On the Cathedral of Le Puy in the Auvergne, a large set of carved Romanesque wooden doors on the west façade are exceptional not only due to the juxtaposition of Christian imagery and Islamic Kufic script, but the Romanesque narrative sculpture is unparalleled as well. This includes panels that contain scenes of The Infancy of Christ, as well as a Kufic border that occupies the space surrounding the doors.

The Infancy doors close the western entrance to the chapel dedicated to St. Gilles and the Passion doors close the chapel of St. Martin. It is possible that the doors were originally carved for another purpose, perhaps a façade on the western side of the cathedral. This has been suggested owing to the fact that it seems very odd such a meticulous carving and "lavish display" would be undertaken for two small chapels without a large cult following. It is the further anomaly of a Kufic script border, only found on the Infancy doors, which makes these doors the focus of this thesis.

Some of the questions this thesis addresses are: Why does this odd religious pairing occur in Le Puy? Who might have carved these doors and why? Who was intended to receive the permanent message delivered by the doors? Was the Kufic script meant as form or function? What were the prototypes, if any, for the occurrence of Kufic at Le Puy and how was this transmitted to France? By answering these questions, this thesis will set out to prove two things.

First, this thesis will argue that two religions which at first glance, to modern eyes, seem to be in opposition, Islam and Christianity, can be combined not only to create harmonious artistic forms but also to challenge modern beliefs that the medieval viewer at Le Puy saw this amalgamation as adversarial at all. The doors achieve a peaceful balance of typical Christian figural narrative and abstracted geometric Islamic ideals by becoming a unified whole. I will argue that neither artist nor patron set out on a political or religious campaign but rather emulated and imitated other works of art from Norman Sicily and southern Italy.

Second, this thesis will argue that preceding opinions and research which lead us to believe Spain was the most influential source for Islamic decoration on French monuments is inaccurate. There is a distinct parallel with doors depicting narrative scenes in Italy: this is not a pattern we see in Spain. Spanish narrative is normally found on sculpted capitals or archivolts. I believe that Sicily had become a channel through which Fatimid inscriptions moved into a Christian context and then made its way northward into Le Puy. This thesis sets out to show that Islamic inscriptions in Norman Sicily, combined with the Italian trend of paneled narrative doors, was the catalyst for the Infancy doors to have occurred at Le Puy.