This study documents the extraordinary interest generated in England by the Arabic language and culture during the 17th century. The author charts both the rise and subsequent fall of this phenomenon, analyzing the impact of Arabic on English academia and literature.

`a treasure-trove that any student of the contacts between Europe and the Islamic workd can now use a s guide in order to elaborate any of the issues not already covered extensively by Toomer ... the analytical expositions of the author are carfully woven together and constitute in themselves a rich groundwork for dissertations in progress and those yet to be written.' George Saliba, Jnl of the American Oriental Soc. 1209.1 (2000). `Toomer's book has the erudition and meticulous scholarship that has always marked his work.' George Saliba, Jnl of the American Oriental Soc. 1209.1 (2000). `This erudite and well-written book immediately establishes itself as the authoritative treatment of its subject ... The real novelty of this book lies in its compendiousness, and its mainly biographical structure will make it a ready source of reference for others. Toomer gives succinct accounts of the lives and careers of all the major English Arabists.' Scott Mandelbrote, Ecclesiastical History `fascinating.... by far the best survey of Arabic studies in seventeenth-century England to date.' Times Literary Supplement `Professor Toomer's prose is chaste and clear, and his book is founded on meticulous scholarship which will arouse admiration and envy.' James Craig, Asian Affairs, February 1997 `The author is to be congratulated on an extremely thoroughly researched, systematic and detailed account of Arabic studies in seventeenth-century England. The present work is based on a very wide range of printed primary and secondary sources, and on unpublished materials, hitherto largely unexplored, in the Bodleian and British Libraries and the Public Record Office.' P.M. Holt, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 60, No. 2, '97