A Christian Pilgrim in Medieval Iraq: Riccoldo da Montecroce’s Encounter with Islam by Rita George-Tvrtković (review)

506 BOOK REVIEWS Eucharist, Thomas, by his silence, communicated to others, in a still more eloquent way, the One whom he contemplated. These books of Janusiewicz and Coda are worthy contributions to our renewed appreciation of the Angelic Doctor’s ongoing gift to the Church. ROBERT IMBELLI Boston College Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts A Christian Pilgrim in Medieval Iraq: Riccoldo da Montecroce’s Encounter with Islam. By RITA GEORGE-TVRTKOVIĆ. Turnhout: Brepols, 2012. Pp. 248. $116.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-2-503-53237-0. Riccoldo da Montecroce’s Book of Pilgrimage, translated from Latin at the end of Rita George-Tvrtković’s A Christian Pilgrim in Medieval Iraq, depicts the spiritual geography in which the medieval Dominican lived his missionary vocation throughout the Middle East. Even when Riccoldo finds himself east of the New Testament lands, such as in Baghdad or Persia, his spiritual geography retains its hold over his imagination: “Near this same city,” he writes, “beyond the river of paradise, is the very renowned and very famous monastery of St Matthew, where the seat of the Jacobite patriarch is located. They say three hundred monks are there. We went there and found men of great abstinence and great prayer. For every day, in addition to another general office which is very long, they pray the entire psalter while standing” (201). Riccoldo embarks on a sort of religious tourism, going from town to town seeking the nearest Dominican or other Western Christian house of prayer or studies, marveling at the devotions of the local Christians, and investigating the local church architecture and archeology. This Christian anchoring follows from his self-conception as a missionary and pilgrim. Not surprisingly, Riccoldo documents his spiritual geography in terms of the local history of the faith. For instance, as large parts of these Islamic lands were once Christian (something of which he is frequently reminded, to his great lamentation), he records formerly great churches or monastic cells reduced to stables, turned into mosques, or fallen down due to disrepair. And he describes the peoples he meets, such as the Kurds, with reference to their religious trajectory: “First the Kurds were Chaldeans, then they were Christians, and then they became Saracens” (200). In the first chapter, “Riccoldo in situ,” George-Tvrtković notes the lack of sources on Riccoldo’s early years, turning then to the era’s Dominican missions overseas and their relationship to Riccoldo’s own vocation. Chapter BOOK REVIEWS 507 2, “Beyond Polemic,” introduces readers to the variety of genres, all common to the Middle Ages, that Riccoldo uses, including epistles and the medieval itinerarium or travel accounts. This is followed by a chapter on “Muslim Works of Perfection,” which centers on the friar’s eyewitness accounts of Muslims living their faith, including their high levels of hospitality, social harmony, and charitableness. One issue that is raised here is the extent to which Riccoldo reads “Islam on its own terms” (68) or simply relates to it as an exercise in Christian apologetics. The next chapter, “I Read It in Arabic!” emphasizes Riccoldo’s pride at reading the Arabic Qur’an. George-Tvrtković situates his reading of the Muslim holy book within medieval European culture, and refers to Roger Bacon, William of Tripoli, Thomas Aquinas, and others on Islam. The friar mentions at times how he had read the Qur’an “in God’s presence” (86). The fifth chapter, “Questioning Salvation History,” focuses on Riccoldo’s spiritual crisis precipitated by the fall of the Crusader state of Acre in 1291. Angry at God for what happened, he keenly felt heaven’s abandonment of Christendom. Chapter 6 brings things together with “Riccoldo’s Theology of Islam,” which George-Tvrtković bases on his firsthand experience of the religion. She also tries to link his experience and resulting theology with modern thinkers on interreligious dialogue. The two appendices include English translations of Riccoldo’s “Five Letters on the Fall of Acre (1291)” and “The Book of Pilgrimage.” George-Tvrtković devotes considerable time to interreligious dialogue, and much less to Riccoldo’s spiritual geography. Rather than reflecting on the friar’s full vision, she provides readers with a very well-developed sense of her comparative theology, or theology...