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Book review: Catlos B.А. Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Muslim Spain. – Moscow: Medina ID, 2024. – 608 p.The Muslim period in the history of Spain is mostly associated with Moorish art and the brutal but just Reconquista that culminated with the fall of Muslim Granada. However, the book «Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Muslim Spain» by B. Catlos tells a very different story of the Muslim Spain known as al-Andalus. The author intends to offer a new vision of the Arab-Berber conquest of Spain with readers who might not be closely familiar with this period, focusing on the sociocultural interaction of the religious communities that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula at the time. The work combines well-known and little-known historical facts into a single narrative line that encapsulates nine centuries of Iberian history, from the Muslim conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom in 711 to the expulsion of the Moriscos (Muslims converted to Catholicism) from Spain in 1614. This is a review of a book that reconsiders common myths about the Arab-Muslim state of al-Andalus, Reconquista and the phenomenon of convivencia.

Three Greek inscriptions found in Mtskheta reveal interesting information about Ancient Iberian royal court. However, identification of each of the persons, especially the king, is quite problematic. Still, there are some possibilities to deal. King of Iberia is mentioned in all three inscriptions, one of them reveals his name fully, another one partially, while king’s name is lost in the third one, however, one passage may still give us some hints about his identity or at least about Roman aspirations of Iberian court. Queen Dracontis is known only from one inscription. As for the royal official — commander in-chief and the only minister of Iberian king Anagranes, he is mentioned in all three inscriptions, being himself the sponsor of all the constructions. The paper focuses more on the issue of identification of King Amazasp mentioned in these inscriptions and some other issues connected with the major topic.

The personality of Pacorus/Bakur the king of Lazi has become the subject of an interesting historiographic discussion in recent years. The discovery of a pitcher in Achmarda with the inscription “Ἐγὼ Πάκουρος ὁ βασιλεὺς τοῖς ἀ μνοῖς ἒδωκα” played a key role in stimulating discussion of this issue. There is every reason to believe that king Pacorus/Bakur played an active role in the events that occurred on the territory of Georgia in the third quarter of the 3rd century CE. We take into account the information provided in the “Scriptores Historiae Augustae”, on the facts of the discovery of Greek inscriptions on the signet from Zhinvali and on silver vessels from Gagra and Maikop, and also take into account the passage from “Life of Kartli”. There is every reason to believe that Pacorus/Bakur became king of Lazi at the behest of Antoninus Pius. The Lazi managed to unite the whole Western Georgia under their rule after half of a century. Pacorus/Bakur also supposedly participated in the power struggle in Iberia. The very fact of the discovery of a pitcher that attracted our attention suggests that Pacorus/Bakur controlled the area of modern Gagra.

The author of the article, based on the onomastic analysis of ancient Greek, Roman and Celtic myths, consisting of taxonomically different implications of the etymological and genetic unity of the Indo-European languages, continues to justify the hypothesis (that was raised at first in his book “Karuo – Iberian secret”) about the existence and interaction of two (Western and of Eastern) ancient Iberian cultures which became the forerunner of the European cultural conglomerate formation.

In the article the author analyses how the largest battle of the Great Patriotic War and the second World War, the Battle of Kursk, is shown in the west historiography: the intentions of the opposite sides, the degree of preparation to the coming battle, the correlation between number of people and military machines, the realization of decreed tasks, the peculiarities of strategy and moving fighting forces for the battle, the mistakes of German side which were the result of defeat. There are some arguments that the foundation for the forming ideas of western historians about the events on the Soviet German front in summer 1943 is in the workings of captured German generals and officers which were prepared by the task of military – historical service of US army. The workings played the important ideological and methodological role. Trying to excuse themselves these authors explained the defeat of Wehrmacht using some accidental factors which were not connected with their activity as military leaders. In particular there were some mistakes of the highest German political and military leadership, climatic and geographical peculiarities of the war in Russia. In the article the controversial battle Western historians, forms, methods and means of falsification of history and the role of the battle; exposure technique attempts to distort the essence of the events and the outcome of the battle.

Presently in collective consciousness there was a steady perception of Spain as the safe state entering into group of the countries, being a support of the European integration. The impression was made that Spain, despite difficulties of its historical development, at last found the national identity, having created from regions and national lands making it the new multicultural community fastened in a whole by a tolerant, educated and authoritative monarchy. However the world economic crisis which has begun in 2008 destroyed the Spanish idyll, having aggravated old and having generated new contradictions. Traditionally painful problem for Spain was existence of centrifugal tendencies at the heart of which two main reasons lay: manifestations of the nationalism peculiar to those areas where Catalan, Basque and Galician nationalities historically lived, and a regionalism caused by aspiration of local elite to bigger distance from Madrid. Considering features of pre-Roman history of Spain, the author seeks to understand, whether sources of modern separatism can originate in an extreme antiquity. Following the results of research the conclusion is drawn that most boldly "link of times" is traced on the example of Basques, the part of which intellectual elite seeks to use features of origin and historical development of these people for a reinforcement of current nationalist and separatist trends. The author considers that the history has to serve as the bridge between the people, instead of put up between them a new wall.