Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of the Islamic World. By Katharine Scarfe Beckett. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, 33. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. viii + 276. $65.

Despite the focus of its title, Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of the Islamic World speaks to an audience beyond Anglo-Saxonists. Beckett's philological aim is to examine all available evidence of what and how Englishmen before the Norman Conquest might have known about Muslims and Islam. Her theoretical aim, expressed in the introduction and conclusion as well as intermittently in between, is to mount a critique of postcolonial criticism, chiefly the work of Edward W. Said, for failing to distinguish modern "Orientalism" from ancient, medieval, and early modern attitudes towards Arabs and Islam.

Michael W. Twomey
Ithaca College