Metternich’s Judgement on Islam: Modern Thinking?

Abstract

The goal of the paper is to analyse the attitude of one of the most important personalities of the 19th century, Austrian Chancellor Metternich, towards Islam, and draw attention to the fact that his view was much more modern than the opinions of other leading European diplomats and politicians of the period under research. Metternich surely was much more broadminded than it could be presumed from a conservative statesman and the member of the Catholic Church.