Description

The foundations of the western image of Islam were laid in the early middle ages, when the
Prophet was presented as an instrument of apostates, at whose instigation he created a religion
which was the very antithesis of Christianity. However, twelfth- and thirteenth-century writers
embellished this picture with tales of an exotic world, drawing upon both motifs from folklore
and contemporary fantasies of a Muslim Paradise of sensual delights. The increase in direct contact
with Islam seems to have done little to modify either the traditional stereotypes or the newer
exotica.