Includes bibliographical references (p. 349-358) and index.

Introduction: Riccoldo's Predicament, or How to Explain Away the Successes of a Flourishing Rival Civilization -- Foundations (Seventh-Eighth Centuries) -- God and History in the Christian West c. 600 -- Islamic Dominion and the Religious Other -- Early Eastern Christian Reactions to Islam -- Forging Polemical Images (Eighth-Twelfth Centuries) -- Western Christian Responses to Islam (Eighth-Ninth Centuries) -- Saracens as Pagans -- Muhammad, Heresiarch (Twelfth Century) -- Thirteenth-Century Dreams of Conquest and Conversion -- The Muslim in the Ideologies of Thirteenth-Century Christian Spain -- Apocalyptic Fears and Hopes Inspired by the Thirteenth-Century Crusades -- Franciscan Missionaries Seeking the Martyr's Palm -- The Dominican Missionary Strategy -- From Verdant Grove to Dark Prison: Realms of Mission in Ramon Llull.

Medieval Christian writers distorted the teachings of Islam and caricatured its believers in a variety of ways. This book provides a comprehensive study of Christian polemical responses to Islam in the Middle Ages.