Description
Book SynopsisIn the summer of 972 a group of Muslim brigands based in the south of France near La Garde-Freinet abducted the abbot of Cluny as he and his entourage crossed the Alps en route from Rome to Burgundy. Ultimately, the abbot was set free, but the audacity of this abduction outraged Christian leaders and galvanized the will of local lords. Shortly thereafter, Count William of Arles marshaled an army and succeeded in wiping out the Muslim stronghold.
The monks of Cluny kept this tale alive over the next century. Scott G. Bruce explores the telling and retelling of this story, focusing on the representation of Islam in each account and how that representation changed over time. The culminating figure in this study is Peter the Venerable, one of Europe''s leading intellectuals and abbot of Cluny from 1122 to 1156, who commissioned Latin translations of Muslim texts such as the Qur''an. Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet provides us with an unparalleled opportunity to e
Trade Review
Overall, 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
