Europe and the Mystique of Islam

Maxime Rodinson is an eminent historian, sociologist and Middle East specialist whose classic account Muhammad is also published by I.B.Tauris.

• Part 1 Western views of the Muslim world: the Middle Ages; toward a less polemical image; coexistence and reconciliation; from coexistence to objectivity; the birth of Orientalism; the enlightenment; the 19th century; challenges to Eurocentrism. Part 2 Toward a new approach to Arab and Islamic studies: traditional Orientalism in the past; the present crisis and current problems; the present state of the craft - the continuance of the past impetus; theologocentrism in scholarship; new fields and disciplines; regional influences in Islamic studies; the modalities of future progress; proposals for future study.

'sure to become a favourite of American scholars of the Middle East. It is short, succinct, erudite, and greatly reassuring' -Richard W. Bulliet 'Is the history of Islam and the West... merely a record of battles and bigotry? This book makes clear that the relationship has been much subtler. By chronicling, succinctly and elegantly, the West's changing images of Islam, Rodinson - one of the leading French scholars of Islam and the Middle East - demolishes the notion of two monolithic blocs frozen in eternal hostility' -London Review of Books 'Rodinson's serious work is an analytical history of Europe's varying attitudes, positive and negative, towards Islam and the Middle East... Deserves reading.' -The Economist