Infidels : a history of the conflict between Christendom and Islam / Andrew Wheatcroft.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wheatcroft, Andrew.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Islam--Relations--Christianity.

Islam.

Relations.

Christianity.

Christianity and other religions--Islam.

Christianity and other religions.

Kufr (Islam).

Physical Description:

xxxi, 427 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First U.S. edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Random House, [2004]

Summary:

Here is the first panoptic history of the long struggle between the Christian West and Islam.

In this dazzlingly written, acutely nuanced account, Andrew Wheatcroft tracks a deep fault line of animosity between civilizations. He begins with a stunning account of the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, then turns to the main zones of conflict: Spain, from which the descendants of the Moors were eventually expelled; the Middle East, where Crusaders and Muslims clashed for years; and the Balkans, where persistent memories spurred atrocities even into the twentieth century. Throughout, Wheatcroft delves beneath stereotypes, looking incisively at how images, ideas, language, and technology (from the printing press to the Internet), as well as politics, religion, and conquest, have allowed each side to demonize the other, revive old grievances, and fuel across centuries a seemingly unquenchable enmity. Finally, Wheatcroft tells how this fraught history led to our present maelstrom. We cannot, he argues, come to terms with today's perplexing animosities without confronting this dark past.

Contents:

Chapter 1 "We Praise Thee, O God": Lepanto, 1571 3

Chapter 2 First Contact 36

Chapter 3 Al-Andalus 59

Chapter 4 "The Jewel of the World" 84

Chapter 5 Eternal Spain 113

Chapter 6 "Vile Weeds": Malas Hierbas 131

Chapter 7 To the Holy Land 155

Chapter 8 Conquest and Reconquest 183

Chapter 9 Balkan Ghosts? 207

Chapter 10 Learning to Hate 222

Chapter 11 "A Broad Line of Blood" 241

Chapter 12 "Turban'd and Scimitar'd" 259

Chapter 13 The Black Art 274

Chapter 14 Maledicta: Words of Hate 292

Chapter 15 The Better Angels of Our Nature 323.

Notes:

Originally published: London : Viking, 2003.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [391]-411) and index.

ISBN:

1400062306

1588363902

OCLC:

53940607