Customer Reviews

Sea of Faith: Christianity and Islam in the Medieval Mediterranean World

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Having finally read "A Perfect Heresy", O'Shea's excellent but all-too-brief look into the Albigensian Crusade, I bought this based on the dust jacket synopsis. I found it to be an informative and compelling look at the contacts--both combative and cooperative--between Islam and Christianity throughout the dark ages, medieval era, and beyond. O'Shea's narrative focuses on the subsequent interactions between expanding Islam and embattled (for a time) Christianity in the regions surrounding the Mediterranean, hence the "Sea of Faith" of the title. The story begins with the expansion of Islam in the 7th century following Muhammed's death and finishes with the "final" conflict between Muslims and Christians in the Mediterranean at Malta in the 16th century. In between O'Shea explores many key battles--Yarmuk in AD 636, Manzikert, Hattin, Constantinople, etc., delving into not just the primary conflicts but the various factions dividing each side. An ugly truth glossed over in subsequent legendary accounts on both sides is the fact that in many of these conflicts (and others leading up to them) the two sides were hardly united against their cross-confessional foe. Umayyad vs. Abbasid, Catholic vs. Orthodox Christian, Arab vs. Berber vs. Turk, O'Shea deftly explains the complex back-stories to these near-mythical conflicts.

O'Shea also shines when he explores the "conviviencia" or periods of cooperation and tolerance that also marked Muslim-Christian interactions from 600 onward. Cordoba under the Umayyads and Palermo under the Normans are excellent examples of how these periods of peace produced cultural explosions of phenomenal wealth and splendor, with everything from poetry to science thriving under these conditions.

Overall this is a well-written and well-researched look into a topic of obvious relevance to modern times. If we have any hope of reaching peace in the Middle East, we (and our political leaders) are going to try to figure out how to re-create a metaphorical Cordoba while avoiding a metaphorical Poitiers in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Anyone looking for a well written and engaging introduction into past interactions between these two faiths that might better help them understand today's conflicts is encouraged to buy this book. I subtracted one star for the many puzzling typos in this edition and for the fact that O'Shea, in his rush to cover such a wide topic and broad time scale, gives short shrift to some of the more prominent personalities involved in these conflicts (Richard the Lionheart, Louis IX, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and Tamerlane just to name a few).

"Sea of Faith" describes the relationships among Muslims, Christians, and Jews around the Mediterranean Sea during the Middle Ages.

The book begins with a lucid discription of the life of Mohammad and the rise of Islam and goes on to describe both wars and co-existence between Christians and Muslims. The ten chapters each focus on a specific place or battle: Yarmuk, Poitiers, Cordova, Palermo, Constantinople, and Malta to list a few. The tone throughout is sensible and fair-minded. The author adds personal observations about the present day appearance and situation of each of his historical focal points.

The book is relatively brief -- about 315 pages of text -- and doesn't pretend to be a complete history of Muslim/Christian relations in the Middle East, but I certainly augmented my knowledge by reading the book. For example, I had never realized that Jewish tribes were so widespread -- from Morocco to the steppes of Central Asia -- in the early Middle ages. Their role in history was occasionally important and always interesting. Some of the most vivid parts of the book are the paragraphs about the pious Christian Crusaders killing and eating their captives and his account of the defeat of Crusaders by Saladin. The book is not all about battles, however. The author uses the term "convivencia" to describe the frequent instances of Muslim, Christian, and Jew living together in peace.

The maps in the book are tolerably good; a glossary helps with a lot of unfamiliar names and place names; a few small photographs illustrate the text; and more than 50 pages of notes explain and clarify points in the text. "Sea of Faith" is an excellent and highly-readable account of Muslim and Christian interactions in the Middle Ages

Smallchief

I have read many books on the history of Islam and the contact of Islam with Christian Europe. In my judgment, this is the best overall study. O'Shea is himself a very intelligent writer, and shows a political and human insight into historical situations that is not commonly matched by other writers. The book is organized around a series of relatively decisive events, running from the 700s AD to the 1500s. Each chapter offers a rich development of the context for the event, and overall the sequence of chapters is a compelling story of the history of the Mediterranean world. Informative, insightful, and highly engaging. I recommend it very highly.

In this age where conflict in the Middle East has taken center stage, it is not a surprise to find more and more popular books being published on the historical interaction between Christianity and Islam. What is less common and more pleasant to find is a book that doesn't have an obvious political ax to grind. In Sea of Faith, Stephen O'Shea has written such a book.

Let's be clear: this book is by no means complete in its coverage of the Christian/Islam conflict over the centuries. First, O'Shea limits himself to "the medieval Mediterranean world." In fact, this book is essentially a series of battle snapshots from Yarmuk in 636 to Malta in 1565. Some are Christian victories and some are Muslim but they each represented a fundamental shift in the back-and-forth between world powers masquerading as religious faith, though some of the names and places will probably be less familiar than others.

Still, if all this book achieved was a mapping of battles it wouldn't be nearly as interesting; however, O'Shea does a bit more. He uses the battles as a jumping off point to cover a lot of ground and links up the process that leads from battle to battle. He also takes a break periodically to point out places where Christians and Muslims lived in peace to the benefit of all with chapters on Cordoba, Palermo, Toledo and what O'Shea calls "the sea of faith"--Mediterranean ports where Christians and Muslims worked to trade together.

Overall, there's not much that's new here to someone who has read much in this area of history. Any yet, O'Shea uses his conceit well and tells interesting tales. For someone who is interested in well-written popular history that doesn't often slide into opinion and commentary on today's world, this book is an excellent choice.

There have been many battles between Muslim and Christian armies throughout the middle ages but only a few can be considered historical turning points. In The Sea of Faith, Mr. O'Shea covers the battles which turned the tide of history for one faith or the other.

Mr. O'Shea covers the major battles which occurred around the Mediterranean at the boundary between Islam and Christianity. He describes the events leading up to the battle and the aftermath analysis of why the battle is considered significant from a historical perspective. He also shows that the interaction between Muslims and Christians was not always a bloody mess but there were periods of harmony where culture flourished and each religion fed off the other (Umayyad Cordoba, Ottoman Constantinople and Norman Palermo), but the main focus of the book are the battles themselves and how history was affected.

The battles Mr. O'Shea covers are: Yarmuk; the starting point of the incredible Muslim expansion in 636, Poitiers; the battle which marked the end of Muslim expansion in 732, Manzikert; the start of Muslim conquest of Anatolia in 1071, Hattin; the battle leading to the reconquest of Jerusalem and Palestine from the Crusaders in 1187, Las Navas de Tolosa; leading to the Christian conquest of Spain in 1212, Constantinople; the fall of Byantium at the hands of the Ottomans in 1453 & Malta; the final battle along religious lines between Muslim and Christian armies in 1565. As the dates reveal, this is a very quick and condensed history lesson from 732 to 1565.

This is a very well written book of popular history on the interaction between Muslims and Christians when religion was a driving force behind their politics. For those interested in this area of history, The Sea of Faith is a great starting point.

Sea of Faith: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World
By Stephen O'Shea


In his famous refrain, "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet!" [1] Rudyard Kipling produced an adage that has served as an able guide for many a cultural historian in both his time and ours. Yet his maxim has always left one question lingering. We know what is of the Occident, and we know what is of the Orient, but what do we make of those twixt the two? How should we classify those kingdoms and cultures caught between the East and West?

Of late many historians have fallen for the cheap temptation to characterize these border cultures as civilizations in opposition to the West. Examples of this are easy to find; it is widely assumed by both public intellectuals and many in the historical community that there is an ongoing and immutable clash between Islamic society and the West. Propped up by historians who really should know better, this narrative is that of eternal enemies, forever battling for souls by way of spear.

In place of this simplistic narrative, O'Shea uses Sea of Faith to provide a more compelling analogy: two brothers in ferocious competition over one common inheritance. This narrative is, of course, in sharp contradiction with a portrayal of Islam as inimical to the West. This does not mean that O'Shea downplays the conflicts between the two religions; seven chapters in the book consist of spell-binding descriptions of battles such as those at Yarmuk, Poiters, and Hattin. However, O'Shea also sketches out time of "conviviencia", places such as Toledo and Palermo where religious toleration ruled the day. indeed, by contrasting these moments of peace and war between Islamic cultures and the West, Sea of Faith forces the reader to question the traditional notion of "the West" itself.

When history textbooks tell the tale of Western civilization, they start in Mesopotamia and Egypt, describing Ur, Memphis, and Phoenicia. Although the story switches to Greece and Rome soon enough, these early forerunners are never forgotten. For the first 4,500 years of its existence the history of "the West" takes place in locations found outside of it today. Carthage, Alexandria, Anatolia- all played integral parts in shaping Western thought, philosophy, lifestyle, and history.

Yet today we do not associate any of these places - or the people living there - with our Western heritage. What happened?

Islam, it seems, is the only answer ever given, the one and only dividing line between the West and the rest.

Like O'Shea, I find this answer deeply unsatisfying. Why, I must ask, is Islamic culture viewed as separate from Western culture at all?

Theology cannot be the stumbling block. As O'Shea notes several times, Islam and Christianity were joint decedents of one father faith. The God of Islam - at least on paper - is the same as the God of Christianity. Indeed, Muslims believe that Islam is the "perfection" (14) of the older faith. And while Islam and Christianity clashed across the Mediterranean world, the two belief systems are not incompatible. While much is heard of Judeao- Christian values, it is too easy to forget that Islam has just as much common ground with Judaism (if not more) as does Christianity. The perception of Islam and Christianity as two alien belief systems simply does not hold up when held to close scrutiny.

Likewise, Sea of Faith disabuses any false preconceptions the reader may have held regarding the philosophical basis of both "civilizations." While histories of Western thought tend to jump straight from antiquity to the renaissance, O'Shea puts both eras back into their proper context by reminding us what came in between. The golden age of Islamic culture (800-1150 CE sayeth O'Shea) was the first period of philosophical and scientific growth since the beginning of the dark ages. When Christians were eliminating their Greek and Roman heritage, the Muslims were translating and preserving such. Indeed, for several centuries much of what we call the "Western Canon" existed only in the Dar al-Islam. Were it not for the Christian reconquest of the Anadlusi and Sicilian taifas, the Christian West would not possess knowledge of this heritage at all- Aquinas would never have been able to "Christianize" Aristotle's philosophy if Averroes had not "Islamized" it first.

O'Shea's book is not one of incredible academic rigor. Its bibliography is pitifully small for the scope of its subject size, and the citations are at times lacking. However, O'Shea's superb writing ability does much to let him off the hook. His intent was to publish a popular work of a region and time plagued by misrepresentations and myths. In writing Sea of Faith O'Shea did not only provide an enjoyable work that serves as strong foundation for further reading, but popped a pervasive and flawed way of viewing relations between the dueling religions of the Medieval Mediterranean.


What O'Shea recognizes is the pattern of shared heritage and mutual influence seen across the worlds of Christianity and Islam. The values, methods of war, tools of statecraft, styles of art, science, and (my personal favorite) food, were shared across the Mediterranean, a common inheritance for a common people. The world of the Greeks, Romans, and Jews was - and is - claimed by two religions with an equal share in the inheritance. They are, in the end, the two dueling faiths of the West.



[1] Kipling, Rudyard. "The Ballad of East and West". Complete Verse. (New York: Anchor Books). 1989.

This book is beautifully written. I read to gain knowledge, but O'Shea is a very gifted writer, and I haven't read something so eloquent in some time.

That said... I can't help but feel that O'Shea has a much dimmer view of Christianity's medieval history than Islam's. Sure, he covers the forced conversions of the Janissaries, dhimmitude, and so on, but I got the impression that he was more disgusted with the immorality of the Christians of this era. Maybe he expected better of them, being that Christianity was born in peace, while Islam was a militaristic, conquering faith from the start. If he feels this way, he doesn't let on. Perhaps I'm just letting my modern views of militant Islam color my perceptions of history. I'm not sure. However, I got the impression that O'Shea is saying, "Islam was much more willing to allow diversity in their lands, and the zealot Christians just wouldn't leave well-enough alone." My limited knowledge of dhimmitude leads me to believe it was far worse than the inconvenient jizya tax O'Shea makes it out to be.

Also, while the back cover says this book covers "seven major battles" in no way is this is story of those battles. It is the story of the Christian-Islamic medieval world, with these battles used as mile-markers. If you're looking for in depth information about Poitiers and Manzikert, this isn't your book.

All in all, this was a fascinating read. There are lots of characters, but a very good glossary and character directory in the back. Also, there could have been more maps, but there are some good photos that augment the text.

Enlightened, very well researched, excellently written, highly enjoyable read. I even enjoyed reading the chapter notes! Should be required reading in this age of darkness.

This has got to be the most pleasurable history book I have ever read. So wonderful is O'Shea's writing style that my previously dormant desire for history books has been revitalized and I'm ordering several more history books to gorge on. I am remembering now why I was a history major in college.

As to the book - O'Shea discusses a wide swath of time from the rise of Islam to the Siege of Malta in 1565, all focusing on the monumental struggle, and at times cooperation (or convivencia), between the two major faiths - Islam and Christianity.

O'Shea adumbrates this struggle by focusing on the Mare Nostrum - the Roman term for the Mediterranean ("the Sea of Faith") - via the episodic but epochal battles that proved the turning points in the balance of power, such as Yarmuk, Manzikert, Hattin, Las Novas de Tolosa, the 1453 annihilation of the Byzantines and the successful defense of Malta against overwhelming odds.

Although the story focuses on these punctuated episodes, O'Shea successfully weaves the story together around the overall themes by fleshing out the linear connections between the battles and major players.

Thankfully, this is not merely a military history book, though his descriptions, particularly of 1187, 1453 and 1565, had me literally on the edge of my seat feeling out of breath from the sheer thrill of human heroism and stupidity. Jean Parisot de la Valette - wow what a genius! Raynald of Châtillon - what a lout!

No, this is also a story that most Westerners are ignorant of because it demonstrates incontrovertibly that Islam was no backwards, primitive, barbarian civilization.

I know it is difficult to swallow, but the truth is that the Muslims were further advanced than the Christian West for several centuries in learning, in philosophy, in technology, in mathematics, in architecture, and, yes, even in tolerance towards other religions. Saladin, Mehmet The Conqueror, and later Suleiman the Magnificent showed magnanimity that was sorely lacking from the Christians.

O'Shea brilliantly points out that even words like algebra, algorithm, arsenal, traffic, and cheque are borrowed Arabic terms. I did not know this but am thankful for knowing it now.

This is a must read book for those interested in medieval history, Islamic history, and those just wanting a really great story chockful of well-researched facts. You may also need a dictionary handy because O'Shea has a refreshingly prodigious vocabulary.

My only complaint is that O'Shea uses endnotes based on book pages, which means you do not know there is an endnote unless you spend time looking at the back of the book. There are a lot of gems in there but it is an awkward way to locate them.

The Mediterrarranean was the place where two different faiths have used it for the war and for the mutual enrichment .It was a large period of universal history where this sea like the center of world ,with the growing and the death of great peeples and civilizations . Muslim Spain ,
so important in the dark years of western middle age , Genova and Venice
whose enrichment was due to the existence of two different faiths , Byzantium , with a very difficult future between the power of the west and Rome , by one side , and the stronger role of Ottoman empire , and this Ottoman empire , a very important ruler in Europe up to XVIII century . So many things to tell in a simple and accessible way...