Description
Book SynopsisCompellingly written, Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet provides us with an unparalleled opportunity to examine Christian perceptions of Islam in the Crusading...
Trade ReviewOverall, this is an impressive book. It diligently unpacks the development of the hagiographical legend surrounding the kidnapping of Maiolus and assesses its impact upon later Cluniac authors—especially Peter the Venerable. It makes positive contributions to several major debates surrounding Peter and the broad character of the Cluniac engagement with non-Christians and places that discussion within a long-term context. Bruce expresses himself with some neat turns of phrase and the book as a whole is a very easy read. It is much to be recommended!
* Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations *
Crisply written and easy to read, given the density of some of the material. Highly recommended.
* Reading Religion *
A thoughtful and provocative book... Bruce has demonstrated the importance of the vita of Maiolus on the attitudes of the twelfth-century abbot and raised new ways to think about Peter's approach to Islam.
* Journal of Religion *
Meticulously researched and highly readable, this book will be a valuable addition to the shelves of all scholars of polemic and interreligious interactions in the Middle Ages. In drawing scholarly attention to the influence of devotional and hagiographical texts in shaping the attitudes of medieval theologians, Bruce provides fresh material and an original perspective to ongoing conversations about the ways in which medieval Christian writers interacted with Islam and the texts that shaped their thought-worlds.
* Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures *
This is a welcome work, bringing greater attention to a small but telling episode in the life of one Cluniac abbot and the polemical work of another Cluniac abbot, while also satisfying a modern desire for insight into Christian-Muslim relations in the past.
* American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Hagiography and Religious Polemic in the Cluniac Tradition
1. News of a Kidnapping
The Perils and Promises of Transalpine Travel
The Muslims of La Garde-Freinet
"The Hordes of Belial Have Surrounded Me"
2. Monks Tell Tales
By Savaage Hands Restrained
The Preacher's Prowess
Fulcher and the Great Wolf
Enter Muhammed
Interlude: A Cluniac Mission on the Spanish Frontier
3. Peter and the Venerable, Butcher of God
Against the Heirs of Inquiry
A Christian Arsenal against Islam
Assailing the Monstrous Beast
Recourse to Reason
4. Hagiography and the Muslim Policy of Peter the Venerable
Reasoning with Unbelievers in the Decades around 1100
A Reservoir of Eastern Censure
Nalgod's Industry
Conclusion
