ABSTRACT
The term zone of contact between Christianity and Islam is familiar to experts in the history of religion. They have used it in their work, giving it various interpretations, even if nobody has ever made a serious effort to define the concept. This chapter focuses on several essential aspects in the concept of the Christian-Muslim frontier. I would like to emphasize here two important elements of the concept: first, the civilizational frontier emerges as an element of order in world society; and second, the frontier between Christianity and Islam should be understood as a zone of contact rather than a line of opposition. Various Christian and Muslim groups of people have interspersed across communal borders during centuries of interaction. Large and small cultural complexes shade off into each other, communities mix in the border areas, and clear territorial distinctions among various groups should be regarded as a recent phenomenon stemming from the processes of establishing nation states. There is, however, no place on Earth where a communal fronter would look as if it had been cut by knife on the ethnographical map.
