This collection of essays by seven highly respected scholars is a straightforward narrative of real world--intellectual, commercial, spiritual, philosophical, scientific, esthetic--creative engagement among Jews, Muslims, and some Christians in daily life in Spain and around the Mediterranean. History as Prelude is a major contribution to the Israeli-Arab peace process because it undermines--in fact, blows away--the efforts of propagandists who serve governments or political movements to negate the reality of the Arab-Jewish relationship in the medieval Mediterranean. The contributors, in unassuming, well-researched scholarship have erected a wall protecting historical reality from distortion, providing irrefutable--and often delightful--examples of creative coexistence.