7. Washington Irving's Andalusia and the American Imagination: By Lazaro Lima This brief essay will introduce Washington Irving (1783-1859) and Andalusia, a region in southern Spain with a culturally rich Islamic heritage, to both teachers and students. In the process we will see how Irving's fascination with Andalusia created some of the first representations of Islamic culture to Americans in the nineteenth century. Click here for full text Get Adobe Acrobat Reader here