Product Description

How did we learn to hate or despise? Simply, because we were taught to. In 638 the Christian Patriarch of the Holy city of Jerusalem called the Muslim Caliph's presence an abomination in the sight of God. Christians and Muslims have since regarded each other warily and have silently thought of each other as 'infidels.' This book traces the long history of this troubled relationship. It was a campaign without end, waged with the pen, through the printing press, by the power of the human voice and on sublte and insidious suggestions with paintings, drawings and engravings. In this brilliant book we see how and why a battle is still being waged today, through the press, books, television, radio and the internet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39775 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 536 pages

Sunday Telegraph. John Adamson. 25 May 2003
‘Recounted with tremendous literary flair.. combines narrative tableaux of almost cinematic vividness with a highly sophisticated analysis.'

Sunday Herald. Iain MacWhirter. 27 April 2003.
'Infidels is essential reading for anyone interested in what is happening in the new world order.'

About the Author
Andrew Wheatcroft was educated at St John's school, Leatherhead, Christ's College Cambridge, and the University of Madrid. He is the author of many books on early modern and modern history, and most recently The Ottomans (1995) and The Habsburgs (1996). He has been researching Infidels for more than 17 years. He is the Director of The Centre for Publishing Studies and also teaches English at the University of Stirling. He lives near Moffat in Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

Customer Reviews

Original and confusing
Andrew Wheatcroft's Infidels examines the bloody faultline between Islam and the West. The scope of his book is ambitious: he starts with a tremendous account of the battle of Lepanto in 1571, but then he forgoes the chronology. There are different sections on Andalucia, the Middle East, the Balkans and the Otto-man Empire.You get a bit about the romance of Moorish Spain and some exotic tales from the Crusades.

Andrew Wheatcroft is especially good on the key question of mutual perceptions. His knowledge of the Western representations of Islam in art and literature is impressive. Atrocities were mutual, and Wheatcroft wants to tell us why certain events were remembered better than others; he wishes to find out how we know what we know about the past. The tale is just that: one of difference and enmity and is clearly intended as the final word on the cultural history of the clash of civilizations. His attempt to short-circuit the 'maledicta', the words of pure hate at the heart of the relationship between Islam and the West, through a greater understanding of the history of mutual repulsion should be applauded.

All that said I had the impression that he wanted to cover too broad an issue in a new way. Certainly, he warns that his aim is not to explain why things happened that way, but how they happen, but in my opinion the very choice of some facts supposedly to be relevant implicitly asks for some kind of explanation that in this work is never openly developped.The final result is somehow confusing.

Excellent!
A thoroughly enjoyable read that sheds light on the relation between Islam and Christianity. My recommendation for everyone who reads this book is to do so whilst leaving theological issues and your own religious views out of it. The book looks at Christendom and 'Islamdom'; in other words it is neither for nor against either faith, rather, it is concerned with the institutionalized manifestations of these faiths... manifestations that are all too often overshadowed by political considerations and outright hypocricy.

Not worth the Paper!
In his introduction, Mr. Wheatcroft asserts that this area of history is not his speciality. Every succeeding page served to confirm that assertion.

His chronolgy is not only flawed but highly selective. For any historian to view Lepanto without reference to the defence of Malta in 1565 is indicative on a flawed comprehension of the Christian/Muslim dynamic in the 15-18th centuries.

From there it went downhill, the Cordoba martyrs are zealots, self-sacrificing fanatics, the complete antithesis of their tolerant and benevolent Islamic masters. I really began to think that I was reading promo material for the "Magnificent 19" because the author's reasoning was as skewed as that used by the supporters of Al-Quaeda & terrorism.

I bought this book, expecting an objective review as indicated by the title. What I received, does not warrant shelfspace & has been consigned to the recycling bin!

Stick to teaching English, Mr. Wheatcroft!