The cross and the crescent : the dramatic story of the earliest encounters between Christians and Muslims / Richard Fletcher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fletcher, R. A. (Richard A.)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Islam--Relations--Christianity.

Islam.

Relations.

Christianity.

Christianity and other religions--Islam.

Christianity and other religions.

Physical Description:

xvi, 182 pages : maps ; 20 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Penguin, 2003.

Summary:

The Cross and the Crescent is a brilliant, short account of the relationship between Islam and Christianity from the time of Muhammad to the Reformation, by one of England's leading medieval historians. Richard Fletcher shows how, despite the long coexistence and overlap of these two worlds, "the peoples of the book" have held religious misunderstandings since their earliest encounters. He explains that, though there were fruitful trading and cultural interactions between Muslims and Christians during the period when Arabs controlled most of the Mediterranean world, each group viewed the other's religion as fundamentally different: Christians portrayed Muslims as bloodthirsty pagans and Muhammad as a false prophet, while Muslims saw Christianity as a jumble of sects and conflicting stories. In Fletcher's words: "Christian and Moslem 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." The author's lucidity, scholarship, and gift for compression make this one of the most clear-sighted contributions to its subject for many years. Fletcher makes no moral judgments or easy generalizations, but leaves readers to draw their own conclusions and explore the implications for our own time.

Contents:

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.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0670032719

OCLC:

63664581