In September, 1219, Francis of Assisi went to Egypt to preach to Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil. Although we in fact know very little about this event, artists and writers from the thirteenth century to the twentieth have portrayed Francis alternatively as a new apostle preaching to the infidels, a theologian proving the truth of Christianity, a champion of the crusading ideal, a naive and quixotic wanderer, a crazed religious fanatic, or a medieval Gandhi.
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.