The writer José Luis Serrano presents “La Alhambra de Salomón”

The Alhambra is the setting for the new novel by the University of Granada Law Professor, José Luis Serrano. La Alhambra de Salomón (Solomon’s Alhambra) is the title of a book that recounts the vicissitudes of two characters joined by love, who promote the building of a Jewish palace on the site where the Alhambra now stands.
The main characters are Samuel Negrela, a Jew who escapes from the burning city of Cordoba, going first of all to Malaga and later to Granada; and Ilbia, the young daughter of a Christian who had converted to Islam. The two share many things that bring them together and in particular their love of scholarship and knowledge, and their mastery of languages and other disciplines ranging from mathematics to the arts.
While telling the story, José Luis Serrano also paints a picture of life at that time with all the cruelty of battles and the sacking of cities. Viewed from our vantage point a thousand years hence, it is striking that this society populated by Muslims Jews and Christians of different tendencies had such a love of art and pleasures, as is the relationship that women had with the sciences and the arts.