culture as dead certainly, but that civilization in general does not acknowledge Arabic contributions to it, choosing instead to portray Arabs and Moslems with the most belittling of stereotypes. L'Amour obviously wants to correct those false and malicious impressions and replace them with what he sees as the truth.
The protagonist's first important mention of Arabic, or Moorish culture, is not coincidentally related to his father. The reader learns immediately that the son has absorbed the father's appreciation for the Arabic culture:
My father's house had been filled with treasures looted from eastern ships, and often he had spoken of the life in Moorish Spain where I longed to go. . . . My father had brought from Moorish Spain a love of beauty and cleanliness. . . . The old Crusaders learned a little, but merchants and minstrels had picked up the Moori
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