TY - BOOK AU - Akbari,Suzanne Conklin TI - Idols in the East: European representations of Islam and the Orient, 1100-1450 SN - 9780801464980 AV - DS35.74.E85 A43 2009eb U1 - 303.48/256040902 22 PY - 2009/// CY - Ithaca PB - Cornell University Press KW - Christianity and other religions KW - Islam KW - Relations KW - Christianity KW - Orientalism KW - History KW - To 1500 KW - Islam in literature KW - East and West in literature KW - Orientalism in literature KW - Literature, Medieval KW - History and criticism KW - Christianisme KW - Islam dans la littérature KW - Orient et Occident dans la littérature KW - Littérature médiévale KW - Histoire et critique KW - Orientalisme dans la littérature KW - HISTORY KW - Medieval KW - bisacsh KW - SOCIAL SCIENCE KW - General KW - fast KW - Interfaith relations KW - International relations KW - Literature KW - Europe KW - Islamic Empire KW - Latin Orient KW - In literature KW - Empire islamique KW - Orient latin KW - Dans la littérature KW - Middle East KW - Criticism, interpretation, etc N1 - Includes bibliographical references and index; Medieval Orientalism? -- The shape of the world -- From Jerusalem to India -- The place of the Jews -- The Saracen body -- Empty idols and a false prophet -- The form of heaven -- A glance at early modern Orientalism N2 - "Representations of Muslims have never been more common in the Western imagination than they are today. Building on Orientalist stereotypes constructed over centuries, the figure of the wily Arab has given rise, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, to the Islamist terrorist. In Idols in the East Suzanne Conklin Akbari explores the premodern background of some of the Orientalist types still pervasive in present-day depictions of Muslims-the irascible and irrational Arab, the religiously deviant Islamist-and about how these stereotypes developed over time." "Idols in the East contributes to the recent surge of interest in European encounters with Islam and the Orient in the premodern world. Focusing on the medieval period, Akbari examines a broad range of texts including encyclopedias, maps, medical and astronomical treatises, chansons de geste, romances, and allegories to paint an unusually diverse portrait of medieval culture. Among the texts she considers are The Book of John Mandeville, The Song of Roland, Parzival, and Dante's Divine Comedy. From them she reveals how medieval writers and readers understood and explained the differences they saw between themselves and the Muslim other. Looking forward, Akbari also comes to terms with how these medieval conceptions fit with modern discussions of Orientalism, thus providing an important theoretical link to postcolonial and postimperial scholarship on later periods. Far reaching in its implications and balanced in its judgments, Idols in the East will be of great interest to not only scholars and students of the Middle Ages but also anyone interested in the roots of Orientalism and its tangled relationship to modern racism and anti-Semitism."--Jacket UR - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=671335 ER -