This program explores what Bettany Hughes calls a ‘forgotten era” of European History. From 711 until 1492 the religion and culture of Islam played a very important role in the development of what might be called Early Modern Europe. Part 1 deals with the origins of Islamic society and its contact with, and influence on, Europe through the invasion and occupation of the Visigoth kingdom of southern Spain.

Join British historian Bettany Hughes as she examines a long-buried chapter of European history – the rise and fall of Islamic culture in what is now Spain and Portugal. Although generations of Spanish rulers have tried to expunge this era from the historical record, recent archaeology and scholarship now shed fresh light on the Moors who flourished in Al-Andalus for more than 700 years. Part 2 deals with the conflict between the Moors and medieval Christendom, the re-conquest of Al Andalus and the destruction of Muslim Spain.