This highly readable history investigates how, starting in the eighth century, Christian theologians and authors laid the foundations of an anti-Islamic tradition that was to shape the relations between the Christian and the Muslim countries right up to the present day. After giving a fascinating account of how Christian dogmas took shape that became the theological presuppositions of Christian writers and polemicists combating a new rival faith, Islam, Nasir Khan focuses on the polemical views against Islam on the Orient and the West extending over a period of thirteen centuries. At the same time, the writer has placed the whole discussion under a wider cultural and political context. This clear and concise book offers a unique overview and insights into the Western approaches to the Islamic world. It clearly shows the nature of the problem thus far in history, and speaks directly to scholars, a wider general audience and the whole of the Western world.