Paul Alvarus Analysis

The sources written by Paul Alvarus detail the city of Cordoba during the Islamic rule from the perspective of the Christian community. In the first excerpt, Alvarus details the supposed diminishing Christian collective and proclaims his distain of the mixing between Western and Eastern cultures. Following this, Alvarus gives a biographical description of his friend Eulogius and his journey towards martyrdom. Given that Alvarus is a Christian he provides a unique and often unsettling account of the Islamic rule in Medieval Spain. Considering the writing and subject material that he discusses it is assumed that Alvarus was a layman, yet a “man of letters.” Other than this, there is little that can be known of Paul Alvarus. However, there is one major contention that has the possibility to call the credibility of

Alvarus impress an impending doom but he also creates an atmosphere of inferiority to the Islamic culture; proving he values the homogenous culture over the multicultural society. This is evident in his description of the “Gentile lore”, denoting a lesser or pointless knowledge. In consideration of truth, it is true that the Christian society was becoming acquainted with the Arabic culture, However, it is most likely a theological view point of Alvarus, and many other contemporaries, that the mixing of these cultures and the prevalence of the Arabic culture would threaten any individuals ability to communicate in the