Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet

Scott G. Bruce is Professor of Medieval History at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. He is the author of Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism and editor of Ecologies and Economies in Medieval and Early Modern Europe.

• Introduction: Hagiography and Religious Polemic in the Cluniac Tradition1. News of a KidnappingThe Perils and Promises of Transalpine TravelThe Muslims of La Garde-Freinet"The Hordes of Belial Have Surrounded Me"2. Monks Tell TalesBy Savaage Hands RestrainedThe Preacher's ProwessFulcher and the Great WolfEnter MuhammedInterlude: A Cluniac Mission on the Spanish Frontier3. Peter and the Venerable, Butcher of GodAgainst the Heirs of InquiryA Christian Arsenal against IslamAssailing the Monstrous BeastRecourse to Reason4. Hagiography and the Muslim Policy of Peter the VenerableReasoning with Unbelievers in the Decades around 1100A Reservoir of Eastern CensureNalgod's IndustryConclusion

Overall, this is an impressive book. It diligently unpacks the development of the hagiographical legend surrounding the kidnapping of Maiolus and assesses its impact upon later Cluniac authors—especially Peter the Venerable. It makes positive contributions to several major debates surrounding Peter and the broad character of the Cluniac engagement with non-Christians and places that discussion within a long-term context. Bruce expresses himself with some neat turns of phrase and the book as a whole is a very easy read. It is much to be recommended!(Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations) Crisply written and easy to read, given the density of some of the material. Highly recommended.(Reading Religion) A thoughtful and provocative book... Bruce has demonstrated the importance of the vita of Maiolus on the attitudes of the twelfth-century abbot and raised new ways to think about Peter's approach to Islam.(Journal of Religion) Meticulously researched and highly readable, this book will be a valuable addition to the shelves of all scholars of polemic and interreligious interactions in the Middle Ages. In drawing scholarly attention to the influence of devotional and hagiographical texts in shaping the attitudes of medieval theologians, Bruce provides fresh material and an original perspective to ongoing conversations about the ways in which medieval Christian writers interacted with Islam and the texts that shaped their thought-worlds.(Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures) This is a welcome work, bringing greater attention to a small but telling episode in the life of one Cluniac abbot and the polemical work of another Cluniac abbot, while also satisfying a modern desire for insight into Christian-Muslim relations in the past.(American Historical Review)