Customer Reviews

Tricolor and Crescent: France and the Islamic World

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Watson's searching analysis of the relationship between France and the Islamic world over fourteen centuries is a breath of fresh air for a subject too long dominated by specialists in "middle eastern studies" with limited chronological understanding and too often obvious current political agendas. Taking the long view, Watson describes an evolving and often tense relationship which developed soon after Islam burst into the Mediterranean world. Trained as an historian of Medieval Islam, Watson is at home with the earliest stages of his subject and does not simply discuss them as "filler". From Muslim raids, through the Crusades, and to the often complex relation of the Valois and Bourbon kings to Ottoman power, to Napoleon in Egypt,Watson is clearly at home with a wide range of sources and secondary literature. All this serves as essential background for the creation of the French empire in North Africa and beyond in the nineteenth century which renewed Franco-Islamic contact under a very different dynamic of power relation. Watson's description of the rise and fall of French Algeria is particularly useful and free from the "cant" of many previous discussions. The great strength of this book is that is describes the history of cross-cultural and inter-religious relations between France and the Islamic world as they were and not as some theoretical construct would have them be. Watson covers a massive subject over a wide chronology with a deft hand and one which will be of use not only to
specialists, but also to general readers who will find this a useful and agreeable "get smart quick" book,as it is well written and engaging. The best book on the subject. Highly recommended.