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This novel by Tariq Ali is the first book in the “Islam Quintet, a series of stand alone novels based on different periods of Islamic history. Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree takes place in Granada, Al Andalous, Spain 1499, a time when when the Castilian Christians had just taken over Granada, the last of the Arab-Muslim cities. Anyone familiar with this time in history will know that these stories will always be sad. Under "Moorish" rule Christians and Jews were allowed to freely practice their religions. When Isabelle and Ferdinand took over they signed an agreement that the Muslims and Jews would still be allowed to practice their religions, however within a short period they began persecuting all non-Christians, banning not only their religions, but Arabic and Hebrew languages as well as their dress and customs, (such as bathing). The Jews and Muslims had a choice to either leave or convert. These people had called Spain their home for 800 years. For many moving was not an option, however converting also did not solve their problems. New Christian converts known as "Conversos" were looked upon with suspicion and ultimately were subjected to torture until they confessed that they only converted to save their skin. It was a no win situation and this is the situation in which we find the characters in this book. The story focuses on the Banu Hudayl, an old Arab-Muslim family that has lived in the countryside of Granada for 800 years. The Hudayl family chooses neither to convert or leave. Aside from the characters, Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree is basically a retelling of actual historical events and from this angle it's an excellent way to deepen ones knowledge about this time period. It is also clear that Ali's purpose is to show how things change in history. While nowadays many in the West view Islam and Muslim countries are being backward and fanatic, this was not always the case. At the time of the reconquest it was the Christians who were backward and fanatic and Islam was definitely the more progressive religion. One of my few complaints about this novel would be that the author does this in a rather heavy handed way. The Spanish are depicted as inhuman monsters and the Arabs are depicted as being so tolerant and liberal it seemed over the top. In particular their attitude towards sex seemed unbelievable. An example would be a young women who wants to sleep with her fiancé before their marriage and the mother actually walks in on them and is not upset. Another example would be the young man confesses both to his fiancé and her father that he'd previously had a sexual relationship with another man and both father and daughter react fine with it. The father only wants to be sure that the young man really loves his daughter. I was going to write this off to the authors imagination, but then spoke to an acquaintance who is a professor of medieval Arab history. The professor confirmed than in Muslim Spain depending on which period they actually were quite liberal sexually and there is a lot of erotic poetry and literature confirming it. From what I've been researching same sex relations were also not uncommon, so I guess this was not Tariq Ali's wishful thinking! There was one incident involving incest that was off putting for me, so much that it prevented me from enjoying the novel as I should have. This is too bad because the characters are not even very relevant to the story and could have been left out entirely.