Synopses & Reviews
Richard Fletcher shows how, despite long periods of coexistence and overlap, religious misunderstanding between "peoples of the book" has been present since their earliest encounters. He argues that though there were fruitful trading and cultural interactions between Islam and Christianity during the period when the Arabs controlled most of the Mediterranean world, each viewed the other's religion as fundamentally different. Christians portrayed Muslims as bloodthirsty pagans and Muhammad as a false prophet, while Islam saw Christianity as a jumble of sects and conflicting stories. In Fletcher's words: "Christian and Muslim lived side by side in a state of mutual religious aversion. Given these circumstances, if religious passions were to be stirred up, confrontation would probably be violent." Fletcher's lucidity, scholarship and gift for compression make this one of the most readable as well as one of the most clear-sighted contributions to its subject for many years. He makes no moral judgments or easy generalizations, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions and explore the implications for our own time. Richard Fletcher recently took early retirement from the University of York. His Quest for El Cid (OUP) won the Wolfson Award and the Los Angeles Times History Prize. Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity was a bestseller in the UK in 1999.
Review
"A dazzling sprint past the turf wars of Rome and Constantinople, Sunnis and Shi’ites... Genghis Khan and Prester John." John Leonard, Harper’s
Synopsis
- The Quest for El Cid won the Wolfson Award and the Los Angeles Times History Prize
Synopsis
Richard Fletcher is one of todays most renowned medieval historians. In his latest book, he offers a brilliant survey of the relationship between the Islamic and Christian worlds from the seventh to the sixteenth centuries. He shows how, despite long periods of coexistence and overlap, religious misunderstanding between the peoples of the book has been present since their earliest encounters. He argues that though there were fruitful trading and cultural interactions between Islam and Christianity during the period when Arabs controlled most of the Mediterranean world, neither side was remotely interested in the actual religion of the other. Christians portrayed Muslims as bloodthirsty pagans and Muhammad as a false prophet while Islam viewed Christianity as a jumble of sects and conflicting stories.
Fletchers lucidity, scholarship, and gift for compression make this one of the most elegant and clear-sighted contributions to its subject for many years. It will appeal to readers of Karen Armstrongs bestselling Islam: A Short History and to all readers looking for a better understanding of the Islamic worlds relationship to the West.
Synopsis
In this immensely readable history that couldn’t be more timely, award-winning historian Richard Fletcher chronicles the relationship between Islam and Christianity from the time of Muhammad to the Reformation. With lucidity and sound scholarship, Fletcher demonstrates that though there were fruitful trading and cultural interactions between Muslims and Christians during the period when the Arabs controlled most of the Mediterranean world, each group viewed the other’s religion from the beginning as fundamentally different and suspect. Eschewing moral judgments and easy generalizations, The Cross and the Crescent allows readers to draw their own conclusions and explore the implications for the present day.
Table of Contents
List of Maps
Preface
1. Ishmael's Children 1
2. An Elephant for Charlemagne 30
3. Crossing Frontiers 67
4. Commerce, Coexistence and Scholarship 100
5. Sieving the Koran 131
6. Epilogue 157
Chronology 162
Further Reading 166
Notes 170
Index 175