This book tells the story of how a nineteenth-century concept, the Renaissance, has encouraged us to forget many of the artistic, social, religious, and cultural links between East and West characteristic of previous centuries. In chapters ranging from Ottoman history to sodomy, from portraits of St. George to Arabic philosophy, from cannibalism to diplomacy, celebrated writers and eminent scholars interrogate what all too often seem to be settled certainties, such as the ''inevitable conflict'' between Islam and Christianity, and the ''rebirth of European'' civilizaton from exclusively European origins.