Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages

Crusade Propaganda in Word and Image in Early Modern Italy: Niccolò Guidalotto’s Panorama of Constantinople (1662)*

“…13 For East-West encounters in the early modern world, see Brotton;Brummett, 2008;Daniel;Dursteler, 2011;Jardine and Brotton;Mack;MacLean, 2005; Monfasani; Venice and the Islamic World. On Western views of Islam, see Blanks and Frassetto;Classen;Dimmock;Harper;MacLean, 2004;Matar;McJannet;O'Shea;Schwoebel;Southern;Tolan, 2002;Vitkus. 14 On Venetian history and the Ottomans, see Fenlon;Fleet, Faroqhi, and Kasaba;Fleischer;Green;Martin and Romano;Norwich;Pedani;Preto;Rothman, 2012;Viallon. For Ottoman history, see Faroqhi;Imber;Itzkowitz;Kafadar;Wheatcroft. in different ways connected the empire and the republic, but bitter experiences and abiding religious convictions led him to emphasize the enduring enmity between the two and to call for Crusade.…”

A Rabbi reads the Qur’an in the Venetian ghetto

“…During the twelfth-century renaissance, Christians began to translate Arabic scientific books into Latin, and the translation of Islamic material was also a small part of this enterprise. 6 On the other hand, Islam presented serious challenges to Christianity. There was the general risk that Christians might convert, while specific aspects of Islam, such as paradise, marriage, divorce, and the ways in which Jesus and the Gospels appeared in the Qur'an, posed a threat to Christian beliefs.…”

The Distorted Image of Prophet Muhammad in Percy's Mahomet and His Heaven (1601)

“…The Medieval and Elizabethan writers were obsessed with the ways in which they considered the Noble Qur'ān to be 'far from divinely inspired' but rather, 'manipulated by Muhammad to serve his own base desires' (Tolan 2002, p. 152). There are numerous examples of the ways in which this 'plan of general sexual license' was intended as 'an instrument for the destruction of Christendom' (Southern 1962, pp. 29-30, & Watt 1991).…”