In this book, Scarfe Beckett is concerned with representations of the Islamic world known in Anglo-Saxon England. Using a wide variety of literary, historical and archaeological evidence, and working on the assumption that literature can influence readers' attitudes and motives, she argues that the first perceptions of Arabs, Ismaelites and Saracens which derived from Christian exegesis preconditioned western expressions of hostility and superiority towards peoples of the Islamic world, and that these received ideas prevailed over first-hand experience.
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