Awards

• Winner of Prix Diane Potier-Boes from the Academie Francaise.

Overview

In September, 1219, as the armies of the Fifth Crusade besieged the Egyptian city of Damietta, Francis of Assisi went to Egypt to preach to Sultan al-Malik al-Kâmil. Although we in fact know very little about this event, this has not prevented artists and writers from the thirteenth century to the twentieth, unencumbered by mere facts, from portraying Francis alternatively as a new apostle preaching to the infidels, a scholastic theologian proving the truth of Christianity, a champion of the crusading ideal, a naive and quixotic wanderer, a crazed religious fanatic, or a medieval Gandhi preaching peace, love, and understanding. Al-Kâmil, on the other hand, is variously presented as an enlightened pagan monarch hungry for evangelical teaching, a cruel oriental despot, or a worldly libertine. Saint Francis and the Sultan takes a detailed look at these richly varied artistic responses to this brief but highly symbolic meeting. Throwing into relief the changing fears and hopes that Muslim-Christian encounters have inspired in European artists and writers in the centuries since, it gives a uniquely broad but precise vision of the evolution of Western attitudes towards Islam and the Arab world over the last eight hundred years.

Full Product Details

9780199239726

Table of Contents

Reviews

Fascinating... This is a fabulous book: literally, because it deals with so many fables, but also in the more complimentary sense of the word, because it is well-written, even-handed and, from cover to cover, enchanting a riveting account of how later generations used and abused a curious historical moment Wonderful stuff. Jonathan Wright, The Catholic Herald A true and fine work of history Patrick Bucheron, Le Monde

`Review from previous edition A true and fine work of history' Patrick Bucheron, Le Monde `This rich, detailed work shows that, in the field of relations between East and West, the denizens of the 'politically correct' falsify history as much as the ideologues of the ""Clash of Civilizations"".' Isabelle Heullant-Donat, La quinzaine litteraire `This book is a major lesson in history. It incarnates the learned memory represented by the historical sciences, used masterfully against the 'savage' manipulation of memory. It shows that we are not prisoners of the past, but that the past is constantly brought up to date according to the needs of the present.' Henry Laurens, L'Orient

Author Information

John V. Tolan was educated at Yale and Chicago. He has taught at universities in North America and Europe and is currently Professor of Medieval History at the University of Nantes. He has published widely in both French and English, including most recently Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination (2002).

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