Historical Encounter of Civilizations: Islam, Christianity and the West

This book provides an introduction to the cultural and intellectual exchanges and conflicts between Islam and Christianity since the seventh century. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the rich history of active cultural contact between Islam and Christianity in Europe and the Middle East, despite periods of conflict since the Arab Conquest of Byzantium. The book highlights the positive traditions of cultural and political partnership that resulted in the exchange of vital religious and philosophical ideas and values. Such partnerships not only introduced the Arabs to the great monuments of Greek philosophy, science and medicine, but also ensured the cultural recurrence of Greek culture, culminating in the Latin Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth century.