Lost Civilization: The Contested Islamic Past in Spain and Portugal James L. Boone Al-Andalus, the Iberian Islamic civilization centred on Cordoba in the 10th and 11th centuries, has been a 'lost' civilization in several respects. Its history suppressed or denied for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, it was regarded as a kind of 'historical parenthesis' with no lasting influence. Over the past 25 years, however, the history and archaeology of the Islamic period in the Iberian peninsula has undergone a complete transformation. Lost Civilization presents an introduction to this debate as it has played out in archaeology, taking a comparative civilizations approach that puts the formation of Al-Andalus in context with corresponding developments elsewhere in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. James L. Boone is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico.