Saracen Tales


Book Description

Fiction. Short Stories. Translated from the Italian by Barbara De Marco. In SARACEN TALES, Italian-born Giuseppe Bonaviri brings a wild newness to the tale of the life of Jesus. In this succession of stories, Bonaviri explores all manners of the known and unknown, the archetypal, the mythological, the symbolic--the life of Jesus is both his material and his point of departure. Part surrealism, part folklore, readers will be amazed at the originality and creativity with which a long-familiar tale is presented. "Bonaviri is a myth-maker, looking simultaneously to the historical past and to the future, to arrive at the a-historical, at cosmic universality"--Franco Zangrilli. Giuseppe Bonaviri was born in 1924 in Sicily. He began writing when he was ten and continued through high school, college, and in his professional life as a doctor, health official, and cardiologist. His work has been widely translated.




HMS Saracen


Book Description

Malta 1941. To most people HMS Saracen is just an ugly, obsolete ship with an equally ugly recent history: her last commander is due for court-martial after shelling the troops he was sent to protect. But to Captain Richard Chesnaye she brings back memories—memories of the First World War when he and the old monitor went through the Gallipoli campaign together. It seems that captain and ship are both past their best. But as the war enters a new phase, Chesnaye senses the possibility of a fresh, significant role—for him and the Saracen.




Paladin & Saracen. Stories from Ariosto


Book Description

Reprint of the original, first published in 1882.




Saracens and the Making of English Identity


Book Description

This book explores the ways in which discourses of religious, racial, and national identity blur and engage each other in the medieval West. Specifically, the book studies depictions of Muslims in England during the 1330s and argues that these depictions, although historically inaccurate, served to enhance and advance assertions of English national identity at this time. The book examines Saracen characters in a manuscript renowned for the variety of its texts, and discusses hagiographic legends, elaborations of chronicle entries, and popular romances about Charlemagne, Arthur, and various English knights. In these texts, Saracens engage issues such as the demarcation of communal borders, the place of gender norms and religion in communities' self-definitions, and the roles of violence and history in assertions of group identity. Texts involving Saracens thus serve both to assert an English identity, and to explore the challenges involved in making such an assertion in the early fourteenth century when the English language was regaining its cultural prestige, when the English people were increasingly at odds with their French cousins, and when English, Welsh, and Scottish sovereignty were pressing matters.




Mirage of the Saracen


Book Description

Mirage of the Saracen analyzes the growth of monasticism and Christian settlements in the Sinai Peninsula through the early seventh century C.E. Walter D. Ward examines the ways in which Christian monks justified occupying the Sinai through creating associations between Biblical narratives and Sinai sites while assigning uncivilized, negative, and oppositional traits to the indigenous nomadic population, whom the Christians pejoratively called "Saracens." By writing edifying tales of hostile nomads and the ensuing martyrdom of the monks, Christians not only reinforced their claims to the spiritual benefits of asceticism but also provoked the Roman authorities to enhance defense of pilgrimage routes to the Sinai. When Muslim armies later began conquering the Middle East, Christians also labeled these new conquerors as Saracens, connecting Muslims to these pre-Islamic representations. This timely and relevant work builds a historical account of interreligious encounters in the ancient world, showing the Sinai as a crucible for forging long-lasting images of both Christians and Muslims, some of which endure today.




Stealing from the Saracens


Book Description

Europeans are in denial. Against a backdrop of Islamophobia, they are increasingly distancing themselves from their cultural debt to the Muslim world. But while the legacy of Islam and the Middle East is in danger of being airbrushed out of Western history, its traces can still be detected in some of Europe's most recognisable monuments, from Notre-Dame to St Paul's Cathedral. In this comprehensively illustrated book, Diana Darke sets out to redress the balance, revealing the Arab and Islamic roots of Europe's architectural heritage. She tracks the transmission of key innovations from the great capitals of Islam's early empires, Damascus and Baghdad, via Muslim Spain and Sicily into Europe. Medieval crusaders, pilgrims and merchants from Europe later encountered Arab Muslim culture in journeys to the Holy Land. In more recent centuries, that same route through modern-day Turkey connected Ottoman culture with the West, leading Sir Christopher Wren himself to believe that Gothic architecture should more rightly be called 'the Saracen style', because of its Islamic origins. Recovering this overlooked story within the West's long history of borrowing from the Islamic world, Darke sheds new light on Europe's buildings and offers rich insights into the possibilities of cultural exchange.




Sarah, Son of God


Book Description

What happens when a mask becomes the deepest truth, when a lie reveals the greatest love that was ever given? Renaissance historian Joanna Valois and transgendered beauty Sara Falier take us spiraling into the past, from New York City during the Stonewall riots, to Venice under the Inquisition, and finally to NeroÕs Rome. In Venice, they find a sixteenth century heretical book and learn about the woman condemned to death for printing it. The book, a translation of an ancient codex describing the Crucifixion, shattered the lives of nearly everyone who touched it, and 400 years later, could still bring half the world to its knees.




Christian, Saracen and Genre in Medieval French Literature


Book Description

This book explores the historical and imaginary representation of the Saracen, or Muslim, in French writings from 1100 to 1500.




Tales of the Crusaders – Remembering the Crusades in Britain


Book Description

Engaging the Crusades is a series of volumes which offer windows into a newly emerging field of historical study: the memory and legacy of the crusades. Together these volumes examine the reasons behind the enduring resonance of the crusades and present the memory of crusading in the modern period as a productive, exciting, and much needed area of investigation. Crusading was a part of the rich tapestry of family history, with tales of crusading developed as evidence of heroic endeavour to enhance family prestige. Lists of crusaders were published to satisfy this market and heraldry was a visible means of displaying such lineage. Drawing on extensive research and previously untapped sources, this book charts continuing British interest in the crusades, focusing on the nineteenth century. The volume discusses what was available to read on the subject and how this was discussed in numerous journals. Set in the British context of growing local and regional interest in history and archaeology, the study also considers the physical artefacts associated with the crusades. Tales of the Crusaders – Remembering the Crusades in Britain is the ideal resource for students and scholars of the history of memory and crusades history in a British context.




Fate of the Saracen Knight


Book Description

Love binds them. Duty divides them. Victory hangs in the balance. Frankish Empire, 802. Saracen knight Ruggiero is torn between love and honor. Though he vowed to convert and marry the Christian warrior Bradamante, he refuses to back out of his pledged service - even if that means returning to war against the woman he loves. But if he can's secure a release from his oaths soon, he knows he'll lose her forever... In deep despair over her lover's choice, Bradamante fears the prophecy that could doom her family. But when she suspects Ruggiero may love another, the formidable fighter puts aside her dread and sets out on a quest for vengeance. With the lovers on opposite sides of the war, will Ruggiero gain leave from his duty in time, or will his quest for both his heart and his people cost him his life? Fate of the Saracen Knight is the thrilling second volume in the Bradamante & Ruggiero historical fantasy series. If you enjoy epic journeys, rich descriptive detail, and forbidden passion, then you'll love this enthralling tale. Buy Fate of the Saracen Knight to see where loyalties lie today! "McCabe brings the great Carolingian tales to life with guts and gusto! If you like Game of Thrones, you'll love Fate of the Saracen Knight!" - Alexis E. Fajardo, author of Kid Beowulf series "Readers will be gripped by the epic sweep of the Bradamante & Ruggiero Series. This second book ratchets up the narrative tension and leaves the reader emotionally invested not just in the Fate of the Saracen Knight, but the fates of all the characters." - Dr. Richard Scott Nokes, Professor of Medieval Literature, Troy University "Linda McCabe has woven a marvelously textured historical fantasy around Charlemagne and his knights. Her books are filled with accurate historical events dressed in an inspiring imaginative tale of fantasy, magic, courage, valor, chivalry, and love." - Jonathan Rome, Narrator and Raconteur of the ancient Roman Empire www.romeonrome.com "McCabe writes with passion about Ariosto's Bradamante and Ruggiero, characters I'm familiar with from my high school days in Italy. Bravissima, Linda!" - Peppino D'Agostino, internationally renowned acoustic guitarist