Muslim individuals and communities were integral to the development of the early medieval Italian landscape, culture, and economy to a far greater degree than has been previously acknowledged. Mainland Italy is often omitted from scholarship on medieval Muslim-Christian encounters, or of the history of Islam in Europe, because Muslims had only a brief presence on the peninsula. When the presence of Muslims in early medieval Italy is discussed, it is most often framed in terms of violence and destruction. However, I argue that Muslim settlers, traders, and mercenaries made significant contributions to the development of early medieval southern Italy. This paper will focus on Italo-Greek texts that portray interpersonal encounters between Muslims and Christians, along with extended conversations between individuals of the two faith cultures. In these Greek Christian sources, I find that medieval Italian Christians imagined a variety of circumstances in which interactions with Muslims could be productive, and even peaceful. Violence, raiding, and destruction were certainly part of the story of Muslim presence in early Italy; but so too were more mundane interactions such as interpersonal dialogue, sharing food together, and diplomatic exchange. This paper will focus on two case studies, one found in the bios of Vitalis of Castronuovo (d. ca. 994) and the other in the bios of Neilos of Rossano (910-1004). In both of these Greek saint’s lives, we find the featured saint engaged in extended conversations with Muslim individuals, resulting in peaceful outcomes. Both Vitalis and Neilos are depicted as willing and able to talk to Muslims, who are likewise willing and able to talk to them. The Muslim interlocutors are at times shown to be thoughtful, responsive, and even friendly toward the Christians. They share food, offer help, return captives, and promise to cease violent attacks. These imagined conversations and their peaceful outcomes demonstrate that the range of possible encounters between local Christians and Muslims extended far beyond a simple narrative of invasion and raid. Without analyzing the full range of possible Muslim-Christian relationships, both peaceful and violent, we risk misunderstanding the impact that Muslims had on the development of medieval Italian society. This paper, and the larger project from which it arises, seeks to restore the place of Muslims within medieval Italian culture in all its depth.