Accounts and interpretations of the dramatic meeting between Francis of Assisi and the sultan of Egypt, al-Malik al Kâmil, which probably took place in September 1219, are scrutinised by John Tolan, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Nantes. The fourteen chapters commence with the witness of Jacques de Vitry, bishop-elect of Acre, who visited the papal court at Perugia in July 1216, and conclude with late twentieth-century interpretations of this encounter between Christianity and Islam. The primary virtue of this book is its fresh analysis of the medieval sources. While many are familiar with the accounts given by Thomas of Celano, fewer are as well acquainted with the report of Henry of Avanches, who dedicated his verse Life to Gregory ix, at whose court he spent some time. Henry offers a reconstruction of the tone of Francis's sermon before the sultan, treating him almost as a master of theology. He offers an implied rebuke to the saint whose services were sorely needed by the Church in Italy. The author's decision to translate the reports of witnesses and hagiographers and then examine them in great detail leads to excessive repetition. While the meeting between Francis and the sultan is the subject of the early chapters, there is a loss of focus later on and this is exemplified in chapter vi. Bonaventure's statements about the meeting and the offer of an ordeal by fire are duly examined, but they occupy a relatively small amount of space in the chapter in which there is sustained examination of his policy as minister-general and the contours of the Legenda maior. The same is substantially true of the seventh chapter where there is a summary of the events regarding the building of the basilica, the clandestine translation of the relics in May 1230 and the decoration of the church. Towards the end of that brief chapter the ordeal by fire comes back to the fore. The eighth chapter falls into the same category and the meeting between Francis and the sultan is almost incidental to Angelo Clareno's narration of the history of the order. There is no evidence that William of Melitona lectured at Oxford (p. 114). Instead, Thomas of Eccleston reports that the fourth regent master of the school of the Cordeliers in Paris was appointed to lecture at Cambridge in the 1250s. Devotees of the saint of Assisi will be surprised and puzzled by the author's observation that ‘it is money and women who inspire disgust in him [Francis], far more than war’ (p. 305). A number of typographical errors escaped detection in the preparation of the text: evoques (p. 75), tired instead of tried (p. 266), in despite (p. 300), dissention (p. 306), though instead of through (p. 326) and behooves for behoves (p. 327).