Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (1723-43)

In order to understand the present day dimensions of mutual perceptions between Christians and Muslims, the history of relations must be recovered and accurately mapped. This work is currently being undertaken in an international project led by David Thomas, Professor Emeritus of the University of Birmingham. Its outcome is the series Christian-Muslim Relations: a Bibliographical History. My contribution to this work analyses the indulgent representation of Islam displayed in the Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, the multi-volume study published in Amsterdam during the years 1723–1737 by Jean-Frédéric Bernard (1680–1744), a French-language bookseller based in Amsterdam. The work was richly illustrated by Bernard Picart (1673–1733), who was very interested in the many strands of Western and Middle Eastern Hermeticism.