Muslim and Christian Contact in the Middle Ages

In this elegantly edited and comprehensive compilation of primary sources, Jarbel Rodriguez has provided the perfect and much-needed companion to any course on pre-modern Muslim-Christian relations. This book will help to ground and shape discussion and debate for a new generation that urgently needs and wants to understand this past. -- Hussein Fancy, University of Michigan Muslim and Christian Contact in the Middle Ages is an unparalleled collection of primary sources, many newly translated, that invites readers to consider the full range of Muslim-Christian encounters from the rise of Islam through the fifteenth century. Rodriguez brings the multi-religious medieval Mediterranean to life with an impressive variety of texts: from fiery calls to crusade and jihad to merchants' and travelers' accounts of everyday economic and social relationships; from captivity narratives to inter-religious romances; and from religious polemics to a common thirst for the Muslim world's scientific, medical, and philosophical knowledge. Jarbel Rodriguez's carefully curated and thoughtfully introduced reader will be indispensable for students and thoroughly enjoyable for non-specialists and specialists alike. -- Jocelyn Hendrickson, University of Alberta Carefully selected, balanced, first-rate translations from both Muslim and Christian sources. It includes not only the key documents one would expect to find in a history of this period, but also lesser-known works that round out the common picture of war and conflict with insights into the daily life of elites and commoners alike. An invaluable resource for anyone interested in the history of Muslim-Christian encounters in the medieval Mediterranean world. -- David Blanks, American University in Cairo

Jarbel Rodriguez has selected geographically diverse readings and multiple sources on the same event or topic so that readers gain a better understanding of the relationship that existed between Muslims and Christians in the Middle Ages.

To study the interactions between Muslims and Christians in the medieval period is to observe a history of conflict and co-existence encompassing warfare, piracy, and raiding as well as commerce, intellectual exchanges, and personal relationships that transcended religious differences. With particular focus on the Mediterranean world, this collection of more than 80 readings includes sources from Byzantine, Jewish, Muslim, and Latin Christian authors that explore the conflicts and contacts between Muslims and Christians from the seventh to the fifteenth century. Jarbel Rodriguez has selected geographically diverse readings and multiple sources on the same event or topic so that readers gain a better understanding of the relationship that existed between Muslims and Christians in the Middle Ages.