This book is a study of the contribution of Isaac Barrow (1630-1677), Master of Trinity College (Cambridge), to Western perceptions of Islam in the 17th century. In particular, it provides a translation and study of Barrow's Latin essay on Islam (written in Constantinople), a Sermon on Islam and several other works that set out an embryonic theory of religion.

Victorian perceptions of Islam were not monochrome; some saw beyond stereotypical images, others reproduced them. In this study, the accounts of six Victorians outline the contrast of the two perceptions. It suggests that presuppositions, not encounters per se, determine how we see cultural and religious others.

Based on lectures delivered in Chichester Cathedral, this book mirrors typical nineteenth century English attitudes toward the non-European space. This needed Christianity and European political oversight, or its people would remain backward and spiritually lost. The book shows how someone whose inclinations were liberal could look at Islam and dislike what he saw. On the other hand, the book also shows that a non-specialist scholar in the second half of the nineteenth century could write seriously if not impartially about Islam using material available in European languages. This suggests that Islam was a subject of increasing interest in Victorian England.