Al-Kamil, on the other hand, is variously presented as an enlightened pagan monarch hungry for evangelical teaching, a cruel oriental despot, or a worldly libertine. Saint Francis and the Sultan takes a detailed
look at these richly varied artisitc responses to this meeting. It throws into relief the changing fears and hopes that Muslim-Christian encounters have inspired in European artists and writers in the centuries since to give a uniquely broad but precise vision of the evolution of Western attitudes towards Islam and the Arab world over the last eight hundred years.
Share This Book: