I am a university professor with a specialization in Medieval Iberia. In my academic research, sometimes I come across bits of interesting, curious, or outright bizarre information. Although these can become serious pieces of academic writing, and occasionally they do, other times they just fall into a folder in my computer. Inspired by the Arabic literary genre of “the wondrous and strange” anecdotes (‘ajā ’ib wa-gharā ’ib), as well as by my personal experience with a historian grandfather who would put us all grandkids to sleep with stories from the past and curious anecdotes, I have decided to share the items in the folder, in case they might be of interest to others. I hope you will enjoy the reading!
This blog is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Elías Diéguez Luengo.