ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines a work in which the centre of Hellas is mapped by a Greek from the fringes. It argues that particular form of travel writing provides an insight into the acute fracture of Mediterranean culture into Christian and Islamic spheres of influence. The book identifies the Crusaders' defeat in the thirteenth century as critical to the European perception of Islam as a threat, not simply to those who wished to travel to Palestine, but to Christendom itself. It explores how contemporary debate about whether or not Turkey should be included in the European Union echoes concerns expressed between European nations and the Ottoman Empire of the sixteenth century. The book discusses Italian travellers during the Renaissance and how they wrote about their encounters with other cultures located, in the Ottoman Empire, which had stretched to North Africa by the sixteenth century.
