The Cross and the Crescent. Christianity and Islam From Muhammad to the Reformation

London England: Allen Lane. Hardback. First Edition. Slight foxing to top edge. This book is a brilliant short account of the relations between Islam and Christianity from the time of Muhammad to the Reformation, by one of England's leading medieval historians. The author shows how, despite long periods of co-existence 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, each viewed the other's religion as fundamentally different. Christians portrayed Moslems as bloodthirsty pagans and Muhammad as a false prophet, while Islam saw Chrstianity as a jumble of sects and conflicting stories. In Fletcher's words: 'Christiand 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'. 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 judgements or easy generalizations, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions and explore the implications for our own time. 183 pp. (We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions, Reference books ,and all types of Academic Literature.) . Near Fine. Cloth. First Edition. 2003.