Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of the Islamic World

In this book, Scarfe Beckett is concerned with representations of the Islamic world prevalent in Anglo-Saxon England.

Katharine Scarfe Beckett (Author)

9780521054386, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 January 2008

288 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.6 cm, 0.439 kg

"Although the title may startle at first (did the Anglo-Saxons know anything about Islam?), the premise underlying Katharine Scarfe Beckett's book is intriguing and compelling." - Karen Louise Jolly, University of Hawaii Manoa

In this book, Scarfe Beckett is concerned with representations of the Islamic world prevalent in Anglo-Saxon England. Using a wide variety of literary, historical and archaeological evidence, she argues that the first perceptions of Arabs, Ismaelites and Saracens which derived from Christian exegesis preconditioned wester expressions of hostility and superiority towards peoples of the Islamic world, and that these received ideas prevailed even as material contacts increased between England and Muslim territory. Medieval texts invariably represented Muslim Arabs as Saracens and Ismaelites (or Hagarenes), described by Jerome as biblical enemies of the Christian world three centuries before Muhammad's lifetime. Two early ideas in particular - that Saracens worshipped Venus and dissembled their own identity - continued into the early modern period. This finding has interesting implications for earlier theses by Edward Said and Norman Daniel concerning the history of English perceptions of Islam.

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Islam during the Anglo-Saxon period
3. Anglo-Saxon contacts with Islam
4. Arabs and Arabia in Latin
5. Ismaelites and Saracens in Latin
6. Arabs, Ismaelites and Saracens in early Anglo-Latin
7. Pseudo-Methodius and the sons of Ismael
8. Arabs, Ismaelites and Saracens in Old English
9. Persisting theories about Saracens in post-Conquest England
10. Conclusions
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], British & Irish history [HBJD1]