Medieval Christian writers distorted the teachings of Islam and caricatured its believers in a variety of ways. What ideological purposes did these offensive portrayals serve? This book provides a comprehensive study of Christian polemical responses to Islam in the Middle Ages.

Introduction: Riccoldo's Predicament or, How to Explain Away the Successes of a Flourishing Rival Civilization Part 1: Foundations (Seventh--Eighth Centuries) 1: God and History in the Christian West c. 600 2: Islamic Dominion and the Religious Other 3: Early Eastern Christian Reactions to Islam Part 2: Forging Polemical Images (Eighth-Twelfth Centuries) 4: Western Christian Responses to Islam (Eighth-Ninth Centuries) 5: Saracens as Pagans 6: Muhammad, Heresiarch (Twelfth Century) Part 3: Thirteenth-Century Dreams of Conquest and Conversion 7: The Muslim in the Ideologies of Thirteenth-Century Christian Spain 8: Apocalyptic Fears and Hopes Inspired by the Thirteenth-Century Crusades 9: Franciscan Missionaries Seeking the Martyr's Palm 10: The Dominican Missionary Strategy 11: From Verdant Grove to Dark Prison: Realms of Mission in Ramon Llull

A significant contribution to the study of Islam's place in the medieval Christian imagination, this work is highly recommended. Choice Tolan's book is welcome as a rare systematic treatment of medieval Christian attitudes toward Muslims... Tolan's remarks invite us to explore the important question of why that is so. -- Tomaz Mastnak Speculum Saracens contains comprehensive notes, a thorough bibliography, and an excellent index... A useful summary of the current state of hitoriography in the field. -- William E. Watson History Tolan's model for Christian attitudes toward Islam is the reactions of early Christians to the Roman Empire... Tolan's book is full of interesting details on individual thinkers' views on Islam and provides a welcome addition. -- Anna Sapir Abulafia American Historical Review Medievalist Tolan shows how the relatively fluid European beliefs about Islam turned rigid in the 13th century, leading to strict laws that separated Christians from Muslims and produced even greater distortions in perception. Saudi Aramco World Had the late Edward Said and Daniel Norman collaborated to produce a volume incorporating their particular hermeneutical expertise and scholastic grasp of religious polemics it may well have looked something similar to John V. Tolan'sSaracens... Tolan's work, which is superbly researched, explores the plethora of distorted representations of Islam perpetuated throughout the period. -- Mohammed Siddique Seddon Muslim World Book Review The best of all recently published books on Christian-Islamic relations. -- Gregory Miller Riligious Studies Review A thoroughgoing reference work like Saracens was long overdue; it is also quite timely. -- David Blanks Catholic Historical Review

In an effort to make sense of God's apparent abandonment of Christendom in favor of a dynamic and expanding Muslim civilization, European writers distorted the teachings of Islam and caricatured its believers in a variety of ways. What ideological purposes did these portrayals serve? And how, in turn, did Muslims view Christianity? Tolan shows how Christian responses to Islam changed from the seventh to thirteenth centuries, through fast-charging crusades and spirit-crushing defeats, crystallizing into polemical images later drawn upon by Western authors in the fourteenth to twentieth centuries.