Cross and Crescent is the spiritual quest of two men, a Muslim and a Christian, caught in the collision of worlds, during the first major confrontation between Islam and Europe.
In the early 8th century, the Muslims conquer Spain and begin moving north, entering an alien world of dark forests, inhabited by Germanic people who the Muslims regard as barbarian infidels. A refined Arab noble, Ali, captures a beautiful Frankish girl and her escort, Christival, and brings them to the sun-drench splendor of Cordova. Ali’s tortured love for the Christian girl and his growing respect for Christival challenges his belief in the supremacy of Islam and the righteousness of its Holy War.
Seven years later, Christival returns to his northern homeland, estranged from his wife and primitive people, who worship Jesus and sacred trees in the same breath, and regard the distant south as a world of heathen devils. Christival must wrestle with his Christian roots, his rich memories of Cordova, his forbidden love for a Muslim girl and his admiration for Ali.
In their journeys into strange lands, in their struggles to find wisdom, faith and love in a ruthless age, the lives and spirits of Ali and Christival converge – even as their competing civilizations move toward the Battle of Tours (732 AD), a bloody contest that will shape the future divisions between Islam and the West.
Written in the tradition of Shogun, Cold Mountain, The Killer Angels and As A Driven Leaf, this novel transports the reader back to a little-known and extraordinary period of history.
