Nonencounter

Here, Cornish difference, particularly in the far west, is represented as originating in the insular, primitive and unworldly, and paradoxically reinforced through nonencounters with Islam.

Now came a series of nonencounters with his supposed boss. Nuruddin kept arranging meetings; Saladin kept making excuses not to be there: his father was sick, he himself was feeling under the weather—it was always something.