As a foreigner I am always interested in the local history of a place, and the more I read about the place, the more I am interested in knowing more of its history. Something like that occurred while I was investigating the history of the village of Blanca which lies in the Ricote Valley of the province of Murcia. I couldn’t get further than to 1243, but of course the castle of Blanca had been constructed around 1170, which means that there is more history of this village. It is necessary to write about the history of the kingdom of Murcia (Tudmir) to have an idea of what the history and way of life in Blanca was like. Just as a stone flung into the water becomes the centre and cause of
different circles. Here the centre is Tudmir and the circle is Blanca.
Painting of Eugène Alexis Girardet (1853-1907)
I wanted to start writing something about Blanca in English, thus I naturally have to start with the Muslim history of the region of Murcia. Logically speaking, I am not the right person to write the Muslim history of the region of Murcia, because I am not an Arabist. This is more the work of Dr. Alfonso Carmona Gonzalez, Dr. Robert Pocklington, Dr. María Arcas Campoy, Dr. Emilio Molina López, Dr. Pilar Garrido Clemente, Dr. Pablo Beneito, Dr. Antonio Vicente Frey Sánchez, Dr. Victoria Aguilar, and others.
Anyway, many of us are not manufacturers of wine, but we are able to review and choose good wines. The same applies to me: I am not an Arabist, but I can comment on Arab history of Murcia. On the other hand there is a Dutch saying that makes sense here: "Hard work beats talent when talent does not work hard."
What I have seen in books on the history of Muslim Murcia does not convince me. Where I expected to see at least 20 volumes in Spanish on Muslim history of this region I must confess that I feel disappointed, since there are not many volumes. Despite the existence of thousands of articles (in Spanish, French, English, German, and Arabic) dealing with Arab history of the Region of Murcia it is frustrating to see that so far nobody has undertaken this important step, at least as far as I know.
Needless to say, I hope that my next book will stimulate the Government of Murcia to make available the necessary funds for this important project. Hopefully this study will awaken the savants too, because the region of Murcia is still a territory of sages.
