The Cross and the Crescent is a succinct, vivid and highly praised account of relations between Christians and Muslims – the ‘peoples of the book’ – from the emergence of Islam after the death of Muhammad in 632 AD to the European Reformation.

Links forged through conquest, diplomacy, pilgrimage and trade brought peoples of both faiths into frequent contact – sharing inventions such as paper and the abacus, while merchants travelled throughout the Mediterranean trading textiles, furs, spices, incense, ivory and even slaves. Yet despite these fruitful interactions, Christians viewed Muslims as bloodthirsty pagans, and Islam looked on Christendom with scorn as a jumble of confused sects. As Richard Fletcher argues, it was this failure to understand each other that spurred them into frequent and bloody conflicts.

Fletcher provides a clear-sighted and illuminating description of the ways in which Islam and Christianity have coexisted and clashed since their earliest encounters – a story that has lasting implications for our own time.

‘Intriguing … an important book for our times, as well as a feat of compression, and a triumph of good sense’ 
Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Independent

‘Deeply impressive …well informed and rich in detail. His reports of early English perceptions of Muslims are fascinating’ 
Martin Bright, Observer

‘Elegant, penetrating and enticing’ 
Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Daily Mail

The author is available to write features and for interview.
For further information, please contact Louise Ball
Tel: 020 7010 3156 email: louise.ball@penguin.co.uk

?Diplomacy meant entering into guarded relations with Islamic neighbours; having dealings with the enemy. There were embassies to be exchanged, alliances to be negotiated, truces to be arranged, prisoners to be ransomed. Political and military intelligence had to be gathered and evaluated in the shadowy underworld of the spy.? Richard Fletcher on the relationship between Islam and Christendom in the Middle Ages.

Is there an innate opposition between the belief systems of Islam and Christianity? Have Islam and Christianity always been hostile towards one other?

In The Cross and The Crescent Richard Fletcher provides the background to the often stormy relationship - complicated, intricate and controversial - between the two powerful forces of Islam and Christianity which have shaped the world for many millions of people of diverse cultural attachments. The Cross and The Crescentlays bare the roots of the present-day relationship between Islam and Christendom.

Fletcher addresses the reasons why Islam and Christianity have evolved into the religions we know today and draws parallels between the world of the Middle Ages and our contemporary world. Although there were periods of fruitful trading and cultural interactions between the two religions, resulting in the common use of paper, the abacus, irrigation systems, and great advancements in medicine, Fletcher shows that wild accusations and spies, hostility and wariness were as much a part of the relationship between Islam and Christendom in the Middle Ages as they are today.

Taking us through each crusade and conflict, introducing the characters involved, from El Cid and Marco Polo, to Ibn Hazm of Cordoba and the historian Ibn Khaldun, Fletcher examines and assesses the impact individuals and battles each had on the Islamic and Christian relationship. He maintains that religious misunderstanding has been present since their earliest encounters because each viewed the other?s religion as fundamentally different. ?Christian and Muslim lived side by side in a state of mutual religious aversion. Given these circumstances, if religious passions were to be stirred up, confrontation would probably be violent.? (Richard Fletcher)

Richard Fletcher won the Wolfson Award and the Los Angeles Times History Prize for The Quest for El Cid. The Conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity 371-1386 AD was a bestseller in 1999. His most recent book was the critically acclaimed Bloodfeud: Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England.