Un mar verde y púrpura

When, at the dawn of the 7th century, Muhammad began the Muslim era, the balance of power in the ancient Mare Nostrum was profoundly altered. The Byzantine Empire, until then the undisputed naval and territorial power of the Mediterranean, was forced to coexist with the thriving Islamic power. Al-Andalus, in the west, and Byzantium, in the east, are the extreme shores of a sea crossed by religious confrontation, but also by the exchange of ideas, trips, embassies and common experiences. With the help of Carlos Martínez, an expert in the Byzantine world and its connections with Islam, we will glimpse, through the haze of historical sources, the fascinating panorama of the Andalusian and Byzantine worlds at the end of the Early Middle Ages, and we will discover their relationships. We will learn about the adventure of the Andalusians who founded an emirate in Alexandria and then conquered Crete, we will sail in embassies bound for Córdoba and Constantinople, we will meet travelers eager for knowledge such as Ibn Habib and Leo the Philosopher and we will witness the social turbulence that shook the two powerful states. All of this, along with other scenes, will weave the suggestive tapestry of an equally captivating and complex time and place.