It is with the greatest of pleasure
that I welcome Historical Fiction author, Joan Fallon, on to the blog. Joan is going totell us about her
inspirations behind her fabulous book…
The Shining City
This is the story of a
city, a city that is now in ruins: Madinat al Zahra. The year is 947 AD,
a time when southern Spain is under the rule of the Moors. The ruler, Caliph al
Rahman III is rich, powerful and cultured. His lands are, at long last, at
peace and the capital, Córdoba, is considered to
be not only the most beautiful city in the civilised world but also the seat of
learning and culture. Against this background we meet the artisan Qasim -
he and his family have moved to Madinat al Zahra to make their fortune as
potters. Qasim is a good husband and father. He works hard, says his
prayers and keeps out of trouble. But Qasim has a secret; his past is not
what it seems. When a stranger arrives asking questions about him, he is
worried that his secret will be discovered and everything he has worked for
will be destroyed. He has to take action.
Author’s Inspiration
The
first book in my historical fiction series, The al-Andalus trilogy, is called
‘The Shining City.’ It is a novel based
on the story of a family of Moorish artisans—potters—who lived in the 10th
century in southern Spain, only a short distance from where I am living now.
Since moving to Spain I had become fascinated with the country’s Moorish
heritage and long considered writing a book set at some point during the 700
years of their occupation. The reason I
was inspired to write this particular story was because, back in 2000, I picked
up a leaflet about an exhibition of Umayyad art that was to be held in a place
called Madinat al-Zahra, just outside the city of Córdoba.
The Umayyads were the rulers of the Muslim world until the 8th century
and rulers of Spain after that for almost 250 years. The exhibition was
excellent but I was more impressed by the site they had chosen for it: Madinat
al-Zahra. This was the ruins of a palace/city built by Abd al-Rahman III just
after he proclaimed himself Caliph of al-Andalus—the name that was given to
present day Andalusia. The city was reputed
to have been the most wonderful in the western world and covered the entire
hillside—25,000 men worked on constructing it.
Abd al-Rahman III himself had 400 rooms in the palace. It was filled with marble and gold, exquisite
engravings and silk hangings, a palace fit for a caliph. It was said that 800 loaves of bread were
used each day just to feed the fish in the fountains and lakes. And what was
even more fascinating to me was the length of time that the city was in
existence. Work was started on it in the
year 936 AD and only 70 years later it was already abandoned, and falling into
decay. For the next thousand years it
was looted, its beautiful buildings broken down and used as building
materials—you can find pillars and masonry from the city incorporated
in the building of neighbouring cities, including Málaga—until it was as it is today, a
ruin. This is the place that inspired my novel.
I
have always been interested in social history and so decided to write the story
of a Moorish family of artisans who had gone to Madinat al-Zahra to work but
before I could start I had to learn something of what life was like, not just
in that city but in Moorish Spain in the 10th century. It was a time known as The Golden Age, a
period of peace and stability, with a culture and civilisation far beyond the
rest of Europe. The more I read, the
more I became impressed with the achievements of those early Moorish conquerors
and was surprised to learn that the women of the time had much more freedom,
education and rights than one might imagine.
The
title of the novel comes from the Arab word, Zahra which means brilliant or
shining. Considering the amount of gold
and precious metals used in the construction of the palace, it seemed
appropriate to call my novel ‘The Shining City.’
But
the inspiration didn’t stop there because I soon became aware that not only did
the city itself fall into decay but the Umayyad dynasty was destined to end
within two generations. Abd-Rahman III’s son and heir was homosexual and it was
thought he would never produce an heir. The incredible story of how he was
manipulated into producing two sons forms the basis of the second book in the
trilogy. It is very true that truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction.
Links for Purchase
About the author
Born
in Scotland, Joan Fallon has always wanted to be a writer. Books are her
passion and she grew up reading everything she could get her hands on. Although
writing was always a major part of her work, both as a teacher and later, as a
management consultant and trainer, it wasn’t until ten years ago that she had
the opportunity to devote herself to being a novelist. It was when she moved to
Spain that she decided that the time had come to take her writing seriously.
She enrolled in an Open University course in Creative Writing - the same
university where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Open in the early
eighties - and hasn’t stopped writing since. Because her working
life, during the 1970s and through to the nineties, was that of a woman
struggling for recognition in a man’s world, almost all her books have a strong
female protagonist. She writes mainly about women and the challenges they have
to face because she understands them best. She also likes to write about the
past, but not kings and queens, rather the social fabric of society. To date she has written four
historical novels, five contemporary novels and one book of non-fiction. Joan
is a member of the Society of Authors and the Alliance of Independent Authors.
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See you on your next coffee break!
Take Care,
Mary Anne xxx