Medieval European images of Muslims

Assignment

Read the following translations of French chansons de geste, all of which recount exploits set in the late 8th and 9th centuries:

• Parts (to be determined) of The Song of Roland (written ca. 1100 based on earlier oral material) (required text).
• Excerpt from Aymeri of Narbonne (written ca. 1200 from 11th-century material) (in Coursepack).
• Excerpt from The Coronation of Louis (Guillaume d'Orange) (written ca. 1200 from 11th-century material) (in Coursepack).

Resources

Blanks, David R., and Michael Frassetto.  Western Views of Islam in Medieval and Early Modern Europe:  Perception of Other.  New York:  St. Martin's Press, 1999.  (Bizzel BP 172 .W49 1999)

Brault, Gerard J.  Song of Roland: An Analytical Oxford Text and English Translation.

Cruz, Jo Ann Hoeppner Moran.  "Popular Attitudes Towards Islam in Medieval Europe."  In Blanks and Frassetto, Western Views, 55-81.  (Helpful background on the Song of Roland, etc.  Copy on file.)

Ferrante, Joan M., trans.  Guillaume d'Orange:  Four Twelfth-Century Epics.  New York:  Columbia University Press, 1974.  (Bizzel PQ 1481 .A3 F4)

Moncrieff, C. K. Scott, trans.  The Song of Roland.  Ann Arbor:  University of Michigan Press, 1959.  (Bizzel 841 C36cEsl)

Newth, Michael A. H., trans.  Aymeri of Narbonne:  A French Epic Romance.  New York:  Italica, 2005.  (Bizzel PQ 1417 .A36 2005)

Sayers, Dorothy L.  The Song of Roland.  Penguin Classics. (required text.)

Sirriyeh, Elizabeth.  "Muslims Dreaming of Christians; Christians Dreaming of Muslims:  Images from Medieval Dream Interpretation."  Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 17 (2006):  207-221.  (Copy on file.)

Tolan, John Victor, ed.  Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam.  New York:  Routledge, 2000.  (Bizzell BP 172 .M396 2000)

Tolan, John Victor.  Saracens:  Islam in the Medieval European Imagination.  New York:  Columbia University Press, 2002.  (Bizzel BP 172 .T62 2002)