Islam and the West

Bernard Lewis brings together in this volume eleven essays that open doors to the innermost domains of Islam. Lewis ranges far and wide in these essays. He includes long pieces, such as his capsule history of the interaction--in war and peace, in commerce and culture--between Europe and its Islamic neighbors, and shorter ones, such as his deft study of the Arabic word watan and what its linguistic history reveals about the introduction of the idea of patriotism from the West. Offering valuable background to Middle East conflicts today, Islam and the West presents the reflections of an eminent authority on a little understood region of the world.