The conflict and contact between Muslims and Christians in the Middle Ages is among the most important but least appreciated developments of the period from the seventh to the fourteenth century. Michael Frassetto argues that the relationship between these two faiths during the Middle Ages was essential to the cultural and religious developments of Christianity and Islam-even as Christians and Muslims often found themselves engaged in violent conflict. Frassetto traces the history of those conflicts and argues that these holy wars helped create the identity that defined the essential characteristics of Christians and Muslims. The polemic works that often accompanied these holy wars was important, Frassetto contends, because by defining the essential evil of the enemy, Christian authors were also defining their own beliefs and practices. Holy war was not the only defining element of the relationship between Christians and Muslims during the Middle Ages, and Frassetto explains that everyday contacts between Christian and Muslim leaders and scholars generated more peaceful relations and shaped the literary, intellectual, and religious culture that defined medieval and even modern Christianity and Islam.
Michael Frassetto is an instructor in the Department of History at the University of Delaware.
Introduction: Enemies, Brothers, Scholars: Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages Chapter 1: Christianity and the Early History of Islam Chapter 2: Initial Christian Response to the Rise of Islam Chapter 3: Convivencia: Christians and Muslims in early Medieval Spain Chapter 4: Islam and the Early Medieval West Chapter 5: New Beginnings and New Attitudes Chapter 6: Spain and the Reconquista Chapter 7: Crusade and Counter-Crusade: Christians and Muslims in an Age of Holy War Chapter 8: Islam and the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century Chapter 9: Christians and Muslims in the Thirteenth Century Conclusion: Looking Backward and Forward
Michael Frassetto's study is a thought-provoking history of religious conflict and concord in the medieval world. Wide-ranging in his coverage, he deftly analyzes the intellectual origins of Christian and Muslim writings that alternatively described, complimented, critiqued, or caricatured the rival faith, while also showing how such ideas bore fruit in the interfaith wars of the period. The theme of apocalypticism, in particular, emerges as a critical factor in the formation and reinforcement of attitudes towards 'the Other.' This study is a welcome addition to the growing corpus of studies on interfaith encounters during the Middle Ages. -- John D. Hosler, Command and General Staff College
