, can go on forever. Suppose Don John and Mary had established a Catholic England. Would cross-Channel Calvinism have undermined it eventually? Suppose Luther had been unable to find a nail in Wittenberg for all those theses. Or better, suppose Guedalla's Boabdil had crossed the Pyrenees and swept through France, creating a Moorish Europe. Might there be mosques in Manchester today...