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Title: An excellent introduction to the subject
Review: Southern's brief overview of western perceptions of Islam during the Middle Ages is extremely engaging. He has the rare gift of being able to combine good scholarship with flowing, entertaining prose.Southern begins his discussion in the tenth century, when Europe had scarcely heard of Muhammad, and ends with the fifteenth, with the rise of the Ottoman empire. He investigates how medieval theologians perceived the role of Islam in Christian and world history, and outlines the intellectual and theological ramifications of the west's introduction to Islamic philosophy, along the way introducing the reader to some of the major religious and intellectual figures who played roles in the encounter.The entire book is just over a hundred pages - you'll wish it was longer.
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