The Dragon and the Crescent

The Dragon and the Crescent: nine centuries of Welsh contact with Islam 

by Grahame Davies

 

The Dragon and the Crescent (Seren, £12.99), Grahame Davies's new study of the relationship of Wales and Islam across nine centuries, is being featured at a series of events across Wales starting this spring.

 

In the early twenty-first century, the relationship between the West and Islam has, due to recent political events, become the subject of intense study, curiosity and tension.

 

But to understand contemporary anxieties, we need to trace their historical roots. The Dragon and the Crescent does this for one small European nation, revealing for the first time, the full and surprising story of the Welsh relationship with Islam.

 

This extensive study has gathered 200 extracts from a huge range of Welsh literature over a 900-year period. It contains the literary testimonies of Welsh Crusaders, of soldiers and seafarers, of missionaries and merchants, explorers and exploiters, pious pilgrims and hedonistic pleasure-seekers.

 

The Dragon and the Crescent is the outcome of years of research by Grahame Davies into Welsh literary portrayals of Islam, and the emerging Muslim literature of Wales. It has followed on from his successful book, The Chosen People (Seren, 2002), which looked at the relationship between the Welsh and Jewish peoples as reflected in literature.

 

 

For more information regarding this book, please click here.

To purchase the book, please click here.