A slight detour from Rulers, Religion, and Riches took me to Brian Catlos’ Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain. I’ve enjoyed Catlos’ work before, and he has an engaging narrative style. His books are quick reading and I recommend them, incuding his monographs.
But, there is always a weird aspect to his work and analysis that has always struck me: his overall narrative often works at cross-purposes with specific assertions he makes in passing. As an example, Catlos rightly points out that in Spain under the rule of the Muslim Arabs particular and specific religious confession was not a major issue, since most people lived lives not dominated by religion. But as you keep reading you notice that the overall arc of history is strongly shaped by confessional identities.