The 1500 Year War Between Christianity And Islam

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 distant 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.

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.

Fighting between Christians and Muslims in the medieval period is often seen in the narrow context of the battle for the Holy Land. Other points of conflict tend to be ignored. But, as David Nicolle's thought-provoking survey shows, the religions clashed across the medieval world - in the Mediterranean and the Iberian peninsula, in the Near East, in Central Asia, India, the Balkans, Anatolia, Russia, the Baltic and Africa. Over 500 years, the struggle in each theatre of conflict had its own character - methods of warfare differed and developed in different ways and were influenced by local traditions and circumstances. And these campaigns were not waged solely against Christian or Islamic enemies, but against pagan, non-Christian or non-Islamic peoples. As he tells the story of Crusade and Jihad, and describes the organization and tactics of the armies involved, David Nicolle opens up a new understanding of the phenomenon of holy war.

The book is in two volumes and describes the evolution of Judeo-Christianity and Islam and the 1,300 years of warfare between them. Islam and Christianity follow gods with different characteristics and differing doctrinefree will versus determinism. They were engaged in bloody conflict from AD 632 until 1856 (Crimean War) when the Ottoman Empire became the sick man of Europe. It reignited with Egyptian encouragement backed by Soviet money, the arming of fedayeen terrorists in 1956, and the Six-Day War following Egypts seizure of the Suez Canal, and it has become progressively more serious ever since.

Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History, volume 7 (CMR 7) is a history of all the known works on relations from Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and South America in the period 1500-1600. Its detailed entries contain descriptions, assessments and comprehensive bibliographical details on individual works.

The book in two volumes describes the evolution of Judeo Christianity and Islam and 1,300 years of warfare between them. Islam and Christianity follow gods with different characteristics and differing doctrinesfree will vs. determinism. They were engaged in bloody conflict from 632 AD until 1856 (Crimean War) when the Ottoman Empire became the sick man of Europe. It reignited with Egyptian encouragement backed by Soviet money, the arming of Fedayeen terrorists in 1956, and the Six-Day War following Egypts seizure of the Suez Canal, and has become progressively more serious ever since.